Wooden gear banjo clock

This is a 1923 Claraphone banjo that i bought on ebay.There wasnt a whole lot there,just the neck and drum, plus a few of the metal bits and pieces, and only three of the tuners with a finish that only 90 years could apply. The total length is about 21 inches and the drum is about 6 inches in diameter. I made the clock out of scraps of black walnut veneer and super glue, lots of super glue. It has an hour hand, a minute hand and a seconds hand, it shows am/pm and days of the week. The clock is powered with a battery feeding an electromagnet that is turned on and off by a sliding brass switch. Instead of a regular pendulum, it has a pendulum wheel that has a permanent magnet mounted to it that reacts with the electromagnet making the pendulum wheel rotate back and forth, thus driving the clock. You can build a wooden gear clock any way you want, it helps to think outside the box, or in this case inside a 6 inch wooden cylinder.The gear train is pretty much standard, there are a few changes that i will explain later. If you want to know more about the math of a wooden gear clock this site http://garysclocks.sawdustcorner.com will explain things in detail, you will find a wealth of information. If you want to build your own clock this site http://lisaboyer.com is one of several sites that has plans along with other stuff. This is how I built this one.

Step 1: Tools and materials

Tools: scrollsaw, drillpress, hand drill, 1/16 through 1/2 inch drillbits, forsner drill bits, small srewdrivers, flat and phillips, dustmask, voltmeter, sharp knife, dremel tool, soldering iron, pliers, wire cutters, allen wrenches, 120 grit to 600 grit sand paper, wax paper, two ceramic tiles about 8 inches square and a twenty pound  weight ,small paint brushes, box fan.                                                                                                                                                                                        
Materials: black walnut veneer, super glue, 1/16 to 1/4 brass tubing, 1/4 x 1/32 thick brass flat bar, small brass and stainless screws, 3/16 stainless steel tubing, about 1/8 stainless steel welding rod, stainless steel mig wire, 3/16 mild steel round bar,1/4 spring steel flat rod, I used some broken band saw blade with the teeth ground off, solder, and wire, magnet wire, some very small sealed bearings, 1/8 and 3/16 inside diameter, I found these on ebay under micro bearings, very small rare earth magnets, also got these from ebay but radio shack has some too, white and maze colored paint, 1/4 dowel pegs, lead fishing wieghts.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Comments

[sridhar_rajagopal]

Wow, this is beautiful!

[cuzzinjason]

MrDoug you are an absolute genius, and you have never ceased to amaze and inspire me. I do not know anyone as creative and intelligent as you are, and I just want to say thanks for being awesome.

[flyingpuppy]

If you can do this with a jigsaw blade, I can barely imagine what you could do with a laser cuter. You deserve to win big!

[HicksCustomFurniture]

The amount of patience this must of demanded is insane! Well done sir, you've made something beautiful here!

[Daneel]

Wow, I had no sense of the scale of this until I saw you holding it in your hands, I'm very impressed to say the least.

[pfred2]

Is this your first wooden clock or have you made any before? It came out so good it looks like you've had some practice to me.

[mrdoug]

This is my third, that you could actually call a clock,and it needs a lot of improvement. The previous two, I built before hurricane katrina, were grand father clocks that were wieght driven, one still exist, the other was destroyed in that storm. There was several attemts 5 or 6 I think that were never more than collections of gears shaped like something in a dr suess book. It took me probley 20 years to understand about these things, as apposed to just following the instructions from a set of plans, I guess I have had some practice, hopefully one day it will make some sort of perfect. hey thanks for the comment

[dewanna]

This is one of my favorite pieces on here so I voted for you. Hope you will share your other great works :)

[dewanna]

What am awesome job Mrdoug! You have a rare gift my friend :)

[warehouse32]

This looks awesome! I've always wanted to try my hand at a wooden gear clock. Where on emachineshop.com can i get the gear drawings?

[mrdoug]

The first thing you do when you get to their site is download their free cad program, the button will be in upper right hand corner, once you get that and your on the screen where you can draw a machanical drawing in the top left corner is a button that says file click it, a new box will show up, it says new, scoot on to it and another box pops up, gear will be one of the choices , they also have a little video showing how to use their drawing programs, a little tip changing the diametrical pitch , changes the size of the gear, and two gears that mesh must have the same dp. thanks for the comment

[warehouse32]

Perfect thanks!

[sleeping]

Just, great work. I would have ruined an entire tree trying to make one gear.

[beatmakers]

woa this is crazy cool!!

[mrdoug]

thank you

[rimar2000]

WOW, you have done en awesome work.

[mrdoug]

Thank you, eventually I hope to bring this thing to a point that its a playable banjo, while still existing as a working clock, Ive already started making the missing tuner for it,thanks again for the comment

[pudtiny]

Exceptional work

[mrdoug]

Ive never had someone decribe something that Ive done as exceptional thank you for that.