Sawdust on the Floor

During a business trip back to Minnesota, I happened to find myself in a craft supply store that had a wide selection of clock kits and clock hardware.  I don’t know why, other than the fact that I had never built a clock before, I purchased a movement and a clock face then tried to figure out what kind of a clock I wanted to make.

The reason that I even thought about why I should or should not make a clock, is that we already had three handcrafted  grandfather clocks in our house. The clocks were gifts from my late father in law. The how and why we had three grandfather clocks is a story for another time, but the last thing we really needed was another clock, or at least that’s what my wife told me when I came home with the parts. But I already had the parts, and it was a long drive back to Minneapolis to return them, so we came up with a compromise.  I would build a small wall clock that would go into my office. 

Building a clock is a little different from a lot of other projects that I have built. There are several things to consider that really affect the design of the clock. If you’re building a clock that is to be mounted on the wall, then weight and a method to hang the clock are important considerations.  If it is a true mechanical clock, with a pendulum, then the length and swing of the pendulum must be considered.  Along this same line of thinking, when you first start up a mechanical clock, you have to adjust the timing of the clock.  This is done by adjusting the length of the pendulum. So be sure to have enough room to extend the pendulum rod if needed. 

Power for the mechanical clocks comes from either  a set of weights, like we often see in grandfather clocks, or a wind up  hair spring, typically seen in mantle clocks.  In either case you must provide space for the weights and access to either rewind the weights or the hair spring. 

The other option is an electrical movement. Unfortunately, these have several options that must be considered before you build your clock.  Most of the electrical movements sold today are battery powered, and as such you must provide an access panel to change the battery periodically. Some electrical movement also have pendulums, so again the length and width of the clock must accommodate the swing of the pendulum.  These pendulums are strictly a decorative feature, so you don’t have the same constraints that we do with the mechanical clocks and pendulums. The swing is set by the length of the pendulum and never changes. And finally, some movements like the one I chose, has a remote speaker that you must mount someplace within the clock case. 

Taking all of those options into consideration, the clock shown here at the right is what I came up with. The entire clock is made of oak, the  outer case, inner case and face are all 4/4 oak, while the face mounting board are the same 4/4 oak milled down to 1/2″ thickness.    As with all of my woodworking projects, this one started with all of the wood being jointed and passed through the thickness planer to make it all square, flat and the same dimensional size. 

This clock is really a box within a box.  I started by building the inner box first.  it measures 9 1/2″ x 19″ on the inside. it is 3 5/8″ deep.  My first consideration was to build only a single box and mount the clock inside that box.  The problem I had with that was threefold.  One, with the really wide molding that I wanted to use, I would have no place to secure the inner edge of the molding to. Secondly, with the single  box , the door would have to be hinged on the unsupported molding, not a good idea. And finally, with the single box design, I didn’t like the idea that every thing inside the clock would be exposed when you opened the door of the clock. 

In a conventional box, the top and bottom rails are always at the very ends of the stiles.  In this case however, the top and bottom rails are 2 3/8″ down from the top and bottom of the stiles. This added space along the bottom gave me a place to mount the remote speaker. The top and bottom rails are simply glued and nailed into place ( 2 3/8″ from the top and bottom)  Before gluing up this inner box, I cut a dado 1/2″ x 3/8″ deep.  This dado would eventually hold the shelf that the clock movement sits on. There is a small detail that has to be added to the shelf before we glue it into place.  I made a cutout in the shelf that provides a place for the pendulum to swing in.  I simply cut this out with my jig saw and then sanded the corners round.  At the end of this portion of the post I have attached a sketch of the shelf detail. With the inner box built, it was time to build the outer box. My back and feet are sore.  I’m done for today.  See you when the glue dries and we’ll continue with this project. If you have any questions on what we’ve done so far, leave me a comment and I’ll be sure to get back to you.  

I have attached a sketch of the inner and outer clock details, hope this help to clear up some of the confusion that I may have created with my descriptions.

 

Related posts:

1. Woodworking Project Table Top Clock Part 2
2. Woodworking Project – Table Top Clock