525 internal cuts then the good stuff starts

[Walney Col]

I've almost finished cutting out all the parts for what I'm calling "an Admiral's Clock", which in addition to a normal clock will also feature a storm glass in the right hand tower, a galileo thermometer in the left, a moon phase clock (bottom left) and a tide clock (bottom right). I also have 2 brass bells and a compass if I can cram em in.
Here's a mock-up of what it should look like when it's done.

It's a 3 tier clock cut from a pattern from scrollsaw.com (http://www.scrollsaw.com/products/bell- ... aw-pattern) but with all the cheesy cherubs and so on replaced by a world atlas clock face and a seafaring panorama. The general idea being that on retirement an old sea dog might find it an amusing reminder of a life wll lived.

There were 525 internal cuts (there would have been more if I'd wanted to stare at a shed load of cherubs till I die :twisted: ) and it's used almost all of a half sheet (4ft x 4ft) of 6mm marine ply and a half sheet of 3.4mm. The plan is to have it descretely lit from within the structure by surface mount LEDs but I want them on a dimmer which I haven't fingured out yet without running it of an external 12v source (rather than internal batteries) which I'm reluctant to do.

Any last minute ideas or suggestions gratefully received.

Col.

 

[bodgerbaz]

Astonishing piece of work and 10/10 for having the patience to have a go and continue to the end. Well done. It would be great to see some shots of it when its lit.

Barry

 

[Stanleymonkey]

Outstanding.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Not to my taste, but hell I envy your patience. Brilliant!

 

[Walney Col]

It's not really to my taste either Phil but I wanted a long project rather than something quick and easy and worst case scenario at least it has a picture of a ship on it. ;-)

Col.

 

[donwatson]

It looks a really great project. Best of luck.

 

[Walney Col]

Assembling this thing is going to take a lot longer than I expected.
The bottom box now has the moon phase and tide clock mechanisms trial fit in the locations dictated by the image I've had printed to go behind them, and I've also made a couple of rather nifty pedastals to hold the thermometer and storm class on the next floor up:-

The middle box has it's windows attached and the normal clock trial fit. It's also been treat on the sides and back (only) with linseed oil which has changed the colour of the wood beyond all recognitions. I'm not entirely sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing yet but we're committed to linseed oil now so onwards and upwards as the saying goes:-

I do rather like the look of the oil on the main belfry though:-

Some really spiffing little rubber band clamps arrived in the post this morning (ten for £10 from http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291680851232? ... EBIDX%3AIT ) and I lost no time in putting them to good use and found them idea for glueing the somewhat delicate parts of the spires together:-

I'm getting to the point now where all the individual parts are cut and I can see how they fit together and start thinking about how to route the wires for the LEDs. Basically they're going to hid behind the facia boards one of which the wife is holding in place here:-

I still have loads more decorative pieces of fretwork to oil but delegation being one of the finer points of good management I've managed to persuade the missus that she'd really enjoy it so that's good! :-

More later as and when it progresses.

Col.

 

[Claymore]

Brilliant Colin and glad to see you have got her indoors grafting for ya! its going to be stunning when it completed

Cheers
Brian

 

[Aggrajag]

I wouldn't have the patience to count the cuts never mind do them!

 

[Walney Col]

I wouldn't have the patience to count the cuts never mind do them!

As I drilled the holes the wife counted them and wrote the totals on each piece. All I did was 57+95+28+etc... on the calculator. ;-)

Col.

 

[timbo614]

The plan is to have it descretely lit from within the structure by surface mount LEDs but I want them on a dimmer which I haven't fingured out yet without running it of an external 12v source (rather than internal batteries) which I'm reluctant to do.

Have you bought a 12v strip of LEDs? or individual ones? The 12v strips are usually very bright when run from 12v. You may find you get a more suitable brightness just by running them from 6v - 4 x AA batteries. As you probably know brigtness can be controlled by putting a rotary variable resistor in the circuit with a suitable length shaft and a knob. The first thing to decide really is how many LEDs you want to use. Battery life resistor values & ratings etc follows from there.

Timbo.

 

[Walney Col]

Hi Timbo.

I've been into rc plans ets for several years and have various types of LEDs to go at but the ready made surface mount strings used in the "under the arches" thread were new to me so I got 5m of them and will bodge the voltage and current to suit however many I need. I'm thinking upward of 20 lights in total, mostly hidded dehine the facia panels or even inside the clock boxes just showing little glimmers here and there through all the windows etc.

Col.

 

[Walney Col]

A bit more progress:-

Col.

 

[Walney Col]

The finished admiral's clock...

Col.

 

[Aggrajag]

Wow, just Wow.

 

[Claymore]

WOW! blimey Colin that looks superb! are you keeping it or is it a pressie for someone? wouldn't fancy having to dust it lol
Lovely work and glad you back with us on here, what's next?

Cheers
Brian

 

[Walney Col]

Hi Brian.

Neither me or the wife are "into" that sort of decoration but I picked that clock specifically because it would keep me occupied for a while... the original intention being that I was going to donate it to the seamen's mission (http://www.missiontoseafarers.org/) for them to display on their premices or raffle off and use the proceeds however they choose.

Meanwhile.... with every piece the wife gave the linseed oil treatment to the more she fell in love with it to the point where when it was finally finished she moaned so much that in order to keep her on side I had to donate it to her instead. I suppose I ought to say though that adding all the historical sailing parephenalia and lacking the many (to me, nausiating) fretwork cherubs that were on the original plans I like it nearly as much as the wife does, and dusting not being "my department" I was happy to score a few brownie points by letting her think she'd talked me into keeping it.

Next up is a marble machine as a pressie for the eldest grandson but I'm not altogether sure how much fretwork there'll be on it.

Col.

 

[AES]

Not my style either, but I can certainly appreciate the work and skill that's gone into it. Purely as a matter of interest, any idea on how many hours the cutting took, and the separate oiling by your good lady?

AES

 

[Walney Col]

I'm not a fast sawyer by any means but at a guess I'd say the cutting took me about 8 hours over several sessions, hand sanding maybe another 4 hours, and the oiling mere minutes for each piece followed by 48 hours drying time. What took the majority of the time was fitting all the parts together. The pattern I used had an error in the roof angle (which I had to devise a workaround for) and as a rule no more than 4 parts could be glued up at any one time so that part seemed to take forever.

Col.

 

[AES]

OK, thanks. Lovely piece of craftsmanship.

AES