This Viewer Project comes from Tom. He decided to try his hand at making one of my clocks, and instead of making one or two, he decided to make 19!! Let’s see how he did.
I am now in the gluing stage of the clock project and I thought I would send you a few progress pictures. I took your advice on doing the finish work for the inside of the clocks before the glue up so two of the pictures is the wood being laid out for spraying and the second two pictures are of the jigs I setup to drill out the bulk of the wood for the clock works and then the setup for routing the remainder of the wood that was left. I used a 50 percent solution of Shellac as a sanding sealer and then three coats of lacquer on the inside and I will be using the same sanding sealer and five coats for the outside. My goal is to finish up gluing this week, I can only glue after work and I only have enough small clamps to glue four clocks at a time. My goal is to finish all the gluing by Friday night then start cutting the splines and final sanding on Saturday and then starting the final spraying on Sunday. I will be sending you pictures when they are finished.
Three weeks later……..
Well, it seems that I under estimated the time it would take to make 19 clocks. Just making, sanding/fitting, gluing and trimming all the spines (152) took me about 8 hours not counting the four hours that I waited for the glue to dry. Sanding each clock between each coat of Lacquer added an hour to each layer I applied. Over all it was a good experience in doing production type work, and I did loose one clock in the process. I didn’t have enough parallel clamps to clamp more that two clocks at a time so I was trying to use some cheep bar clamps so that I could glue up at least four at a time. On one clock it took too long to get the joints lined up and the glue started to set. I tried taking it apart and fixing it but my attempts just made things worse and the holes for the dowels were getting too off center. It was taking too much time away from finishing the other clocks in time so I just moved on. I still didn’t make it for Christmas.
Anyway here is the final picture. I tried a few different shots but couldn’t get a real good one. The wood combinations that were used were Wenge and Maple, Zebra and Peruvian Walnut, Purple Heart and Peruvian Walnut, Purpleheart and Maple, Walnut and Oak, Mahogany and Maple, Bubinga and Lacewood, CA Walnut and Lacewood, Peruvian Walnut and Oak, CA Walnut and Oak.
Hey that’s super cool!!! I can’t imaging how much of a pain all the sanding (between coats) must have been!!! Great job!
Andre:
Yes the sanding did get a bit tedious but not nearly as much as the splines. If you watched Marc’s video when he made these clocks he would take each spline and sand it by hand to get the right fit. After the glued dried you need to trim the splines and then sand them. Doing each of those steps 152 times was painful to say the least.
Thank you for your comment, I do appreciate it!
So where is the 19th clock in the final picture?
oops… nm
I was going to ask — which ended up being your favorite?
This guy must be Coo Coo! Ha! Oh my gosh I’m funny!
“A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.”
– Segal’s Law
I’m sure this is extensible to 19 clocks.
Marc : you inspire people to do stuff. I know. I am up to my 60th cutting board…
I bet you Tom will do another large batch soon enough.
Really nice work, Tom! Good example of how/why production work is very different from what most hobbyists do.
Very cool Tom. I really like the zebra wood one. I’m starting to think about doing a batch of Christmas gifts this year since I’ve skipped a few. This might be a possibility.
Nice work, Tom.
I missed that part of the video on Marc sanding the spines. I ended up putting 3/8″ dowel stock in my drill press chuck and sanding them to size. I can’t imagine the tedium of doing that for 19 clocks.
Just wonderful! The finished batch looks great – and I like all the color combos you were able to get out of there. Can’t wait to try one of my own someday. The key word being… one!
Although I do like the idea of doing a batch of something for Christmas gifts. Sure would be cool to do all handmade one year.
Thanks for sharing these – love the purpleheart ones.
A little late on my comment, but thet hey look great! I am in the process of starting my first one…