Shaker Tall Clock in Cherry & Pine

[Rennie Heuer]

I have wanted to build one of these for decades! Problem was I had either no place to put it, no matching furniture, or no one to give it to that would have a place for it either.

Prayers were heard and a customer has come to me wanting this clock. In fact, the clock is going to be a wedding gift for his son and his bride - which is special, but not the really cool part. They have furnished me with a hand-done drawing of the design with dimensions and joinery done by the grandfather. He was a woodworker and was planning on making this clock for his grandson's wedding. Sadly, he passed recently and never got the chance to begin the build.

What an absolute honor to pick up where he left off and fulfill this promise!

I picked up the lumber today, 30bf of clear pine (about 50% more than the plan calls for but pine is inexpensive and I make mistakes). I'll likely begin the build next week. Stay tuned.

Here are the customer's drawings, my Sketchup interpretation of the drawing, and the lumber!

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Very cool, and a great honor indeed, Rennie.

 

[Ted Calver]

What a thoughtful gift and a super project for you. Clear pine is an interesting choice of woods.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

What a thoughtful gift and a super project for you. Clear pine is an interesting choice of woods.

For shaker, I figured my primary choices were pine and cherry. Maybe I’m seeing that wrong. What are your thoughts?

 

[Steve Southwood]

What finish is going to be on this? Awesome project though

 

[Rennie Heuer]

What finish is going to be on this? Awesome project though

My plan was to use two coats of a 1 pound cut of the dewaxed orange shellac followed by three or more coats of general finishes arm r seal.

 

[Ted Calver]

For shaker, I figured my primary choices were pine and cherry. Maybe I’m seeing that wrong. What are your thoughts?

First, I would defer to the client, if they knew the designer's intended choice of woods. Then I'd go with either cherry, maple or pine in that order for a custom piece in the Shaker style, just because of the special nature of the commission.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

First, I would defer to the client, if they knew the designer's intended choice of woods. Then I'd go with either cherry, maple or pine in that order for a custom piece in the Shaker style, just because of the special nature of the commission.

Pine seemed to be the wood of choice from the customer from the very start. However, probably would be a good thing to ddouble check before I start cutting things up. Even so, thinking back to lots of other shaker items I’ve seen and watched being built by Norm Abrams, most seem to be pine with some cherry thrown in for a good mix.

 

[Tom Niemi]

Can you have grandpa’s sketch engraved on the back somewhere??? Just pondering

 

[Rennie Heuer]

Can you have grandpa’s sketch engraved on the back somewhere??? Just pondering

Neat idea.

I was thinking of having Mike Reynolds clock printed on the face where I would normally have my shops name.

 

[Bill Arnold]

Looks like a great project! Sure has a nice story to go along with it.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Wow cool project and kind of a lot of emotional carry over on it as well!

Pine can certainly be challenging and personally I kind of like cherry better to work with... But it's kind of an iconic wood for this sort of thing as well.. so I guess I'd see how the first pass goes and decide if you're happy proceeding.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

Wow cool project and kind of a lot of emotional carry over on it as well!

Pine can certainly be challenging and personally I kind of like cherry better to work with... But it's kind of an iconic wood for this sort of thing as well.. so I guess I'd see how the first pass goes and decide if you're happy proceeding.

My thought is that the dovetailed base is going to be the most challenging part of the project. So, I figured I would start with that and see how well the pine behaves.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

My thought is that the dovetailed base is going to be the most challenging part of the project. So, I figured I would start with that and see how well the pine behaves.

Seems like a good plan, if you can get it happy with the dovetails the rest shouldn't be to bad.

The other places you might have some issues are "crisp" profiles and finishing can be splotchy. For profiles tthe only thing I see here that might be tough with that is the cove under the top so you're probably in pretty good shape there. It might be useful to try some finishing swatches to make sure that it meets the customers expectations. I used pre-bought but unfinished pine for our interior doors and generally the finish was pretty good except the one you can see as you walk into the house has a nice splotch in the center panel

 

[Dan Noren]

did up some supply boxes back in my rendezousing days, everything had to be pre-1840. built them of pine, hand cut dovetails, with a tea stain finish. came out a nice deep golden color, with no splotching.

 

[glenn bradley]

For shaker, I figured my primary choices were pine and cherry. Maybe I’m seeing that wrong. What are your thoughts?

Go revisit Christian Becksvoort at Fine Woodworking online. Been doing Shaker proud for decades.

 

[Rennie Heuer]

You guys are all making me second guess my choices.

 

[larry merlau]

no need to second quess.. ask the client and explain to them the difference in woods.. pine does blotch and to me isnt the cchoice for a gift of this nature .. grandpa may not have acess to good hard wood and so other species wernt thought of

 

[Rennie Heuer]

no need to second quess.. ask the client and explain to them the difference in woods.. pine does blotch and to me isnt the cchoice for a gift of this nature .. grandpa may not have acess to good hard wood and so other species wernt thought of

I'm leaning in your direction on this and I sent a note to the customer this morning suggesting cherry as an alternative. Same price give or take a few cents. Now I have to figure out what to do with all this pine I bought.

 

[Darren Wright]