Clock Project - Final Update

I can understand why many find the finishing process so tedious. If you don't have a dedicated finishing area that is separate from your work area, you can't really do anything else unless you have a super-duper dust collection system. Even then, I think you may have problems with dust. It really feels like so much shop time going to waste.

I've enjoyed the finishing process on this project as I was really able to watch the purpleheart come to life and the clock face's mysterious chatoyancy blogged about previously.

Yesterday afternoon, I looked over all of the various parts for the clock and judged them in no further need of finishing. 4 days with a couple of coats of wiping varnish per day. 2 sides in the morning, flip in the late afternoon and do the other 2 sides. Smooth out the dust nibs. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I had to scuff the tenons on the slats as some wiping varnish did get onto some of them, and then I began a dry assembly. Well, I didn't think I sanded too much, but a number of my tenons had a loose fit! Sigh.

Titebond is not a gap filling adhesive, so that would really not be an acceptable adhesive considering the situation. Epoxy to the rescue! One dose with some high density filler did the trick. I clamped it up and for giggles, I attached the clock mechanism and pendulum to ensure that it swung freely.

Despite all of my careful measurements, I didn't account for the knob at the bottom of the pendulum. Argh! I watched helplessly as it bounced of each of the slats. So I sat on my greenbin/shop stool to think this one through.

A little bend to the pendulum arm solved the problem and in short order, it was swinging freely.

This morning, I unclamped everything and applied the roman numerals and the hands. The only things left to do is get some very small screws to fasten the mechanism to the  back of the face and attach the hanging hardware. Here's the finished product.

I've briefly considered keeping it for myself (briefly heh) but I think my will cousin like it.

Rambling Quickie #4 - Eureka!

Archimedes made the phrase Eureka famous by solving a problem posed by his king and in a flash of inspiration while drawing a bath ran naked through the streets shouting "Eureka! Eureka!" which in Latin means 'I have found it!'. Or so the story has been famously told anyway.

In my previous blog entry, I made reference to how the lighting was causing the clock face to darken on one side or the other as I moved the lighting around.

Well, later that night, I realized, that it wasn't the position of my 500W halogen construction lamp, but rather the perspective of the viewer (i.e. me) or the camera.

My first thought was 'That's interesting. Prior to finishing, there were no hints that this was going to happen. My next thought was, 'Okay, how did this happen?'

It took me a while to realize this, but here's the mental picture I came up with or my Eureka! moment. The grain is not running parallel to the length of the board. Instead, it runs at an angle similar to this sketchup drawing here.

After resawing, the board would look like this:

While the grain appears vertical, it's actually running in 2 different directions on my book matched clock face. Then as wiping varnish is soaked up by what was a VERY thirsty board and cured with multiple coats being applied, I hypothesize that the light is being captured only to be reflected back out at certain angles. Sort of like how a cut gem stone acts. I'd heard of chatoyancy before, but I never experienced seeing it until now.

My final thought was 'How cool is that?"

Most discoveries start out with someone saying "Hmm, that's interesting". I know that I won't profit greatly from announcing this discovery, but I've seen precious few articles about chatoyancy in wood. Maybe it will help someone after all.

I have some more of that spalted maple from the same tree. I just have to figure out something really cool to make with it.

Clock Project Update - Hurry Up and Wait

1990, I joined the army. During basic training, our day would start with a morning run. The first day, it was 5 km. On getting back to the barracks the PT Instructor would bawl "Okay (derogatory expletive)! You have until o-eight-hundred. How you use that time is up to you, but I suggest you throw some grub down that gaping maw of yours and have a shower. We need you smelling nice for the colonel!" in a voice that could be heard clear across the parade square with a marching band present.

We'd stumble back into barracks in a sweaty gasping mess to get showered while he sauntered off who knows where without so much as a stain in his armpit and as fresh as a daisy. I don't think he even had any sweat glands.

After breakfast, we'd all be formed up ready to march (probably double-time) to our first class. Of course, nobody wanted to be accused of being late, so we were formed up by 7:55. 8:15 would roll around before we were collected like an article in the lost and found.

Real life is full of hurry up and waits. If you got laid off from work, you need to submit your proof of employment as soon as possible to the Employment Insurance office. Then you had to automatically wait 2 weeks before they would even look at your paperwork. Don't try to submit it close to the end of the 2 week waiting period because the period begins from the time you submit. Not the time that you lost your job!

I'm digressing though. Even before I get to my update. Over the past couple of days, I've been applying finish to 7 of the slats. The 3 shortest slats had already been finished and glued into the mounting frame for the clock face. Finish had already been applied to the frame as well.

I have been lucky however, I've been able to sneak out at lunch and before work to check on progress, sand down dust nibs and apply additional coats. I'm up to 4 on the sides of the slats and will be starting the front/backs of the slats tonight.

There was a bonus however, the clock face has 6 coats of wiping poly applied to the front as of yesterday. So last night I glued up the face to the mounting frame after making sure no finish made it onto the gluing surfaces.

After drilling the hole for the clock shaft, lined up the frame and marked out the location that it would meet the back of the face. Removing the hardware, I proceeded to glue and clamp up the face assembly. You can almost make out that there's something being held by the mess of clamps in this picture.

This morning I took off the clamps and was mighty happy with the results! I won't be applying as many coats of finish to the back of the clock as it won't be seen once hung up.

Notice how in one pic, the right side looks dark and in the next the left side looks dark? It's a book matched panel, and I'm still trying to get my lighting figured out. I was using a 500W halogen contractors lamp to light the work, but couldn't get the angle quite right to show that the piece does actually look uniform. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on project lighting for photography, please let me know through a comment, email or twitter me.

I'm itching to get back into the shop and continue making progress as I see the end of this project in sight, but I will cool my heals and maybe go for a walk with my family and tomorrow I can continue to 'hurry up and wait'.

Rambling Quickie #3 - Managing Time

Time is a cruel task master. While most things happens in its own time, I remember reading that man has this obsessive need to compartmentalize it into many segments. Milena, centuries, decades, years, months, days, etc. It's been 3 hours since I had dinner. 16 days to the 5th year anniversary of meeting my wife. A sidereal day is 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.09054 seconds long. My cousin is getting married in 1 month and 3 days.

A month! Where does the time go? Too bad in our obsession to compartmentalize time, we can't actually put it into a compartment to save it for a rainy day (to quote a cliche).

Having a baby girl arrive in your world will make time seemingly move faster. There's more to do and less time to do it in. Between work, spring cleaning, night time meals and actually trying to spend some quality time with family, it doesn't leave a lot of shop time available. Not that I'm complaining. I'm very happy to have my daughter added into my life.

So, I need to start making more progress on the clock project that I've been working on as a wedding gift. While time is marching onwards, I can still finish it without compromising on the quality.

Today, I managed to get into the shop after getting home from church. That is, after an unanticipated nap and a check on how the grass seed is fairing in the spot that used to be covered by part of an old deck that was ripped out last year. My wife and daughter were out for the afternoon to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario with her sister and mother (hence the ability for the unanticipated nap).

This project is actually progressing nicely. I sanded all of the slats to 180 grit and did a dry fit of all the parts. The lower 3 slats were too long and had to be cut shorter and the tenons cut on one end again. Better too long than too short I say! With those 3 parts re sanded, I can begin applying the wiping varnish tomorrow. There was just too much dust in the air today.

So I laid out the parts and begin the hurry up and wait game tomorrow. Dust settled? Apply a coat, wait 1 day, apply a coat and wait a day. Yes, wiping varnish dries quicker, but I have this thing called a job during the week. If I can sneak out at lunch time, great. Or maybe before work in the morning if I'm not needed by my daughter.

In the meantime, I'll learn patience. At least until they invent the box that I can store time in.