This is my Starter clock design that can be built by a first-timer who is keen to try something different. The clock comes with an E-Book that describes how to build this simple clock and how you can design and build your own clock having gained a little experience building this one. After several years designing wooden clocks there has always been a tendency to create more complicated designs that are more of a challenge both to me and to other clock builders so this design goes back to basics with a design that can be built with the minimum amount of equipment. All the parts can be made by hand, no need for expensive equipment like a lathe or a milling machine. If you take this route it will be hard and careful work, but it can be done, my first clocks were built this way. However, if you have a CNC Router or a 3D printing machine this makes your life a lot easier as these machines will take out all the hard work and give you more precision. You will not need a Lathe, which has been a requirement in many of my previous designs, just the normal workshop tools. The clock itself has a simple gear train and a Graham Escapement with adjustable Pallets along with a Seconds Pendulum. For winding the clock a pull cord is used to lift the weight back up using a gravity ratchet system.
The E-Book that accompanies this clock is in PDF format will guide you through the build of this clock and also provide details of how you can design your own clock.
The bulk of the E-Book concentrates on looking at the details of how a clock works, its different components and details on how to design them, the gear train is looked at in more detail so that you can understand how gears are used to accommodate the requirements of different Escapement and Pendulum types.
The book can be viewed in Acrobat or Foxit with the viewing mode set to ‘Page Level’ or ‘Fit Page’ then step your way through the bock using the Arrow keys.
DXF files, the IGS and STP files that can be used with your CNC machine and the E-Book can be downloaded here for $32. You also get the unrestricted version of the PDF files that can be printed at full size and finally the STL files if you need them for 3D printing.
Drawings for this clock in PDF format can be downloaded here. These free files are low resolution and not to scale and only a sample of the full set that comes in the paid for version. Clicking to the left here will download the PDF file directly to your browser, may take a few moments so please be patient.
A sample from the E-Book, the actual E-Book contains 90 pages of text and illustrations giving insight to the design and prototyping a new wooden clock as well as instructions for making the included clock.
A sample from the DXF file – the file is purposely low resolution, with no vector data. The actual files purchased above are included on one large sheet so that they may be directly loaded into your CAM program.
To print only a single item of the drawing to scale using Adobe Acrobat Reader, do the following:
Go to Edit, then click on Take a snapshot, move the cursor to the top left of the item you want to print and hold down the left mouse button whilst you drag a box around the item. The inside of the box turns blue and you can now go to File and then click on Print. This brings up the print dialogue, make sure Selected graphic is selected and that the Page scaling is set to None and the click on OK. As long as your printer is connected you will have printed the item at size. Do this for each item you want to cut out.