Clock (2007)
back to portfolio
My first major woodworking project came in the form of a clock I call Inclination II. Based off of Clayton Boyer’s original Inclination, this clock combined the form and function of the base clock with my choice of materials and overall aesthetics. The part of the clock that attracted me to it was the unique weight that rolls down the frame of the clock. This was different than any other clock I had ever seen. This peculiar mechanism and the clock’s lack of a face makes most people not realize that it is a clock until they look closer.
In fact, the mechanism that makes this clock tick is fundamentally very simple. The weight provides energy and the pendulum provides regulation. Everything else is just there to transfer the energy and turn it into a recognizable form. The main wheel train gears down the regular ticking to move the minute hand around the clock once per hour. A secondary train simply divides that movement by 12 to sweep the hour hand. As clock movements have evolved over the years, the majority of the work has been done in a special section of the mechanism that is called the escapement. This crucial part connects the regulator mechanism (pendulum, in this case) to the gear train. In Inclination II, a pallet and arbor type of escapement is used. Mechanical watches use a similar type of mechanism but an advanced version that is more accurate and efficient.
I chose this clock as my first woodworking project because in its basic form, it was already such a fantastic object. This way, I wouldn’t feel as obligated to make the construction more difficult by adding my own artistic elements. Needless to say, I still may have gotten carried away with the “complications.”
Becoming typical of the projects that I find myself doing is a melding of sculptural form with mechanical purpose. This clock fits perfectly in that mold. I took the basic shape and function of Clayton’s clock and added my own stylistic elements. To create the look I was searching for, I used mahogany instead of maple as the base wood and combined that with copper accents. In each of the frame pieces, a copper starburst was inlayed. Each of the protruding axles received custom copper cones and the lead weight used in the original design was replaced with CNC’ed copper billets riding on copper wheels. Offsetting all of the dark colors are curly maple hands that show the time.
Making this clock allowed me to use a variety of tools and techniques that I had never used before. Using a CNC lathe to create the copper weights allowed me to shape them exactly as I desired. A CNC laser cut the gear train to the exact shape and a mill helped produce the winding key. In order to create the copper inlays, I used an Omax waterjet for the positives and a laser cutter to produce router templates. Once the templates were made, a router was used to cut out the negative for the copper to fit into. Even though I try to make use of computer controlled machines when I can, learning the operation of these can be just as challenging as producing some pieces by hand. Making the time investment early on to learn using CAD/CAM tools has already allowed me to make much more complex items that would have been prohibitively difficult to build using less sophisticated machines. It is for this reason that I have never sent out a project to be fabricated. Instead, everything is built by me using the tools that I was fortunate to have available at MIT’s various labs.
Many thanks to Ken stone in guiding me in the art of woodworking.
