Ron Walters's clock wheel building experiments

Wood Gear Clock Wheels can be made in a variety of ways, the easiest being from Baltic Birch.

Sometimes the white Baltic Birch with its outside ply grain running in one direction becomes too repetitious and one wishes to change the appearance of the clock. Homemade plywood allows us to use wood of a type and color to match the clock although the grain will still run in one direction. Segmented Wood gets the grain running in a radial direction, which is very attractive. However, it is a matter of the particular pieces and type of wood used and a bit of luck if the segmented wheel will remain true and not split or crack due to weather changes. My Segmented Wood Blanks is one method I have used with good results (thus far).

Simplicity Variant - Homemade Plywood - Introduction

A process for making homemade plywood for gears in wood gear clocks. Also, please view my video on the Portable Planer Thin Stock Adapter as a method of making the plies.

Plywood Clamping Jig - Making Plywood Part 1

A process for making homemade plywood for gears in wood gear clocks. Shows my version of a clamping jig used for the process. Mentioned in Part 3 a method to save time by using Baltic birch as a core for the homemade plywood. Also see; "Comparison Of Completed Clock Wheels Made From Homemade Plywood & Segmented Blanks"



Plywood Clamping Jig - Making Plywood Part 2



Plywood Clamping Jig - Making Plywood Part 3



Segmented Clock Wheel Part 1

How to make a solid wood, segmented blank for a wood gear clock wheel. Also see; "Comparison Of Completed Clock Wheels Made From Homemade Plywood & Segmented Blanks"

Segmented Clock Wheel Part 2



Comparison Of Completed Clock Wheels - Plywood & Segmented Wood

Comparison of clock wheels made for the Simplicity Wood Gear Clock. Wheels for comparison are made of Baltic Birch, Homemade Plywood and Segmented Wood Blanks.



Wood Gear and Clock Wheel Repair - Baltic Birch Plywood

The outside ply of Baltic Birch is fairly brittle and chips easily when cutting the gear and wheel teeth. This is a method to repair those chipped edges on the wood gear and wheel teeth. The result is a mostly clear repair, which looks far superior to the chipped edges on the teeth.



Simplicity Variant - 48 Hour Conversion

A simple conversion to the Simplicity Variant for 48+ Hour Wind. It is much more convenient to only wind it every other day.



Simplicity Variant Running

Shows the Simplicity Variant running on the 48 Hour Wind Conversion with 4 Pounds of weight.



Solaris Clock - Segmented Wood Wheels

An experiment in making very large segmented wood clock wheels for the Solaris Clock

Solaris Clock Wheel Review - 1 Year Later

Looking for warping and cracking over time.



More reader projects on woodgears.ca