How I build a Ship's Wheel Clock on my Lathe

[lovemachine]

Earlier this year, I made a thread showing off a ship's wheel clock that I had made on my wood lathe. Here is a picture of it hanging up in my house:

I have been trying to sell some of my projects to help finance our adoption process. So last month, I had a booth at my town's first ever farmer's market. I had this clock on display. A gentleman had requested that I make him one.

I thought I would do something different, and I will update this thread with pictures of the process.

This Ship's Wheel clock will be made of cherry and walnut. And will be around 14.25" in diameter.

I was lucky enough to find a large board of cherry. It's 1" thick, and just over 14.5" wide. I bought enough to make 2 ship's wheel clocks.

I took it to my parents hous, since I don't have my own table saw, and I cut the board up.

The glue up:

One of the hardest challenges of wood turning is trying to find a way to hold your work on the lathe. I made a waste block, and will be using 2-sided tape to hold this piece.

The corners will hit the bed of the lathe, so I will have to cut them off.

Much better.

The tape will hold up fine, but I'll make sure the tail stock center will be pressed up tight against the work.

And when turning, you always want the tool rest as close as possible to the work, but make sure it won't hit:

I have the outer ring shaped the way I want it:

Now I have the ring sanded and finished. It's time to drill 6 holes into it. I have to make sure the holes are as accurate as possible, with the right spacing all the way around. I will be using the OneWay Drill Wizard, as well as the indexing on my lathe.

I have all 6 holes drilled, as perfect as I can get them.

This is where I am at now. I will update this thread as I go. Next step will be to carefully part off the outer ring, and work on the center piece. After that, I will have to carefully chuck up on the outer ring again, to finish off the inside diameter.

Stay tuned!

 

[littletommy]

I'd guess that big square block was pretty scary until you got it closer to round. Do you use a higher or lower speed on the lathe with something that size?

Disclaimer: I'm sorta familiar with turning cylindrical shapes, but those larger, more square shaped pieces always had me wondering.

 

[lovemachine]

I'd guess that big square block was pretty scary until you got it closer to round. Do you use a higher or lower speed on the lathe with something that size?

Disclaimer: I'm sorta familiar with turning cylindrical shapes, but those larger, more square shaped pieces always had me wondering.

Good question. I had the rpm's about 350 to start with. Any faster than that, and the lathe was vibrating badly.

When roughing anything, you always want to start off slow. I'll gradually speed things up once the wood starts getting smaller and more round.

 

[drillsgt]

Great work, thanks for sharing.

 

[lovemachine]

Here is what I was able to do tonight:

I shaped the outer ring a bit more, and was able to part it off.

 

[GunSlinger]

Tagging for updates. Neat work LM!

 

[Bluejeeper]

It's off to a great start! Thanks for bringing us along for the build

 

[lovemachine]

Worked a little bit today. I didn't have a large enough forstner bit, so I had to hollow the hole out with my tool.

After sanding and finishing, I drilled the holes with my drill wizard.

I didn't like the way the back end of the center piece looked, so I turned it around and finished it with my bowl chuck jaws.

Using my bowl chuck jaws, I chucked up on the large ring once again, to finish off the inner diameter. You have to be careful, because it could easily fly out of the jaws. That would be a butt clincher.

Next step will be spindle turning.

 

[chezuki]

I had to hollow the hole out with my tool.

Giggity.

 

[Leadeye]

Nice work, always impressive to see what talented folks can do with a block of wood.

 

[bigretic]

damn you! now I want to get my lathe back. hope my buddy still has it in his basement...

 

[lovemachine]

Giggity.

Lol

 

[lovemachine]

So I have been working on the spindle pieces. They will be made out of walnut.

I tried keeping the shape pretty basic, otherwise it will be near impossible fitting the parts together. And even with a basic design like these, it's VERY difficult duplicating the pieces. Especially when you're doing everything by hand.

Next step will be the handles.

 

[lovemachine]

Just finished up the handles.

Before:

After:

Tonight, will be the start of the glue up.

 

[lovemachine]

Here it is after the glue up.

All finished. I hung it on the wall to take better pictures.

I will be delivering the clock to its new owner this week.

Thanks for following along

 

[Bennettjh]

Excellent work as always!

 

[hoosierdoc]

how long do you think that took you to complete with all the steps? That looks very cool.

 

[lovemachine]

how long do you think that took you to complete with all the steps? That looks very cool.

After the first glue up, I let it sit for a couple days to let the glue cure. So including that time, and only working on the clock a couple hours each night, I'd say it took about 2 weeks.

I don't think I could get it done in one weekend, even if I worked on it nonstop. There's a lot of work involved, and duplicating items on the wood lathe is rather tricky.

Honestly, I don't keep track of the time involved. It's still a hobby for me. And I hate to get to the point where it's anything more than that.

 

[Tactically Fat]

You need a duplicator.

Lathe Duplicator - Rockler Woodworking Tools

 

[lovemachine]

You need a duplicator.

Lathe Duplicator - Rockler Woodworking Tools

Nah. If I did this for a living, then that would be great to have for production work. Since this is just a hobby, it would take away the fun and skill you develop.
Besides, I doubt that once I get my baby, I'll be doing this as much anyway...