Today I will start chronicling our latest project – a Grandfather Clock for Harold in Chattanooga TN. But first I will mention that I have FINALLY gotten one of the Steamer Trunks completed and ready to post as available on the web site. This one is the oak with walnut trim: the all walnut trunk is still in progress. In this photo the box and lid have just come out of the finishing room after receiving three coats of semi-gloss lacquer and are about to have the hardware reinstalled.
Harold’s clock started with an image he cut out of a magazine. He has an antique grandfather clock that is made to hang on a wall, with just the clock works in a fancy metal case and the pendulum and weights hanging in the open below. He wants a case for that clock to make it more traditional. Harold liked the looks of the clock in the photo, but a discussion of the cold-molding process that would be required to make the “belly” of that clock, and the time and expense involved, led him to go with the octagonal swelling instead. The joinery will still be tricky, but no mold needs to be built first.
So the first step is to create a template of a regular hexagon in the size I think we will need. My high school geometry class comes in handy once again as I construct the hexagon and lay out the side walls. This is a starting point, from here I tweak it as needed to keep the “belly” in proportion to the rest of the clock. My little pencil sketch (above) was not to scale, and attempting to create a scale drawing in Sketch-up led me to believe I’d be better off (time-wise) to just work it out as I build the mock-up.
It took me two days to build the mock-up out of ½” crate board (triple wall corrugated cardboard). I will not build the entire clock, just those elements that will be necessary to give Harold a look at the design and proportion and to see if his clock works fit inside as they should. I took detailed measurements while at his home, but there were a couple of things I wasn’t able to properly quantify – like what the actual swing of the pendulum would be while it is in operation, which it was not at the time.
Now that I have the mock-up done I need to get it to Harold. He’s a busy fellow so that may take some time. While we work on getting that arranged, I will begin the lumber prep steps.
Today I will start chronicling our latest project – a Grandfather Clock for Harold in Chattanooga TN. But first I will mention that I have FINALLY gotten one of the Steamer Trunks completed and ready to post as available on the web site. This one is the oak with walnut trim: the all walnut trunk is still in progress. In this photo the box and lid have just come out of the finishing room after receiving three coats of semi-gloss lacquer and are about to have the hardware reinstalled.
Harold’s clock started with an image he cut out of a magazine. He has an antique grandfather clock that is made to hang on a wall, with just the clock works in a fancy metal case and the pendulum and weights hanging in the open below. He wants a case for that clock to make it more traditional. Harold liked the looks of the clock in the photo, but a discussion of the cold-molding process that would be required to make the “belly” of that clock, and the time and expense involved, led him to go with the octagonal swelling instead. The joinery will still be tricky, but no mold needs to be built first.
So the first step is to create a template of a regular hexagon in the size I think we will need. My high school geometry class comes in handy once again as I construct the hexagon and lay out the side walls. This is a starting point, from here I tweak it as needed to keep the “belly” in proportion to the rest of the clock. My little pencil sketch (above) was not to scale, and attempting to create a scale drawing in Sketch-up led me to believe I’d be better off (time-wise) to just work it out as I build the mock-up.
It took me two days to build the mock-up out of ½” crate board (triple wall corrugated cardboard). I will not build the entire clock, just those elements that will be necessary to give Harold a look at the design and proportion and to see if his clock works fit inside as they should. I took detailed measurements while at his home, but there were a couple of things I wasn’t able to properly quantify – like what the actual swing of the pendulum would be while it is in operation, which it was not at the time.
Now that I have the mock-up done I need to get it to Harold. He’s a busy fellow so that may take some time. While we work on getting that arranged, I will begin the lumber prep steps.
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