Since I retired nearly five years ago and started doing wood working projects I have been thinking of making a clock. Partly because I think clocks are cool and partly because one of my ancestors was a clock maker. Stephen Hasham ( 1764 - 1861) of Charlestown, NH is my 2nd great-grandfather and he was also a prolific clock maker, he made the movements and the cases. He made church clocks, and clocks for houses, several of his clocks are still in Charlestown, NH and I’ve been there to visit them. My work can’t hold a candle to his, but I am inspired by him and his exceptional craftsmanship.
When I started this project I was thinking about the style that I wanted to do and I was drawn to something that was Art Deco inspired, not a replica but influenced by strong geometric designs. I came up with an initial design and planned to make the case of the clock’s decoration using marquetry so I upgraded my band saw to one that could resaw hardwood stock so I could make the 1/8” stock for the marquetry. I also got a scroll saw so that I could cut out the decoration and the inserts in different woods.
This is the initial design:
The main body color was going to be Curly maple with the darker wood being Sapele and Wenge. The face would be 1/8” aluminum with the dial engraved and faux-engine-turned.
I cut all of the marquetry stock and transferred the design using carbon paper to the front blank and used the scroll saw to cut out the pattern and the matching infill sections.
It was about this point that I started having reservations about this design. It just wasn’t reading the way I wanted, the light wood and thin design elements weren’t doing it for me. I went forward on this front piece through gluing up the marquetry, sanding it and trying a couple of finishes that should have enhanced the curly maple figure. I learned a lot about process, order of operations, and those finishes but I didn’t like the result. I also realized that the scale of the clock was not right either so I scrapped that design and came up with a new version.
Here’s the new version:
I went with a bolder simpler geometric pattern ( click on the images above to expand). The dominant color is the dark Sapele with Curly Maple as the contrast. I also added a dark ring around the clock face made from wenge and instead of trying to inset the face into the marquetry I decided to apply it on top of it. The good thing about this design was that I was able to cut all the veneers on the band saw with a lot of precision and control which made the joints clean and consistent.
I rebuilt the case with new proportions and the new veneers leaving the sides oversize until I had applied the marquetry and then I cut them to size and mitered them.
The top of the clock is cut from a glue up of two pieces of 3/4” Sapele which I cut to a 1/4” overhang of the case body and then I did a double bevel of the top at 22 degrees and 45 degrees. The plinth is made from 3/4” Sapele and has a 45 degree bevel on the top. I also shaped the bottom of the top and the top of the bottom to have a 1/4” rabbet sized so that the resulting rectangle would fit inside the box. This worked to help keep the box square and to allow me to fix the top and the bottom to the body of case.
I had to do two scary operations next. First, I had to use a 4” hole saw to cut out the front of the case to accommodate the clock mechanism. I didn’t want this clock to have a battery powered quartz movement, I wanted a wind up mechanical movement. I got a German made one from a web site called Clockworks. It mounts inside the case behind the face on adjustable brackets that are screwed to the case.
This brings me to the second scary operation which was to cut out a door on the back of the case. I needed the door to be big enough so that I could install the clock mechanism after the case was glued up. I hid the entry hole for the scroll saw blade behind one of the hinges. I used the scroll saw to very carefully and slowly cut out the door.
Fortunately both operations came out great and the hole saw didn’t just tear the marquetry off the plywood backing…
I also realized that mechanical clocks like to be level and there was a good chance that the wooden base would change shape or the place that I was going to display the clock would be out of level. While I was looking around for tiny adjustable feet ( I didn’t find any ) I found these semi-spherical feet for handbags made from brass. The screws had a 3/8” flat head. I realized that if I glued these screws into the bottom of the case I could partially screw the feet on to get about 1/4” of adjustment in each corner. This worked out great using some CA glue to fix the screws into 1/16” recesses cut with a Forstner bit.
To make the face of the clock I bought an .SVG file on Etsy of an “Art Deco” clock face that I liked. I deleted a couple of elements from it and sized it for the 6” diameter dial that I wanted and printed it full size. I used carbon paper to transfer the design to the aluminum. I used my dremel tool with a small ball nose bit to engrave all of the numbers and markings into the aluminum. I did some sanding to remove burrs and then I painted all the engraved areas with black acrylic paint. I then sanded the face up to 7000 grit and polished it with a polishing wheel on the drill press and some polishing rouge. I then sprayed it with clear acrylic applying a couple of coats. I ended up improvising the design in the center because my attempt at doing a faux-engine-turning decoration wasn’t satisfactory. I like the hand made nature of the dial, it certainly reflects my current skill level.
Finally I glued up the case using many many clamps. I then did some touch up sanding and then I applied two coats ( over two days ) of General Finishes Hard Wax Oil.
Once the finish was done I roughed up the back of the clock face and used CA glue to attach it to the clock case. After that was solid I installed the clock mechanism into the clock.
I then had to spend a little time getting the chiming to be correct relative to where the hands are but it is working great now keeping good time.
I’m very very happy with the final result.
