Today I made the hands. I drafted them with DeltaCad, pasted the printout onto steel and sawed them out, as usual. The material is .025" steel shim stock -- handy stuff. I have an old French clock on the premises, and the hands on that clock are that same thickness. These hands are rather delicate, and I can't imagine how I would have been able to make them turn out so well, using another method.

I drilled the center holes and sawed the inner, diamond portion of the hands prior to sawing out the entire hand. I also did some file work on the inner diamonds at this time. It's easier to do these things when the hands are still part of the mother stock and can be better gripped.

The hands were polished and blued. First they were cleaned with clock cleaning solution, rinsed, dried and rinsed again in alcohol, which was also blotted off.

A heat gun is not hot enough for this job, and it requires assistance. I layed the hands on a shard of asbestos shingle, which I first preheated with a large propane torch. Then I used the heat gun, with occasional flicks of heat from a mini butane torch on reluctant sections of the hands. This requires some practice to turn out well.

The hour hand is left with just a central hole, drilled to press-fit on the hour pipe against a shoulder made earlier for this purpose. If the hour hand had been a bit loose on the hour pipe, I would have cut a fine slit in the ring part of the hand so that it could be compressed slightly to increase the grab. I've used this method in prior clocks and it works well.

I make a collet for the minute hand. It has to take more torque than the hour hand when the hands are turned, and so a thicker collet is required. This is a simple brass collet with a shoulder on it. The hand fits up to the shoulder, and is riveted on the collet with slight hammer tapes. Then I broach the center hole until it fits snugly with a friction fit on the pipe on the cannon pinion. No other means of fastening the hand on the cannon pinion pipe is used -- this also has proven satisfactory in past clocks.

I also made a base for the clock from cherry. I didn't take pictures or make notes, since it is a simple woodworking job, and this is not a wood site. Bases can be bought from those who supply domes.

The clock is nearly done. It's quite pretty and is also beautifully quiet -- makes about the same amount of noise as a French slate. This is because of the low power and the close fit of the pallets.

Todays links:

Hand blanks.
Hands.
Minute hand collet.
Clock, view 1.
Clock, view 2.
Clock, view 3.
Clock, view 4.