I made a Magica Clock. It is a wooden geared clock with all the wooden parts were made on my OF JM X50. Lots of toolpath work and tool database polishing on this project. Most of the parts were cut with a 1/16" down cut endmill.
Looks really good. Keep at it!
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Nicely done! I’m currently working on my sixth clock, but the first one built with an OF. Exponentially better than my old machine! I was cutting gears yesterday when the power went off mid-cut. I re-booted, re-homed, re-zeroed, and restarted the cut. Power failed again! Repeated the whole process, filled the other half of my swear jar. Using the same stock for all three attempts, and the gears came out great!
I’ve had good luck cutting my plywood gears with a straight bit, mostly 1/8 and 1/4. I’ve found it doesn’t splinter or lift the top of the plywood as much as the others.
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Mike,
What clock are you building at the moment?
Ref. bits, the Magica project requires a 2mm bit for many of the cuts due to the radii of the gears, etc. Since I do not own a 2mm bit, I used 1/16" Amana down cut spirals for those that required this small diameter. I also used a 1/8" compression bit from Cadence Manufacturing (Jenny). It works well in plywood.
I too am very impressed with the accuracy and repeatability of the OF machine.
I’m working on one of Clayton Boyer’s “Marble Strike” clocks:
The clockwork is assembled and ticking away on the shop wall while I work on the strike mechanism. I was astounded by how quickly it went together using VCarve and my OF Machinist. I was concerned about the size of the frame, but using the VCarve tile feature, no sweat. I’ll post pix of the clock when it’s done, but in the meantime, here’s the pendulum bob, my first 3-D project:
About 3.5 hours carve time.
I’m working towards an attempt at Clayton’s Medieval Astrological Calendar Clock. Clayton says you have to be either foolhardy or insane to try. I may be overly qualified for the job.
Very nice to see a fellow clockster on the site. I hope there are more lurking about.
Mike
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Thanks Mike, the bob is awesome.
I have already purchased Clayton’s plans for No. 6 and hope to move forward on to it sometime soon. Before that I intend to make another Magica or two while all is fresh in my mind. As always, you learn some tricks with the first build. Beyond all that I am thinking about a build from brass and that is why I spent the extra money on the German made spindle setup I have. It has far better low speed capability than most. Brass likes slow!
Do keep us posted on your build. I look forward to seeing more.
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I didn’t need to see this post while my shop is on hiatus. So geeking out on the clock projects!
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No 6 is a great design, very straightforward. Clayton sells plans for a “long case” for the No.6 making it a grandfather-type. I just have room in the house for one of those, so it’s between that and his HO design. I’ve also designed a takeofff on Ben Franklin’s three wheel clock. So many clocks, so little time.
Join us, Dan, Don’t be afraid!
BWA ha ha!
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Are there any suggestions to the type of plywood to be used for making clock gears?
Jim,
If available, Baltic Birch since it has no voids and is dimensional. Unfortunately it is in short supply. My local wood supplier is trying to stock some alternatives.
amazing work. I’ve watched your youtube video and it’s prompted me to purchase the plans for the magica as well. The zentira was appealing too, but the 24hr run time was a little underwhelming.
Could you provide a link for the solenoid, you used?
What material did you utilize, specifically what thickness?
Could this be scaled to say, a 24" face, w/ appropriately sized gears?
Thanks!
I bought the specified Quartex movement on ebay for the donor. Here is a link. Quartex Pendulum Quartz Clock Movement ONLY Short Shaft Dials up to 3/8" SPADE | eBay
The disassembly of the movement to extract the coil and circuit board is one of the more tedious tasks of building this clock. The plans are very good but beware of breaking the hair sized wires to and from the coil to the circuit board since they are extremely fragile. I ruined the first attempt. Good thing I had bought two! I put some scotch tape strips on the second attempt to help support them and that was the magic.
I used 1/4" and 1/2" Baltic birch as called for in the plans. As you likely know, Baltic birch is in short supply and you may wish to look for alternatives. Obviously the key attribute is no voids in the plywood and that it is dimensional (same thickness). In today’s supply of BB no two sheets are the same thickness.
Ref. scaling, it is all about gear ratios and spacing of said gears and parts. You might want to build one and familiarize yourself with the design, plans and DXF file and then ponder that question. Alternatively, send the gent you bought the plans from an email and ask for his opinion. He is very responsive.
Scaling up would be more time consuming than I would want to tackle. Here is a photo of some of the parts that you need to CNC for this clock and until I built this one, it would have been very hard for me to work though a process of scale up, etc. I have also attached a photo of the completed clock which allows you see a bit more detail.
Good luck on building your Magica!
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I appreciate the info. I will do just that.
I did some searching and understanding of the gear ratio vs. pendulum frequency. It seems that increasing the scale is very doable, with the same ratios, but the pendulum must stay constant. It may look odd if the gears totally tower over the pendulum and the base. And even then, correct timing, is still a constant chase.
I think your suggestion is spot on, and aligned with my thinking - build to the specs, understand, and then manipulate if I have gained enough from the first project. I may opt to build 2 (or spare parts) on the first go.
Thanks again, I’ll send some updates!
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