Since I bought the CNC I've gotten interested in wood gear clocks. They are pretty poor timekeepers but fascinating mechanisms. When I get enough skill I plan to develop some original designs, but for now I'm building ones others have designed to learn the key concepts, especially as regards tolerances. You may remember a wall clock I built a couple of months ago. That clock has so many problems that about the most I learned was to never use any of their construction methods or design tolerances. After that experience I decided to buy Clayton Boyer's book on clock design. He has been building clocks for decades, so I figured he knows what he's doing. The book is well written and covers most details required to build wood gear clocks. From there I decided to buy the plans for one of his clocks to see how his theories and methods look in a clock of his design. Again, very well written instructions and detailed plans, both for folks who want to saw out the parts by hand from his full-scale drawings and those of us using the dxf files with a CNC.
I chose to build the Deco desk clock because it's a desk clock and I liked how it looks. I don't have all that many walls to hang clocks, so a desk clock made sense whether I keep it or gift it to someone. A picture of the Deco clock on Boyer's website looks like this:
![[Image: AL9nZEWKQ5zfVCob3dXZB60UsswmlTmiZa33UjlD...authuser=1]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AL9nZEWKQ5zfVCob3dXZB60UsswmlTmiZa33UjlD-zhzeLbcJNwpOkq6mFeQxSZHTdGFQafcJJn7azwixLj8ydbwqgegjL45hh_qtq54wtSnKn80E_S_kDmRBG-WhodaoztoTBIsH70rDqgRx0299z_G3CYICg=w450-h600-no?authuser=1)
This clock has a lot of details in how it's constructed that aren't readily visible once it's together. It's designed so that once the hands are set they will remain synchronized if you manually adjust one or the other. The wind mechanism for the torsion spring is very detailed in how the ratchet mechanism functions, which allows it to be rewound from the front. Anyway, lots of stuff going on behind the scenes that takes quite a bit of time to understand and then construct, even after the parts are cut out on the CNC.
I made my version from ash and cherry plywood that I made by slicing veneer and laying them up in my vacuum bag. You could use high quality commercial plywood but the species options are probably limited in the thicknesses needed, mostly 1/8", 1/4", and 3/8". It looks like this:
![[Image: AL9nZEUHQKxjUxRCPOOOYjMRenJZcVeUcgeRWcLQ...authuser=1]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AL9nZEUHQKxjUxRCPOOOYjMRenJZcVeUcgeRWcLQTliMtOTd5DiQr1umExEtjpwNTFuLZcvjxYTPOJ_7MQvHG_QjURGJIKoxtvywPX1yvQy_YA60rZl2RYI72iEtLpu1DbpEbQiHCC12zDrGDVlluMvMQbGLtA=w503-h893-no?authuser=1)
![[Image: AL9nZEUgTP4x3JKEyj9IqYgYZWVY48A3OL-iL7eA...authuser=1]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AL9nZEUgTP4x3JKEyj9IqYgYZWVY48A3OL-iL7eAOSiBXtTiYka07ZdwYkhUOnaqf37KYNm8aJmNbl7QiTcGf7nBpGqTi181JHhFv6e9HuVWMmed2N11W0TeEWDl0Br0Cgsd1MWvXGP7hutbSlIlmsNRN_w2og=w503-h893-no?authuser=1)
![[Image: AL9nZEUObn5nqqTQtSWFH5knBgCy5dAQ1gauv-Og...authuser=1]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AL9nZEUObn5nqqTQtSWFH5knBgCy5dAQ1gauv-Ogz6XvvVAEa6tq-Rz5aQIVuxKbZezQfuCEnzmsa4SUFhQZzjo7M6vC9fKAjnUlTTtWAAeZOi5w2sc7hipAaEYsaxJHPs_TLQh4s2lKFWqzxXlXcGZW5K8eGA=w1470-h828-no?authuser=1)
Unlike the wall clock, this one worked straight out of the gate, with only a little tuning required. The piece of wood hanging in the middle of the steel shaft escapement/pendulum shaft was added to stop the shaft from jumping in the frame holes, which ended up oversized after I rebored them manually because they were too tight off the CNC. It will be removed after I rework the shaft holes, somehow.
You can see the spring in the last photo. It has quite a lot of force, over 9 in-lb. That may not sound like much but it is when you try to uncoil the spring to install it. The spring is rewound from the front side using the key laying in front of the clock. It will run for 28 hours when fully wound.
I finished the clock frame, pendulum, and base with Watco Danish Oil but left the gear train unfinished. Quite a project. Here's a link to a short video of the clock running, in case you're interested.
John
I chose to build the Deco desk clock because it's a desk clock and I liked how it looks. I don't have all that many walls to hang clocks, so a desk clock made sense whether I keep it or gift it to someone. A picture of the Deco clock on Boyer's website looks like this:
This clock has a lot of details in how it's constructed that aren't readily visible once it's together. It's designed so that once the hands are set they will remain synchronized if you manually adjust one or the other. The wind mechanism for the torsion spring is very detailed in how the ratchet mechanism functions, which allows it to be rewound from the front. Anyway, lots of stuff going on behind the scenes that takes quite a bit of time to understand and then construct, even after the parts are cut out on the CNC.
I made my version from ash and cherry plywood that I made by slicing veneer and laying them up in my vacuum bag. You could use high quality commercial plywood but the species options are probably limited in the thicknesses needed, mostly 1/8", 1/4", and 3/8". It looks like this:
Unlike the wall clock, this one worked straight out of the gate, with only a little tuning required. The piece of wood hanging in the middle of the steel shaft escapement/pendulum shaft was added to stop the shaft from jumping in the frame holes, which ended up oversized after I rebored them manually because they were too tight off the CNC. It will be removed after I rework the shaft holes, somehow.
You can see the spring in the last photo. It has quite a lot of force, over 9 in-lb. That may not sound like much but it is when you try to uncoil the spring to install it. The spring is rewound from the front side using the key laying in front of the clock. It will run for 28 hours when fully wound.
I finished the clock frame, pendulum, and base with Watco Danish Oil but left the gear train unfinished. Quite a project. Here's a link to a short video of the clock running, in case you're interested.
John
