My latest clock

It's been the better part of 12 years since I last built a clock. That one had a lot of scroll saw work in the cabinet but it got dropped while moving. Broke my heart.

It wasn't built using any plans, just a rough idea I had that I scratched out on the back of a brown paper bag. The design changed as I went through the building process. I hadn't intended on adding the shoulders under the main clock cabinet but I wasn't getting enough stability in the lower portion so I added them in. The mortises where the columns meet the horizontal pieces were hand chiseled, my first real mortises. The columns themselves started out as square but that looked a little too much like mission furniture so my wife asked me to "round them out a bit". I've still got to cut a skirt for it but that won't take too long. My wife is picking out the color of stain then I'll finish it off with a few coats of hand rubbed poly.

I am having a problem with this one though. I can't figure out how I'm going to attach the crown molding. I went cheap and only used a 1x6 piece of red oak for the horizontal pieces. Milled down that's about a half inch. I want a bit of a reveal on the crown molding which leaves me only a quarter inch or so to affix it to the top of the clock. I built a brace for the back of the molding, beveled to match the angle of the molding. I was hoping that would give me a shelf to rest it on while the glue dried. It wasn't enough as gravity weighed in (no pun intended) and the molding kept leaning forward. In the 4th picture you can see where I even tried to put a brad in it to hold it on. My little electric nailer wasn't strong enough to get through the oak though. Right now it's just held on by some tape while I try to figure out a way to get it on there permanently. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Looking great so far Terry. What kind of face are you putting the clock?

My plan was to cut the numbers out with my scroll saw and then put a piece of polished brass behind the panel that's there to highlight the numbers. Then I remembered it had been a long time since I'd cut anything with my scroll saw and I wasn't for sure if I could cut that straight a line or not. All I know right now is I don't want to get one of the pre-packaged faces. I thought about getting the plastic numbers and gluing them on. While that would probably look OK it doesn't really match the picture I have in my head.

I'm getting ready to head to Florida on vacation so I'll have a week to figure out what the face will look like. Hopefully it'll come to me soon. I want to get this one off the bench and on the wall so I can move on to the next project, a book case/knick knack shelf for our front entry way.

Personal opinion here... that clock would look cheesy with plastic numbers. There are plenty of fine looking (and affordable) metal dials out there that would look very nice. Some of the Shaker or Arts&Crafts in particular. That's a nice box, and it deserves a nice face. But again... that's just me.

Hi Terry.
That clock looks great! I can't wait to see it finished!

Making a clock is another thing on my "to do list", I've got the desing already but as it will have two dials at 45º one from the other I have to find a way to run them with the same movement if I want it to look good.

I guess it's high time I posted some pics of the finished clock. I learned quite a bit from this one. I learned that oak veneered plywood doesn't finish like solid oak does. I learned that you should really use a sealer when applying a dark stain to an open grained wood like oak. This is the first time I've stained oak. For the oak tables that my dad and I refinished when I was younger, we'd put 5 or 6 coats of hand rubbed tongue oil on it. This turned out a little darker than I'd planned but LOML is pleased with it. Also, I did something else that I don't really know if it will cause a problem or not. I wanted a smooth finish to it but not a real glossy one. Something where you could just start to make out your reflection but not really see yourself. To that end I put 6 coats of hand rubbed poly on it with a light rubbing of 0000# steel wool between the 2nd through 6th coats. LOML wanted it shinier than what I had it so I took some varnish and put a single coat over the poly. I don't know if the varnish will start to peel off later or if the poly will make it change colors. The face is hand made. I just couldn't find any pre-made faces that had the look that I wanted. Because of the weight I'm using a french cleat to hang it on the wall. Anyways, here it is. Hope y'all enjoy it.

Very nice, Terry. How'd you end up attaching the crown?

Nice clock Terry does it chime?

Vaughn McMillan said:

Very nice, Terry. How'd you end up attaching the crown?

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Thanks Vaughn. I wound up using the same idea I had earlier, the braces with the bevel cut. I just made the braces wider/deeper by about an inch. Then, along with the glue, I pre-drilled and counter sunk some holes and attached the braces to the top with some screws. I'll see if I can get a picture of it tonight.

Very fine. A real keeper.

Rob Keeble said:

Nice clock Terry does it chime?

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Yes sir, chime it does. It's got the Westminster chimes and merrily chimes away every 15 minutes. It's usually not a bother except when we're watching a movie and it gets to the serious/spooky part and right in the middle of the silence we hear "Bing Bong". I've thought about adding an on/off switch to the chime so we can disable it when we want to. The wire that's connecting to the chime though is very small, probably around 30 gauge wire. I don't know if I can find a switch that will work with that small of a wire.

the timeing was GREAT terry.. looks very nice. and the hand made face was the right way to go in my opinion.. the top braces were also the way to attach the crown molding you get a A+

Looks good!

Nice job on the clock Terry. Some of those clock movements have a silence mode that you can activate so they don't chime between certain times, like when you are sleeping.

Royall Clark said:

Some of those clock movements have a silence mode that you can activate so they don't chime between certain times, like when you are sleeping.

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Thanks Royall. I didn't see that mentioned in the instructions and I didn't see a switch. I'll take a gander through the instructions again tonight when I get home. I'd originally thrown them away. Then the original movement I bought failed on me so I got it replaced. I actually read the instructions for the replacement and it listed how to adjust the chime so that it matches up exactly with the hand movement. It had been chiming about 2 minutes early. So there might be a section regarding making the chime silent that I missed the first time around.

Very nice clock Terry. I hope you get the chime to work to your satisfaction. You said you hung it with a french cleat. How much does it weigh?