Grandfather clock build

[StanFoster]

I

 

[bugflyer]

I

You?

 

[StanFoster]

Many here probably remember that tornado that destroyed my stairshop in 2004. I saved a premium white oak log and its been sitting in my shop for going on 18 years.

I retired 3 years ago...but still build curved stairways because I love doing so.

A year ago I started making a grandfather clock out of that white oak. I had about 60 hours in it milling out all the white oak myself.

Then a very interesting glass riser stairway for one of the Shark Tank entrepreneurs took all my "time" away from my clock. clock without "time" is not good.

I am not one to have a project just sit...but the stairways were too enjoyable to build. I finally shut the stairbuilding off and resumed "time" on my clock. I obtained a set of very detailed plans from a well known clock maker in Germany. I am buying the best works on the planet and they should hit the east coast via ship any day now.

I have a lot left to do on this clock ...but after milling that curved crown....its all down hill now.

My wife is ecstatic and anxious to hear the three different chimes the 9 brass pipes will be bellowing out of the clock.

 

[kf0ug]

The detail in there is awesome. Going to be a beautiful clock when done. I have absolutely no talent when working with wood (except I can chop it up for the fireplace).

 

[DavePA11]

Stan, Can you share photos of the glass riser stairs you made too? Amazing woodworking for the clock cabinet!

 

[StanFoster]

Dave....Here are some pictures of the glass riser stairway. It is loaded on my trailer waiting to go yo Columbus, Ohio when my client is ready.

This is just a three story straight stairway with 1/2" tempered glass risers. He wanted LED lights...so I have the lights embedded in each tread...glowing softly down through the risers. You can change thr colors from white...green..purple...red...blue...and any color in between.

I dont normally do straight stairways as I have trouble building anything that isnt crooked.

 

[Tyger]

My grandfather said that of those he could hire
Not a servant so faithful he found
For it wasted no time and had but one desire
At the close of each week to be wound
And it kept in its place, not a frown upon its face
And its hands never hung by its side...

PS Evidently the very term "grandfather clock" comes from that song (1876)

 

[DavePA11]

Is that walnut wood? Very nice. I would love to have a job like that. Always liked woodworking…

 

[StanFoster]

Dave..The clock is white oak. The straight stairway is hickory.

 

[StanFoster]

The white oak part is almost done. I am milling a 1/2" white oak panel for the back of the clock. I like the back to be just as nice as the front even though the mice wont tell anyway!

Next I will have to turn 4 corner columns and flute them. They will go on the outer corners of the upper hood case. I have never run a lathe in my life....and I am so anal about doing ALL this clock...I am having a friend bring his lathe to my shop where I will turn them.

 

[bugflyer]

The white oak part is almost done. I am milling a 1/2" white oak panel for the back of the clock. I like the back to be just as nice as the front even though the mice wont tell anyway!

Next I will have to turn 4 corner columns and flute them. They will go on the outer corners of the upper hood case. I have never run a lathe in my life....and I am so anal about doing ALL this clock...I am having a friend bring his lathe to my shop where I will turn them.

I'm surprised you don't have a lathe. Don't you turn some spindles?

smiles,
Charles

 

[DavePA11]

Very nice work! Don't ever let movers get near it!

 

[StanFoster]

Charles.....You simply cant make money making your own balusters. First of all a baluster making machine is 50-80,000......you have to go at it like you are killing snakes to compete with stuff you can just go buy off the shelf. Almost all of my stairs have iron balusters anyway.

 

[StanFoster]

I am fitting the white oak panel into the back of the clock right now.

 

[StanFoster]

This is what my clock will look like when I am done....except white oak look nicer than this red oak.

 

[Resasi]

You Stan are a true master craftsman.

Few and far between.

 

[Martin W.]

.

DarDow101 .... is that artwork ??? .... (I love it) ..... or a "time machine concept" ... built from old computer components ?? .

If it is an actual "Quantum Computer" I am lost ... (I know very little about computers) .... whatever the case I admire your intricate and detailed assembly .... looks like painstaking work.

Stan ... I have no woodworking skills and admire yours ... but lets face it all grandfather clocks look like grandfather clocks in the end .

If you should ever decide to do another I would like to see someone use a 6 ft tall rough-hewn log ... portions of the inside hollowed out to contain and show the precision clockworks ... would be one of a kind .... maybe first cut the tree in two with a thin band-saw blade to do the inside work then glue the two halves back together. The whole world would sit up and take notice.

Thanks guys .

 

[Martin W.]

I'm surprised you don't have a lathe. Don't you turn some spindles?

smiles,
Charles

'

I know a fellow who works all summer as a logger .... whenever he comes across a mis-shape or a burl he sections it off and in the winter puts them on a small hobby-lathe and carves out bowls .... says he sometimes makes more money selling them than he does summer logging.

.

 

[StanFoster]

If you want "rough"...I had a client in IndIanapolis that wanted a spiral stairway made out of the trunk of a tree. I had a dead hickory tree just outside my shop that I made it out of.

The first picture is the rustic spiral. The second picture is my typical spiral stairway.

 

[Tyger]

lets face it all grandfather clocks look like grandfather clocks in the end .

This reminds me of Vance once saying that all gyroplanes fly like gyroplanes...