Wooden gear clock project

[Craig Behnke]

Just finished my latest wooden gear clock. It's a gravity driven, all wood gear clock that keeps great time and has a nice, soothing and rhythmic tick tock. The frame is made from maple and rosewood. the hands are bloodwood (I think..they were free scraps from a woodshop) and the gears are baltic birch ply. I got into woodworking about 2 years ago and I love my new hobby. Plan to make a lot more of these and other things now that I have some tools and work space. The thing on the top is a winding key to wind the clock (raise the weight) once a day...runs about 30 hours on one winding. You can't see the whole clock in this picture (the pendulum and weight) and you can't see it in action ticking away so here is a youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DxlNCKBdUk

[alex grams]

Very cool. Where did you get the gear layout/design/ratios? Do you have (make/buy?) templates for gear ratios?

[Craig Behnke]

When I first made a wood clock I used a design from Clayton Boyer, he is one of the best (that I know of) wood gear clock designers. His website for buying all kinds of clock plans are here: http://lisaboyer.com/Claytonsite/Claytonsite1.htm There are other designs out there...Brian Law makes great designs and some are free at his website.

You basically print the paper template, glue it to the baltic ply, then cut to the template edge and you have your gears!

I started out by making a design from Clayton Boyer called the "Number 6". I used a bandsaw and scrollsaw for the gears. I made two clocks like that but it is very time consuming.

To save time, I bought gear generating software from woodgears.ca for something like $20. It allows you to save files in a DXF format. I designed a set of gears and sent to files to a machine shop and they CNC'd steel templates for me (total cost $150). Now I use the steel templates along with a pin router setup to router my clock gears. It takes about 10 minutes per gear vs 2 hours the old way, and the gears run perfect as opposed to the old method where I had to search for and correct defects that were causing gears to bind up.

If you want any more info, let me know. -Craig

[Keith Outten]

Craig,

Just a suggestion!

The next time you need CNC templates made consider asking here at The Creek. There is a very large group of CNC operators here and I am sure you could get custom templates made much cheaper than from other sources. Probably much faster as well. Another option would be to ask for help in the Engravers Forum, anyone there could produce acrylic templates for you that would be very inexpensive that would last a long time.

BTW, your clock is extremely nice.
.

[Craig Behnke]

Keith,

Thanks a TON for the advice. When I had those templates made last year, I had no idea about Sawmill Creek, but now I know where to ask for things like that. I've learned so much just reading the forums for the past few months....fantastic website.

[Dan Hintz]

Adding where you're located to your profile would also help find people in your area capable of doing what Keith suggests...

[Buck Williams]

Beautiful work, like the music in the youtube video too. I don't want to hi-jack this thread, but when I think of wooden clocks I always think of John Muir's Desk Clock. I think it's still displayed at the Wisconsin State Historical Society Museum, talk about a mechanical wonder.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/old-weird-tech-john-muir-mechanical-gtd-desk-edition/236861/

http://library.wisc.edu/etext/wireader/Images/WER0755.html (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/old-weird-tech-john-muir-mechanical-gtd-desk-edition/236861/)

[Craig Michael]

I had never seen a clock like that prior to this thread. Wow. Outstanding work.

[Joe Redburn]

Craig
I run a small CNC shop in SW Florida and I make parts for wooden gear clocks, either new or for repair. Depending on how many gear templates you ordered, $150 is not excessive.
I like the way you hooked the escapement to the pendulum, I have not seen that done that way before.
Very nice work.
Regards
Joe

[Vincent Lofton]

Very nice work!

[Vincent Lofton]

Craig, I'm really interested in the pin router set up you used. I also am interested in purchasing some steel templates for this clock. Could you provide me with information on where I can purchase metal templates? Could you provide a picture of your setup? I built mine several years ago out of rosewood, and it was fun. But as you said it took a lot of time and I would like to make a more accurate gear. Here is a link for my clock. Enjoyed reading about your project!

http://www.youtube.com/user/scrolltime2?feature=mhee#p/a/u/1/TEA3q6wl7eM

Thanks,
Vincent

[Craig Behnke]

Vincent, check your PM, I sent a response there