Modern Wooden Clock

Hi all, while I was thinking about a possible next project that is "publishable".

I came across the Clock Speed challenge and thought "that's It!".
I would like to show you how I came up with the design, did the drawings and then brought it on the wall:-)

You need the wood you like to use, in my case it is Beech that I inherited from my grandpa.

Keep in mind that beech likes to warp all the time, but in this case it should not be an issue

You need:

• 80cm x 8cm x 2,5cm Beech for the crossbar
• 20cm x 8cm x 1,5cm Beech for the Rest
• Mirror Tape (Double sided tape,Amazon)
• Clockwork (Amazon)
• 4pcs 1 x 15mm screws
• 2pcs 15mm x 15mm x 1mm aluminum or Some spare metal
• 2pcs Felt glider
• Linseed Oil

Tools:

• CNC Router
  • 1/8" Up/Downcut double flute
  • 1mm Upcut single flute
• Metal Saw
• Screwdriver
• Sanding Paper
• Cardboard
• Time ;-)

First I had to think about the design.
I wanted to have a big clock with a kind of modern/minimalistic design.
In our living room, we have a mix of modern and timeless elements that I wanted to keep up with.
At the end I decided to ask my wife, and she chose the mixed one.
Feel free to explore my other Design attempts:-)

Next, the design has to become "digital".
In my case I did the whole drawing in Inkscape since it's open source and, more important, I know how to do it there:-)
I have chosen cambria bolt as Font for the numbers and went with 4cm of max letter heigth.
Also I used the function to move the letters so that the "sechs" and "zwölf" came out as a single piece later.
Next I had to draw the pocket for the clockwork, which was 56mm x 56mm and also the hole for the 8mm shaft.

After I finished my drawings, I went ahead with my CAM software and did the toolpaths.

Keep in mind to set the correct depth values and don't forget to clear the corners of the pocket!

I set the depths of the "numbers" in the crossbar to 2mm.

The Pocket for the clockwork was 20mm

The other toolpaths have to go all the way through the material.

At first we have to cut the crossboard to the needed length.
I chose a length of 79cm which fits perfectly for me.
For design purposes I wanted to get a 1/3 to 2/3 separation, so I had to watch out for branch holes where the clockwork / numbers would be later.

I then used 80 grid Sanding paper to get a first rough finish. That was necesarry for me to chose the side that looks best.

With that beeing done, I could start milling.

I started with the crossboard and milled the Pocket for the mechanic clockwork.
Please keep in Mind to mill the pocket into the back of the board!
I first marked the center of the board with about 1/3 of the overall length (79cm / 3=26,33cm) from the left.
That was my "Zero" for the Pocket.
I then milled a Pocket with 56x56mm and a depth of 23mm and drilled a hole of 8mm diameter in the middle.

The pocket came out quite nice, but I did a quick Sanding paper finish to clean out everything.

Now it was time to mill the numbers to the crossboard.

To be honest, that process was pretty straightforward to me and I just had to measure the points where I had to set my CNC Zero, and press "play".

Afterwards I used 200 grid Sanding paper to remove the excess chips.

Then I used linseed oil to give it a great finish and layed all the parts together and...

Unfortunately not.
During all that straightforward process I stopped thinking and mixed all up.
I milled the "three" to the left and the "nine" to the right. Just think about that. It was roughly 12 am and the whole work was for nothing :-D
I stopped doing anything, sat on the couch and drank a shot to calm down...

The next day, I repeated the whole process again with another piece of Beech and everything worked fine.

Next it's time to mill the other parts.
To get a bit of a three dimensional look, I used 15mm Beech for the other parts.
The "zwölf" and "sechs" are 15 mm thick and the cuboids are milled 90 degrees turned so that I did not have to mill the material thinner.

Due to the fact that my 1/8" Up/Downcut was pretty sharp the parts came out great and I could go ahead with finishing the parts.

After all Parts were milled, I used 120 grid Sanding paper to sand down some milling marks.
To finish all before coating, I used 220 grid.
Keep in Mind to go with the direction of the fibers to avoid Sanding marks.

After that, I used Linseed Oil to get a nice finish that matches the other Beech furniture we have.

I was very happy about the grain that came out pretty cool.

To hang the crossboard I drilled two 10mm holes in the back of the board, 2cm from the top and 4cm from the sides. These holes are around 10mm deep.

Then I took two leftover pieces of aluminum and drilled two 3mm holes in them to screw them to the crossboard to cover the before drilled holes. It is important that the bottom of the aluminum is exactly 2cm from the top!
That is needed to block the Nail or screw head when the board is mounted on the wall.
Also I glued two pieces of felt to the bottom of the board so that it is perfectly aligned on the wall.

To glue the other parts to the wall, I User mirror tape or double sided tape. Mirror Tape is actually the same but it is made out of thin foam that glues perfectly to walls.

Just cut smaller pieces of the tape, glue them on the back of the parts and you are done!

Now you can insert the clockwork, it is kind of easy to install, just unscrew the handles, put the clockwork into the crossboard and put the handles back on.

First I hung the crossboard with two nails to the wall.
After that, I made a template out of Cardboard to glue the "zwölf", "sechs" and the cuboids correctly in place.

The dimensions of the clock directly refers to the length of the hour and minute hands.

In my case the length between the middle of the clock and the middle of the "words" is 20cm. That means the "20cm" is the length that we need to use regarding the template dimensions. Also we know that every hour is 30 degrees away from each other, so that leaves us with an easy example, why maths may be important in the future:-)

First I drew a quarter circle with 20cm radius on a piece of paper and began to calculate the length between the bottom line and the circles outline to get the 30 and 60 degree points.

Length "2,4,8,10 or 30 degrees":

sin(30) = x/20cm => x = sin(30) * 20cm => x = 10cm

Length "1,5,7,11 or 60 degrees":

sin(60) = x/20 => x = sin(60) * 20cm => x = 17,3cm

So I marked the points where the outline of the circle and those distances met.

Also I drew a line in 4cm distance to the bottom of the page. That line is needed to allign my template, since we have to substract half of the crossboards thickness (8cm / 2 = 4cm).

I then cut out the cardboard template where I marked the necessary spots before. It is also important to cut out a 2cm by 4cm part in the upper left corner so that the template can be used to allign the "twelve" and "six".

After that I used the template to glue the parts on the wall.

It is important that the template is held correctly in the clocks middle to ensure correct alignment.

Be carefull at that step to avoid missalignments that would interfere in the view!

Just set the time, get on the couch and enjoy:-)

Have a great time and thanks for reading my instructable! :-)