New quartz clock finished!
It’s been awhile since I’ve had the pleasure of making a smaller piece like this one. My last two commissions were huge undertakings, each taking thousands of hours. During that period there just wasn’t any time to accept commissions for smaller work, and the long wait deterred any potential opportunities.
I’m loving the way this one came out. It might be one of my favorite quartz pieces yet.
Contact me if you’d like a custom clockwork sculpture of your own.
In late 2019, I finished “Perpetual No.1”. As the name indicates, it was my first clock featuring a perpetual calendar complication. In June 2020, I was contacted by a gentleman from Perth, Australia who was interested in commissioning a piece based on the “Perpetual No.1” design. After a thorough back-and-forth with drawings, emails, and phone calls, we arrived at a this beautiful design.
However, work didn’t start right away.
People always speak of the patience it must take for me to create these works. But I would also like to express my gratitude for the patience that my clients have. When I was first contacted for this clock, I had just started work on “The Grasmere Commission”, a nearly two-year project. Then, this piece required over a year to complete and months to properly test and refine. To top it off, there was a three-month delay when I moved my shop to another location. In total, the client had to wait over 3 years to see a finished piece, and by the time, it’s delivered it will be closer to four years.
In 2023, this clock, titled “Perth”, was completed. I believe it was worth the wait.
This piece shares a lot of DNA with “Perpetual No.1” but has some very notable upgrades. A moon dial was added, along with a day dial. It’s also a foot larger than “Perpetual No.1”, which may not sound like a lot, but that extra foot doubled the weight and gear size.
For anyone not familiar, a perpetual calendar complication keeps track of the date, including mechanically accounting for whether a month has 30 or 31 days, and even automatically adjusts for the 28 days in February, and 29 days in a leap year. The perpetual calendar mechanisms that I create switch instantly at midnight, so in the video, you can see the clock automatically click four full days when the hands pass 12:00 p.m.
The moon dial has four different faces, and between those are constellations visible from the southern hemisphere. The large display for the four moons required a disc that took up almost all the space behind the perpetual calendar mechanisms. That means that all the mechanisms for the perpetual calendar had to be in front. Oftentimes, mechanical challenges and constraints can lead to aesthetic discoveries. This is one such case for me. The result of pushing all the mechanisms in front led to a large moon nestled above a forest of gears and levers, similar to the actual moon above a forest of trees.
There are a couple things to note about the main gears for this clock. The spokes are designed to mirror the overall design of the clock itself. Each spoke depicts the frame of the clock running down the middle, with the number-panels splayed out around it. Because of the size and the amount of detail, these gears also took significantly longer to sculpt than any others to date.
I’ll be delivering and installing this piece in the next months. While I’m looking forward to the trip, I’ll be sad to see this clock go.
Finally!
Sometimes things go much quicker than expected, and sometimes they take a little longer. This project took longer…roughly 600 hours longer.
It’s entirely my fault. This piece was supposed to be a slightly larger and slightly more complex version of “Perpetual No.1”. But instead…well, I got a little carried away.
That’s a good thing, of course. “Getting carried away” usually means I’m taking my work to another level, and this project was an opportunity to do just that.
While everything is essentially finished, there are still some personal additions that I’ll be making for the client. And while I run the clock and do a final test on the mechanism, there will be, as there is with every piece, some little things I notice which I’ll want to refine.
That said, this epic journey is coming to a close. I’m going to savor every second I have with this piece before delivery to Australia.
As stated in the video, I’m going to build a large wall and create a simple “set” to film the finished video of this horological achievement. In the mean time, I wanted to get some preliminary footage out there for everyone to see.
Enjoy!
I’ve done about all I can with the clock on the wall. The hands, numbers, and some of the gears could be finished without interrupting the ticking, but now I have to take it off the wall and disassemble it so I can sculpt the inside bits.
Home stretch (sort of)
The main dial numbers are finished!
Last post I’d just finished all the frames for the numbers. I hadn’t carved up the point on the right yet, and I’ve finished that. But the big news is that all the numbers are painted.
Getting the weathered and tattered finish on these paper panels is a lot of fun, but can be kind of a nervous and frustrating process. Painting the numbers and line-work takes a lot of time. To get this finish I have to immerse all those hours of work in water, and sort of scrub away at it to rough up the paper fibers. The paper likes to warp, and the way the paint takes to the surface can be a little unpredictable. A few of these had to be redone once or twice because I didn’t like the way they came out.
Really happy that these are finished! This is one of those steps that really changes the look of the clock.
Now it’s on to the calendar dials.
Six out of eight of the number panels/frames are finished along with the spire protruding from the left. I still have to finish the 12 & 1, the right spire, and the perpetual dials. Then I start painting the numbers that go in the frames.
A few years ago I purchased a second rotary tool that’s well suited for very fine detail. This was both a game changer and a curse. I can’t help myself, so my sculpting has a lot more detail and refinement, but also takes a lot more time and work. No shortcuts for the good stuff.
Lots of grinding ahead. Thanks for your patience ;)
I’ve designed, cut, and carved up the hands for the calendar dial. This includes the small 1-1 gears needed to make the months and date come out of the same axis.
Also, slightly less noticeable, I finished the big moon-gear and the disc that the moons will go on. You can see them in the window now, although it’s just unfinished brass at this point. Soon that window will cycle through four different moon faces, with stars in between.
The new clock has been ticking away for a couple of weeks now. The next step was to make it tell time, which meant completing the pendulum, and giving the clock a pair of hands.
In order to put hands on the clock I also needed to make the set of gears that create the 12-1 ratio between the hour and minute hand (called the motion works). I also made the 60-tooth click for adjusting the time. Finally, stacked in the middle of everything, the cam that lifts and drops the arm that operates the other functions of the clock (moon, day, date, month).
Once all of that was finished I made hands, which I designed in the spirit of “Perpetual No.1”.
Then it was on to the pendulum. Since carving any of the components changes the weight, and thus the timing, I needed to completely sculpt and finish everything before I could begin adjusting the pendulum for accuracy.
Now that the pendulum is finished I can run the clock, check the time, and chop the pendulum rod shorter and shorter until it swings at the right pace.
There are three significant moments during the creation of each piece. Conception, completion, and in between, the first ticks. It’s that fun stage where I hang a dumbbell from the line for temporary weight, and use a quick clamp for a pendulum bob, just so that I can get it ticking on it’s own power as soon as possible. For a day or two I’ll come home after being away and excitedly open the door to see if it’s still ticking away. It’s very satisfying, and will always be one of my favorite moments with each clock that I make.
In addition to hearing it’s pulse, this marks the first time I’ve seen the entire piece assembled and on the wall. I had a sense of the size from laying the pieces out on tables, but now that it’s all together…wow. This one is substantial. For the longest time all I had were tables full of pieces. It was hard to get a sense of how much progress I was making. Now, seeing it all come together, I finally feel like I’m getting somewhere.
There’s still sooo much to do. Can’t wait to finish this one!
The escapement is finished!
I still need to test and tweak a few things. Most noticeably the counterbalance of the lift arm, to which I’ve squished a piece of putty to temporarily test the weight, and watch the escapement tick. Very accurate engineering technique ;)
The lift arm (at least that’s what I call it) is the one on the left with the little crutch that engages with the pins. Each tick, that arm gets lifted up and sits in place with potential energy, waiting for the pendulum to unlock it. The heavier that arm is, the more energy is given to the pendulum each swing, but it also means that more energy is required to lift it up. When things are geared-up as much as a clock, the tiniest bit of energy on the escapement end of the gear train can equate to a ton of weight on the other end. The pendulum only needs a tiny tiny push to keep swinging. It has very little friction, and plenty of inertia. For that reason, when I design this style of escapement (called an arnfield gravity escapement) I extend an arm on the other side, and thread it for screws. I can vary the size/weight of the screws until the lift arm effectively weighs very little.
The lock arm (the other one) is the same principle. In order for the lightweight lift arm to be able to bump the lock arm and release the escape wheel, it also needs to weight almost nothing. Right now it’s actually working without any screws for counterweight, but I’ll eventually add a little one so that you can basically breathe on it and it will unlock.
It’s really good to have this part finished. Now it’s on to the back plate & the mounting bracket. Then I should be able to mount the clock on the wall and get it ticking under it’s own power.
The biggest gear for the new clock is finally finished. This one took a lot out of me! Half-inch brass means some pretty heavy cutting and grinding to bring this part to it’s final form. I’m happy it’s finished and I’m very satisfied with the results.
Next step is the steel arbor with the square winding key. Once that’s done I’ll know how thick this whole assembly is and I’ll be able to add the back plate of the clock frame. Then I’ll make the escapement and get this thing ticking…soon…eventually. Patience.
Barrel assembly:
Most weight driven clocks use a cylindrical drum that a line winds around. A weight pulls on that line, turning the drum, which turns the first gear in the gear-train. There’s also typically a click-and-ratchet assembly so that when the weight gets close to the floor, and the drum is almost out of line, you can wind the weight back up to the top while the gear stays put.
During the winding process the weight isn’t delivering power to the clock, so the clock temporarily stops. If you want the clock to keep ticking during winding you’ll have to add a “maintaining power” assembly. This video gives you an idea of what that consists of.
The larger ratchet will be engaged by a click that’s attached to the clock frame. The torsion spring on the inside gets loaded up by the pull of the weight. Then, during winding, when the barrel and small ratchet are turning clockwise, the large ratchet holds firm, and the spring keeps pushing the clock-train forward. Power is maintained, and the clock doesn’t miss a beat.
Spoking the great wheel:
The largest wheel of this clock is made of 1/2 inch brass. It’s transmitting the most amount of force, so the teeth need to be thick so that it doesn’t wear out too fast. The spokes of this gear needed to be cut out with a simple hand-held jewelers-saw. This took awhile, but it’s finished now, and I’m on to the more fun task of sculpting those gear-spokes with a rotary tool.
I’ve finished all the complications aside from the sculpting and finish. This includes the day, date, month, & moon dial. It also includes a drag-fan mechanism that makes everything move soft and slow.
I’ve been testing everything out and it seems to be working really well. It’s always a great feeling to go from plans to a fully-functional mechanism without any major mistakes or oversights. Sometimes it’s tricky to figure out all the overlapping layers, levers, and bridges. I’m always worried I’ll accidentally put a pillar where a lever needs to swing, or a gear where an arbor needs to go through.
The next step is to finish the main clock train and get this clock ticking. To do that I’ll have to finish the escapement, and the barrel assembly for the weight wheel. Both of those jobs are pretty time consuming, but I’m hoping to hear ticking by the end of January.
Lots of progress this week, although a lot of it will be difficult to show since the clock is still in pieces. The new additions to the clock include two gears, two pinions, a post for the 24 tooth ratchet click, a pillar for the large bridge, redoing one of the bridges for the perpetual mechanism, and a handful of other odds and ends.
The biggest accomplishment for me was redoing one of the bridge for the perpetual mechanism. This is shown in the pair of photos with “New” and “Old”. I’ll explain the need for the updated version, but as I said, this one will be difficult to understand without seeing the gears in it. The old version housed one gear. The gear it meshes with came out of the center-hole nearby, and was cantilevered on an 1/8” steel arbor. When I had the clock together I felt that the gear was cantilevered out way to far, and the arbor needed support on the other end. Especially because another gear and both hands for the perpetual display would need to be added to the end of that arbor over three inches out. I decided to make the pillars taller, and recut the bridge to include a hole that will house the center gear too.
So here’s what makes machining that part tricky. Normally the holes for the bridge and the backplate are drilled at the same time ensure that all the holes line up perfectly. This wasn’t an option since the holes on the backplate are already drilled, and I didn’t want to mess with them for fear of ruining the finish or shape of them. Getting the holes on the new pillars and bridge to line up with the old ones required a lot of very careful measuring and patience.
I also cut my first gears and pinions in the new shop. This includes the big 180 tooth gear that will turn the four moons. The setup is working well, which means it’s official…I’m fully operational in the new space.
One of the other little parts that I included a couple pictures of is the post for the 24 tooth ratchet click. I like how the base has that cutout that wraps around the nearby pillar.
Sooo much left to do but i’m slowly getting there. This week will be a little short due to the holidays, but things are definitely set up in the new space and everything is in full swing now. I’m looking forward to pouring in the hours in the new year.
Gear balancing time.
Balancing the gears of a clock is crucial. The power needed to drive the gears should be constant. If the gears aren’t balanced then the required power will fluctuate from very little to a damagingly large amount.
When the gears are visually asymmetrical, as mine almost always are, I have to balance them by shaving metal off the back (unseen) side until the weight is balanced. To check this I put the gear on an arbor that’s spinning on precision bearings. When I can stop it in all positions without it turning on it’s own I’m good to go. This involves a lot of back and forth between checking the balance and grinding a little more until it’s just right. If I accidentally remove too much it can be a problem, so it’s best to go slow.
During my recent relocation there wasn’t much time to create my usual Monday web updates. I tried to post short updates on instagram if I could, although with the move, even that was difficult. Progress was sparse, but I did manage to get some work done over the last few months, even with a the shop out of commission.
Now to catch this blog up. If you’re following me on Instagram you’ve already seen many of these photos. This one won’t be as thorough as I’d like but it’ll give you an idea of what I’ve been up to.
When I left off back in August I’d done a post called “Rhino”. This showed the CAD work that I’d prepped so that I could get a lot of the parts cut out. This first picture shows the freshly cut out parts. You can see that at this point the new shop was still being set up. The good new was that all the parts lined up perfectly and were ready to be assembled.
The first thing assembled was the panels for the numbers that fan out around the main dial of the clock. I started with a permanent marker to get a rough idea of where I thought the screws would look best. Then I used calipers to more accurately measure those positions. Next it was off to the mill to drill and tap all the tiny 0-80 threads. Finally I spent some time on the lathe making the little screws to hold everything together. I usually vary the screw head sizes to make things more visually interesting.
Another part of the clock that I finished was drilling the holes for the front two plates of the clock-frame and making the pillars that hold those plates together. This process seems pretty simple, but it’s actually one of the more stressful parts of the whole clockmaking process. Those holes hold the gear arbors, and the gears need to be exactly the right distance apart or the clock won’t run efficiently (if at all).
Lots of scribbling on the brass plates to make sure I don’t put a pillar where any of the components are.
Using a reamer to put a nicer, more accurate finish on the plate-holes.
Using the lathe to turn a spigot that matches the plate holes, then tapping 1/4-20 threads.
Threading 1/4-20 screws.
Pillars and screws - Threaded and tapped.
The front two plates. Assembled and ready for gears.
The most recent thing that I finished was the pillars and bridges that hold the parts for the perpetual calendar mechanism. Just like the clock frame, this was a delicate and stressful process because the distance between the holes was so crucial. Maybe even more so with this mechanism, since the gears and levers being held by these bridges are even smaller, with tighter tolerances.
I’ll note that these pillars are slightly different than the clock frame pillars. The ones for the main clock frame are simply bolted from both sides. But for these I couldn’t do that because the moon would run into the bolts if they stick out from the back even a little. For that reason I had to put a big flange at the base of each pillar and screw it from the front. Each pillar still has a spigot on the back to help with alignment, but it doesn’t extend past the 1/4 inch plate.
All the bridges were cut out by hand with a jewelers saw.
I’ve tested everything out and it looks like the bridges came out perfect. It’s great to see these parts moving on the actual clock frame (previously they were only on plastic test-plates).
I’ll show the whole perpetual mechanism in place in the next post.
Using an extra long drill bit so the chuck clears the pillars.
The completed bridges for the perpetual calendar mechanism.
It’s been almost three months since my last update. I’ve been putting up some progress posts on instagram, however even that has been a little sparse lately. The reason? I’ve moved!
My projects are growing and the need for more space could no longer be ignored. After a lot of house hunting (like, an exhausting amount) I finally found something that perfectly fits the needs of my increasingly ambitious clockwork projects.
It’s been quite an ordeal. Moving is a huge interruption under normal circumstances. Hunting down a new house, selling the old house, the loans and legal stuff, and then there’s packing up and moving everything that I’ve accumulated over the last 18 years in my old space. But the really difficult part was relocating the shop. I have some big and heavy machines, and here’s the thing: The industrial moving companies didn’t want to bother with a small residential move, and the regular moving companies didn’t have the ability to move the heavy stuff safely.
Sometimes you just have to figure things out for yourself. Below are some links to the move that I posted on instagram. I’d post the files directly, but I unfortunately lost my phone right in the middle of the move, and it wasn’t backed up (brutal).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CiSyBRhL-2M/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY%3D
After everything was moved I had to do quite a bit of work on the new space. This included wiring up lots of outlets (both the garage and basement only had one each!?!) Wiring a couple of 220v outlets for the big mill and lathe, and wiring the 3-phase converter for the mill. Ripping out the carpet in the basement and building lots of shelves so that I have a place to put everything. And finally, installing decent lighting.
Here are a few photos of the new space. I had pics of the whole transformation but again….lost phone. The “before” picture is actually from the original listing of the house. The stuff isn’t mine, but you can see what the space was before I changed everything.
There’s still a lot I want to do to the space, but it’s to a point where I can get back to work. There have been enough delays. It’s time to make some clocks.
I’ll post more within the next couple of days to catch this blog up on the clock progress. I’ve been happily working in the new space for over a month now & I’m approaching the really fun parts of the project.
Apologies for the long absence. Thank you for your patience. Stay tuned!
Time for some computer aided design - emphasis on the design. My CAD program of choice is Rhinoceros, thus the title.
I’ve changed my tune quite a bit over the years when it comes to using CAD to create my work with automated machines. I’ve arrived at the conclusion that as long as my pencil and brain are steering the ship it’s a very valuable tool.
In the past my hangup with using computers was that the tools in the CAD program start to dictate and influence the look of things, often making them overly perfect and lifeless. But if you can bring your pencil drawings into the program with all of their character, and perfectly trace those imperfect lines, then you can get the best of both worlds.
It’s also important to mention that my commissions crossed a size threshold that made it impossible to fabricate them by hand. This one is no exception, being 6 feet wide and cut from thick 1/4” plates.
One note: I’ve just realized that before I can finish this I’ll have to make the biggest gear in the clock. The spot where the winding key for the weight will be needs to be exact, and I won’t know that placement until I have the gear to physically mesh it with the pinion and get the precise distance between the arbors. While I can certainly calculate that distance with the math, it’s more accurate to physically mesh the gear and pinion together and measure the distance.
Also, I’m moving soon! Pretty soon all of my content will be shot in a new shop. Can’t wait!
I’ve just finished carving and balancing the scissor style levers that control the perpetual calendar dates. I’ve tried to film and edit this video in a way that shows how these mechanisms work. I’ll give a quick explanation as well, but if I’m being honest, I’m having difficulty concisely explaining this one with words.
The lever that I’m moving in the video will actually be lifted and released once a day by the snail-cam. It’s always lifted the same amount. The other lever that pivots with it moves until the notched wheel (calendar wheel) stops it. The calendar wheel has 48 positions - one for each month over a four year period. The depth of the notches on the calendar wheel correlate with the amount of days in each month.
At the right end of the lever you’ll see two clicks moving around a shark-toothed wheel. The bottom click moves the wheel forward one tooth a day. The top click only engages at the end of the month, when it will reach back, drop into the notch, and move the shark-toothed wheel in concert with the bottom click. How far it reaches back is governed by the notches in the calendar wheel. The further it reaches back, the fewer days it will take until it drops into place, and the more “extra days” it will grab as the lever travels back to it’s starting position.
The end of the video shows what happens at the end of the month of February, when the deepest notch is used, and the shark-tooth wheel is advanced four clicks/days.
For any clockmakers out there, I wanted to note that the shark-tooth wheel and the one it meshes with are depthed a little far apart, which is why the one wheel jiggles a little after it’s moved each click. Something that will be adjusted when I put this mechanism into it’s final clock frame.
The plan was to get the perpetual calendar mechanism working before I started carving and finishing the various pieces. However as I started to test things I realized that I can’t get the mechanism working unless I balance the wheels.
The reason is that there are two clicks that hold those wheels in place while the rest of the mechanism moves around throughout the day. If the wheels aren’t balanced the clicks need to be stronger (heavier) to keep the wheels from moving on their own. And if the clicks are heavier entirely too much force is required to move the wheels forward at the end of the day.
Before I could balance the wheels I needed to sculpt them to their final shape. Then was just a matter of spinning them to see what side was heavy, and carving away metal on the back (unseen) side until they were balanced. I included a photo of the back of the calendar wheel showing the area that I carved away.
Now that these three parts are balanced there barely needs to be any weight behind the clicks to keep everything in place. At the end of each day the mechanism can be bumped forward one tooth with very little effort. Nice and smooth:)
