Accurate wooden clocks!

[Mooselake]

I think you should have gone for two (or more) stories with a hinged dome roof and a hoist :), although it looks like the dome isn't really intended to open.

My wife is also a weaver and spinner (why we ended up with sheep for nearly 30 years) from a family of weavers and spinners, although she's been essentially inactive since our first kid, now a 35 year old mom, decided they were climbing toys.  Mrs. Moose's oldest sister is a very active weaver with her own dedicated weaving room and an impressive collection of yarn and thread for it.

The Mooselake Manor South's undersized garage shop just gained a Jet 1221SP wood lathe, although it turned out to be too high for the workbench (way taller than the 10x15s at the turners club) and will require an expedition to the lumber store to build a new stand.  No bandsaw here either, and any more additions may require their own ceiling suspensions.  It joined a little 3018 CNC router whose second test cut was an eccentric Gearotic gear in cardboard (first real project was a plaque with Mrs. Moose's name) that should be suitable for milling PCBs along with wooden gears.  The management has cautioned that the shop stocking spree is coming to an end.

Hope you find time before Christmas

Kirk

[kit]

I'd love to know what you put in your morning tea Kirk  ;)

When I paid a visit to the UK back in February my only 'must see' location during a weekend in London was the Heath Robinson museum, which didn't exist last time I was north of the equator. Best known for his wonderful inventions he was also a very accomplished artist and illustrator of many more serious books.

My current CNC router design is much less "Heath Robinson" that the earlier wooden framed version and is all the better for it! With luck my finished clock will reflect that. I should have some time to make further progress in the coming week.

kit

[kit]

Doesn't time fly...!
Here we are more than 2 years after the previous post and only now do I have a finished, final prototype of my electric clock. This project has been on and off the back burner more times than granny's kettle.

The world has changed somewhat in the interim. For me Covid has prompted a slightly earlier retirement and move to Tasmania than planned but we have now been here for almost a year. The CNC router is now much improved and my new workshop is a lot bigger and better as well.

This clock does not have the GPS receiver and the attendant external antenna so is only as accurate as a quartz watch but I think that will do. It is powered by a standard USB phone charger. Now that I have the final design sorted out the next move is to build one out of Australian hardwoods and see if anyone wants to buy it. The hobbies have to be self-funding now!

https://vimeo.com/614929644

[ArtF]

Color me a fan. Nicely done. Good choice on color as well, I think it enhances the
smooth look of the ratcheting. Comes across as an intricate piece of artwork.

Congrats,
Art

[kit]

Thanks Art.
I'm pleased with the look of it and am hoping a hardwood version will work OK, the wheels are deliberately a rather bulky 12mm thick to minimise the possible distortion. I'd like to avoid having to make segmented wheels or use resin impregnation if I can. We will see.

I've also managed to make the electronics and the software both simpler and more effective. Always a good move if you can manage it.

I will try to make the gap between this and the next post a little shorter than we have seen in the past.


Kit

[BobL]

Nicely done Kit, looks and appears to work well, congratz

[Mooselake]

Impressive!

Kirk

[kit]

Bob, Kirk,
Thank you both.

It's been running steadily for a few days now. One thing the new software does is allow me to run the clock from my laptop and get serial data via the USB port once per second to confirm the timing control is working as it should and quickly see any errors. This makes it much easier than was the case in previous versions to adjust the moving weight on the pendulum to bring it's period and final amplitude into the acceptable range. Which reminds me, I must replace the Blu-Tac on the weight with a more permanent glue!

[ArtF]

>>Which reminds me, I must replace the Blu-Tac on the weight with a more permanent glue!

Sounds like a proper clock to me. I think Big Ben uses pence coins...

:)

Art

[kit]

The North West Wood-craft Guild, of which I am proud to be member is holding an exhibition at The Hive, Ulverstone, Tasmania over the next couple of months. This was the BUTBS I needed to finally get the hardwood version of my electric clock designed and built.

Having attended a course on steam-bending in 2023 I was keen to use the technique which can be seen in the rings around the face. I'm very pleased with the result and the clock got lot of attention at the recent opening of the exhibition. There's a link below to a video.

Kit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFR1u-2-8F4

[ArtF]

Kit:

To me a clock is not just about gears and clicks, its about workmanship, and that clock is a work of art
in every respect. Its beautiful. It sounds great, and I like it alot. Great work!.

(When did you get my dog to do that leadin?)

Art

[kit]

Thanks Art,
I've even managed to persuade the 90 year old founder of the guild who once said "you just press a button and the machine does it all for you" that there might be a bit more to it than that.

In fact, I have you to thank for this clock. It's now several years since I went looking for a piece of software to help me make a large timing-belt pulley with my early, primitive CNC router. I never did make the pulley, but I found Gearotic and decided that a clock would be an excellent project to test what the machine could do....... And here we are!

Pipsqueak Studios isn't an official entity, I just made that intro for a video for fun using our (then) new puppy, Freddie several years ago.
Someone once asked me how I did it, what video effects software I'd used to do the green-screen stuff and combine all the different elements? Actually it's a cardboard box with a hole in it (and Freddie of course) with several layers of printed curtains and logo cut out and glued on.

Kit

[ArtF]

Kit:

Yeah, I've always gotten a kick from those that think CNC is somehow cheating or easy.
Artists have always used whatever technology is available to them, Escher used mathematicians
to derive the hyperbolic frameworks he used for his wonderful symmetry creations. Vermeer used
a "camera Obscura" to do some of the most realistic painting in history. Many used "camera lucida"
as a technique to "cheat" on their art. They were considered masters all, and personally, I see CNC
no differently, the art in any piece is in the artist, not his tools. We use what makes sense for
the piece we imagine..

Great work,
Art