Accurate wooden clocks!

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ArtF
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

Post by ArtF »

Kit:

  My impressions? Well built, artistic and seems to run very well. I say
congrats on a fine project. I know from experience all the dicking about
you need to do to make it look as it does, way to go!.

  I dont think the electronics in this case cheapen it at all , Id hide them
in the back and let it sit proudly on its shelf or mantle. Anyone
noticing it sitting swinging away will undoubtedly be left
with the (proper) thought that your something of a craftsman.

Art
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

Post by kit »

Art,

That's very kind of you to say so.

This is only the working model, I wasn't sure what drive power I'd need to move the whole gear train or what range of adjustment there'd be on the period whilst still running the ratchet properly. In practice there's been no problem with only a 5v supply and the peak current demand (when charging the capacitor that is discharged into the coil) is a brief 200mA so no problems powering it from a phone charger which was the aim.

The finished clock will be made from a variety of West Australian hardwoods using the CNC router that has taken up far too much of my time over the last year and more. At last I have a reliable (shouldn't say that out loud!) accurate machine for doing real work which is why I've finally been able to get back to the clock.

Kit
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

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>>At last I have a reliable (shouldn't say that out loud!)

  True, I try not too, I spend too much time tinkering and not
enough time building..

  In hardwoods that would look awesome..

Art
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

Post by kit »

This video shows an experiment with cutting a more industrial looking gear from Jarrah. I wouldn't do the two sided cutting again but it was an interesting test. The router has changed quite a lot since this video was made about a year ago.

Kit

https://vimeo.com/284841202
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

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kit wrote: My day job involves maintaining a machine that generates a million watts of wireless waves
The world's biggest microwave oven?  Tesla power station?

I'd guess either a big city FM tv or radio station (do they even get that big?),radar, or a hot fusion reactor.  Of course, I'm just a moose in a swamp...

More importantly, does it have dancing monkeys?

Kirk
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

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@kit, is that a 4 or 500w air cooled spindle?  More impressive than I would have thought, it might work for my also deep-freezer CNC Rose engine lathe project. Essentially all the parts are sitting in the northern mooseshop, while I'm stuck in Florida until summer next year.  Something about when you have the time you don't have the resources...

A long time ago Chuck posted a CNC pie wedge gear blank program that would allow you to control which way the grain ran in non-plywood gear teeth.  I seem to recall a discussion somewhere about making the blanks 2 or more plys, which might help control warping and strengthen them; of course that's another layer of work.

I like your shop in the background of your videos!

Kirk
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

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kirk,

Google 'VLF' and you'll get the idea. No dancing monkeys I'm afraid, just a lot of kangaroos.

That spindle was 400W but I managed to shear the shaft on it so I've now moved on to the popular DIY builders choice of a 2.2kW (3HP) water cooled version. That has the advantage of taking 1/2 inch tools if I want to do some heavy cutting and is very quiet.

I looked at the pie segmented idea myself but thought I'd give it a go without. The Jarrah coped quite well but I think it will be necessary for most woods, especially for smaller, thinner teeth than my test. Having done some segmented wood turning in the past I realise that how well the pieces fit together will be a  good indication of the CNC machines cutting accuracy. Sourcing materials is my biggest headache. Apart from construction grade Jarrah (still useful stuff) my nearest hardwood suppliers are 1300Km away in Perth.

I had to Google 'rose engine', some wonderfully intricate machines out there. When do we get to see the results from yours?

Kit
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

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I live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, including during the ELF days.  It seems the general populace has no understanding of RF; we had a hysteria campaign when they wanted to build a 100W cell tower a few hundred feet from an elementary school from people with handheld cell phones and home WiFi.  The High/Middle school is around a quarter mile from a 100KW FM station but nobody's concerned.  I'm not sure if that's because, or in spite of, it's being Country Western.

I think it'll still be a while until I actually build a Rose Engine, moose must be great procrastinators and get distracted by shop building projects instead of in shop projects.  There's relatively easy Jack Chick Rose engine plans online, and I've looked at (but never pulled the parts trigger) at the popular MDF Rose engine.  The commercial versions are a bit rich (Lindow thinks $20K US is moderately priced although they have somewhat less expensive starter versions).  Beall (a maker of great stuff) has the Pen Wizard Ornamental Pen Lathe for around $300 that I've come close to clicking the buy button on several times, but it's only a small subset of a real Rose engine and it's hard to find any reviews from actual users.

Now that I have plenty of spare time, at least for things that can be done sitting on a stool, the mooseshop and all the supplies are a couple thousand miles away.
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

Post by kit »

Kirk,

You sound like me! The start of the 5G mobile phone roll-out in Australia has brought up a new round of health scares on Facebook about radiation from the base stations. I heard a radio interview just a few days ago with a man from ARPANSA, the Australian regulator for all things wireless, trying to allay peoples fears and point out that '5G' is just a new trade name for an existing technology.

When I still lived in the UK during the early 2000's I saw a TV news report showing people protesting about the dangers of a new tower near their homes. In the background of the interview was a young woman holding a baby. During the interview she was using her mobile phone and even holding it to the baby's head! As a BBC transmitter engineering lecturer at the time I wondered how soon they'd catch on to the fact that we'd been radiating far higher field strengths at people for many decades. As I keep pointing out to anyone who'll listen, the only significant radiation hazard faced by the general public is the big yellow round thing in the sky. Especially for those of us who live in the tropics.

Igorance is bliss. Sadly ignorance is also an increasingly powerful and persuasive force in the world.

Re the clock: I've designed and made the printed circuit board but have to wait for a new hot air bit for my gas soldering iron to arrive in the post before I can finish assembling it. It's a surface mount design (I can't stand drilling all those holes!!) so the conventional iron doesn't work too well. I have sorted out which bit's of wood I'm using for the wheels though and am finishing the design of the base now I know the size of the circuit board.
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

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A bit more progress on the clock. The circuit board was designed using 'DipTrace' software and printed using the DIY favourite 'toner-transfer' method. Soldering is completed and it is now sucessfully driving the prototype mechanism powered by a standard USB wall wart. That was a key aim so I'm very pleased. As you can see from the pictures below, a few mods were required to get everything working correctly so the finished board is not quite as profesional looking as we might wish.

My attempt at cutting a wheel from a non-segmented piece of hardwood (no idea what species) led to broken teeth where the grain was tangential rther than radial. The wood was very hard and tight-grained but also brittle which is what I'd feared. I'll have to rely on the locally available Jarrah as cutting segments with the CNC router is very wasteful and that's the only stuff I have enough of for the job.

Does anyone on the forum have any experience using 'Cactus Juice' impregnating resin for hardening and stabilising wood? I'm wondering if it's worth experimenting with resin hardened pine as that's the most plentiful material I have locally available. One day we're going to retire to Tasmania where a wide range of lovely timbers will be readilly available, but until then...

Kit
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Last edited by kit on Sun Jun 30, 2019 5:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

Post by ArtF »

Kit:

Havent used stabalizer yet myself, but yeah, grain is an issue. I have done
smaller things by gluing and pressing a few sheets of 1/16" veneer together
with grain alternating.. gives it stability

Art
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

Post by kit »

Art,
That's an idea, a high grade ply just where it's needed.

The wheels are coming out well using six segments with radial grain for each but the wastage is criminal. I don't have a bandsaw here, not enough space, so I'm having to use the CNC machine to cut the segments from 19mm stock, which is wasteful in itself, and then turn 10 of the 19 millimetres into sawdust. Not to a work procedure to be repeated!

On the upside, the Jarrah produces very nice results so I think I'll just have to throw my wife and her weaving looms out of her half of the shed and buy that bandsaw afer all!

Kit
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

Post by ArtF »

Kit

Just press the veneers hard with lots of pressure and they come out as pretty
high quality plywood.

Art
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

Post by Mooselake »

kit wrote: I'll just have to throw my wife and her weaving looms out of her half of the shed and buy that bandsaw afer all!
Might be easier to get a benchtop bandsaw and hang it from the ceiling beams with a pulley system.  Otherwise you might end up living in it, based on how attached my wife is to her looms and spinning wheels.  Rarely used but still critical, I'm, told.

Maybe expand the shed, double what you need you'll only get half.  It would be an excuse to get a track saw (smaller than a table saw...), or maybe a Maslow CNC (bigger, but it could become one wall)

Kirk
Last edited by Mooselake on Sat Jul 06, 2019 2:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Accurate wooden clocks!

Post by kit »

Kirk,
Much as I love Heath Robinson, I'm not sure I want to plan my workshop using his principles. Doubling the available space will have to wait until we retire to a place where expertise in old fashioned wireless telegraphy is not in demand but real estate is significantly cheaper. I'm trying not to count the hours, days, weeks, months, years until then.

Clocks and weaving are equally addictive but don't always work well in the same space. There are plans to convert space in the house from rarely occurring activities (entertaining guests, watching television) to accommodate the textile arts which keep my wife busy. This means some mildly dust generating activities can move out of the small walled-off area of the shed that is MINE and a bandsaw and a few other useful items might just have somewhere to live.

Kit
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