Dick Bipes
05-17-2013, 9:33 AM
I've designed and built a few clocks, using Baltic birch plywood for the wheels (larger gears). But I've wanted to use hardwood and add some 3D features to the otherwise flat wheels, so that's what I'm doing on this clock. My box entry didn't win the Baileigh contest, but Carvewright is sponsoring an open contest, so I need to step up my game with this project, as it will be submitted to the contest.
262457 262458
Starting with the wheels, I cut 7/16" oak wedges on the table saw and glued them up four pieces at a time. Turns out I was off by a fraction of a degree, but by gluing up the blanks in halves, each half could be easily trued up on the bench sander before gluing the halves together.
262460
Another Carvewright owner wrote a nifty program for creating gear teeth, and I use that to create the vector cut for the teeth. The rest of the gear is carved with a raster cut. I don't do 3D modeling, but use drawing programs to create grayscale height maps for the parts that I carve. After the wheel comes out of the machine, there is lots of sanding and finishing work.
262461 262462
At this point, all of the wheels and pinions have been machined and test fit.
262457 262458
Starting with the wheels, I cut 7/16" oak wedges on the table saw and glued them up four pieces at a time. Turns out I was off by a fraction of a degree, but by gluing up the blanks in halves, each half could be easily trued up on the bench sander before gluing the halves together.
262460
Another Carvewright owner wrote a nifty program for creating gear teeth, and I use that to create the vector cut for the teeth. The rest of the gear is carved with a raster cut. I don't do 3D modeling, but use drawing programs to create grayscale height maps for the parts that I carve. After the wheel comes out of the machine, there is lots of sanding and finishing work.
262461 262462
At this point, all of the wheels and pinions have been machined and test fit.