Elegent Scroll Frame Skeleton Clock

[Kim]

Thanks Chris and Bent! 

I’m planning on making my own hands.  We’ll see how THAT goes! 

Kim

[Kim]

The hands were made from 1/32” aluminum 6061 sheet.  I used spray glue to hold a 1:1 pattern of the hands onto the sheet metal.


Then I drilled the center hole in each and proceeded to use the scroll saw to cut around the outline.


This went pretty well, but the blade grabbed one time and snapped the minute hand at the skinniest part .  So I started over again on the minute hand!  Here are my two successful attempts and my failed one (on the bottom).


Then I made filing buttons to use for the round base of the hands and proceeded to file up to the line, trying desperately to keep things looking mostly symmetrical.


Then I opened up the round hole on the minute hand to make it square, so that it would fit on the end of the minute wheel tube.


Next, I made the hour hand collet from 1/2” 303 stainless.


While it was still attached to the parent stock, I cut 1/32” slits to make four tabs.  These tabs will be bent in just a tad to provide a friction connection to the hour wheel tube.  The friction connection allows you to move the hour hand to set it without back-driving the gears in the motion works.


I then cut the hour hand collet off the parent stock using the band saw, and took it back to the lathe.  I slid a 7/16” rod in the middle of the part so that the collet could grab onto that small part, even though it had the tabs cut in it.  Then I faced it off to length, and made a 3/8” hub for the hour hand to attach to.


After powder coating the hands, I attached the hour hand to the hour hand collet and made the final piece for this subassembly, the minute hand collet (lower right), also out of 303 stainless.


And here are the hands set in their proper place.  I’m quite pleased with how it is looking! 


Next, I’ll be adding a taper pin in front of the minute hand collet.  This will hold the whole motion works assembly onto the center arbor.

Kim

[crueby]

The hands really set off with the dial. Looking great!   

[cnr6400]

  The hands look great Kim! Fine work. 

[Dave Otto]

Nice work on the hands Kim, they look great!

Dave

[Kim]

Thanks, Chris, Jeff, and Dave! 

I was a little worried that the powder coating on the hands might not match the black of the dial wax, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Kim

[Roger B]

Some very nice hand work     

[Admiral_dk]

Looks Great Kim 

Per   

[Kim]

Thanks Roger and Per! 

Kim

[Kim]

I stacked up all the parts on the front of the center arbor and marked the spot where the taper pin needed to go.


Next, I forgot to take a picture of actually drilling the hole in the arbor and using the tapered reamers to make it a tapered hole of just the right size.  But I did it regardless.

After cutting the taper pin to length, here it is:


And here’s a shot of the working clock, minus the hour strike works. That will be next.


I set the beat, set the time, and left it running, just for fun!  With hands, it almost looks like a real clock!

Kim

[crueby]

Interesting that he designed it with a taper pin. The first clock I built (a much simpler wall clock) just had a small nut and washer there, and they tend to loosen up once in a while.
Clock is looking great!

 

[Kim]

Thanks Chris!

Interesting that he designed it with a taper pin. The first clock I built (a much simpler wall clock) just had a small nut and washer there, and they tend to loosen up once in a while.

Yes!  I would have expected a little nut to hold the hands on, too. But maybe a taper pin is more historical? Or something?

Looking at the close-up of the taper pin, I just realized I forgot to cut the center arbor to length here.  It should only be sticking out past the collet just a bit, not sticking way out there!  Guess I'll get that next time I take things apart.  It will undoubtedly happen another dozen times before I'm done! 

Kim

[Dave Otto]

Very nice!

Dave

[cnr6400]

 

[Kim]

Thank you Dave and Jeff! 

Kim