Feastwood Clockworks and Mechanisms

Thank you to all that visited my booth at this year’s GEARS show; the interest shown in clocks and clock making was great to see, especially the kids watching the Congreve clock.

Wooden Geared Clocks Skeleton Clocks Orreries Construction Books Magazines Links

Wooden Geared Clocks

For those interested in wooden geared clocks: the clock I displayed at GEARS was a Marc Tolvar design. Marc’s wooden geared clocks are available at http://www.wooden-clockworks.com/

If you like fanciful clock designs, kinetic sculpture, and orreries (clock work that shows the motion of the moon and planets), check out Clayton Boyer’s clocks at www.lisaboyer.com. Clayton sells plans for most of the clocks you can see on his site, and like Marc Tolvar’s clocks, only require a scroll saw, drill, and simple hand tools to build. I really like Clayton’s clocks; I have the plans for several of his clocks, and plan to start on his Nautilus clock soon.

While these clocks look complex and a bit daunting as construction projects, don’t doubt your ability to build them. I built the MLT5 shown here:

with essentially no woodworking experience, and no scroll saw experience at all. Cutting out the parts takes time and some patience, but I found this to be a very fun project, and I look forward to building my next wooden clock. Some tips:

· A good scroll saw will cost you $150 or more; make sure it is variable speed, the throat is at least 16 inches, and that it is not light and flimsy. While you will want to clamp it down to your work bench, it should still be solidly constructed so that it’s sufficiently rigid.

· You will need to experiment with tensioning the saw blade; it needs to be firmly tensioned rather than flexible. Experimenting with some scrap wood and different tension settings will be prove valuable.

· Also experiment with cutting curves and tight angles. With practice you will find that you can cut very tight curves, and essentially cut interior right angles when needed. An easy way to make sharp interior corners is to drill a hole at the corner slightly larger than the width of your saw blade.

After a couple hours of practice, go ahead and start on your clock. One nice thing about wood is that it’s a pretty forgiving material, often being easily repairable using glue; and if you ruin a piece, you have only lost time rather than money (except for some of the rare, exotic woods.)

Baltic birch is recommended for the gears of a wooden clock. This is because as a plywood, it is resistant to shearing in all directions. The forces on a clock tooth, when parallel to the grain of solid wood, can cause a gear tooth to break off. Baltic birch plywood is available from Rockler and other lumber supply and wood working outlets.

Skeleton Clocks

These are my favorite kind of clock. I enjoy seeing the mechanism of a clock, and as a clock builder, I appreciate not having to build elaborate wooden cases for the clocks I build. These are two examples of skeleton clocks I have built; both designs are by John Wilding (see Construction Books for information on books by John Wilding):

The image on the left is of a traditional English eight day clock, striking once on the hour. The two images on the right are of the Congreve rolling ball clock, with additional moon work of my own design (this clock is a work in progress; note the absence of dials and hands).

Skeleton clocks were originally in vogue in the mid-19^th century; by the early 20^th century, few were being made. The majority of clock construction books are for skeleton clocks, since this style is popular with clock builders, and does not require both metal machining and woodworking skills in order to build the entire clock yourself. Of course, you are free to buy as many pre-made parts as you wish; dials, hands, and bells for example, are readily available (see Links). For some clocks, even the plates (frames) and gears are available.

A couple of good books on skeleton clocks, both having many photos and descriptions, are “Skeleton Clocks” by F. B. Royer-Collard, and “Skeleton Clocks – Britain 1800-1914” by Derek Roberts. The latter is available at Derek Roberts Antiques. This same site also has the book “Continental and American Skeleton Clocks.” I don’t know of a source for new editions of the F. B. Royer-Collard book , but G.K. Hadfield may have it; try also Shenton Books, Jeffrey Formby Antiques, or Antoine Simonin.

Construction and Repair Books

Books I have for sale, all by John Wilding:

Title	Condition	Price
The Construction of a Weight Driven Brass Alarm Clock	Sold
How to Make a Simple 16th Century Style Clock	Very good	$40
How to Make a Simple Battery Driven Electric Clock	Very good	$40
Machining & Constructing a "Castle" Clock	Fair (2" tear in dust jacket)	$40
How to Make an English Regulator Clock	Very good	$40
How to Make Galileo's Escapement	Very good	$35
How to Make a Replica of an 18th Century 30 Hour Weight Driven Alarm Clock	Good	$40
Hints and Tips for Clockmakers and Repairers vol. 2	Very good	$35
Hints and Tips for Clockmakers and Repairers vol. 1	Very good	$35
How to Repair Antique Clocks vol. 1	Good	$35
How to Repair Antique Clocks vol. 2	Fair (small tears in dust jacket)	$30
How to Repair Antique Clocks vol. 2	Good	$35
How to Repair Antique Clocks vol. 4	Good	$35

All of the books are complete and in good shape; they are all used books, but you generally have to look closely at those I describe as 'Very good' in order to tell they are not new. 'Good' usually means some slight scuffing or wrinkles. Contact me at fcm@teleport.com for info on how to purchase.

Other sources for construction books:

Rite Time Publishing has been the standard source for new editions of John Wilding’s books; right now you cannot order from their web site, but they will send you a catalog: www.ritetimepublishing.com.

Ian T. Cobb in the UK also has Wilding’s books (and others), but you will need to pay more in shipping if you are in the USA.

Guy Lautard also has books and plans for several clocks.

More content coming soon!!!

Email: fcm@teleport.com