Sanding wheels on the clock

I continue my last post. Too tired last night to finish it. You will recall that I have to sand the wheels. So there are points where the linisher fails. I decided to make special blades for my Dremel jigsaw. It is an actual Dremel, by the way, and no knockoff; I bought it at the thrift store for $10. The problem with this jigsaw is that it uses pinned blades -- blades that have a cross-pin drilled through them. It will not accept ordinary scrollsaw blades. So we must overcome this. I cut a broken bandsaw blade into suitably sized pieces, and "blued" the ends. That is I stuck them into a propane torch flame until they turned blue. This softens them up so you can drill them.













Once you have drilled them you can silver-solder a pin into them. The pin was supplied by a cut-up safety pin. More than one use for a safety pin. Above we have the Dremel jigsaw. To the right, a proto-blade (ex-bandsaw). To the proto-blade I glued pieces of a cut-up nail file or emery board, sold at very cheap prices anywhere. (Used to buff your fingernails.) So I have a reciprocating sander. I can use this to sand the wheels. Furthermore the blade is at right angles to the wheel, at left. This lashup works like a charm. A little slow, but much better than too agressive. I ground the teeth off the bandsaw piece; I am trying to sand, not to saw. 

I also put a wooden table on top of the Dremel's steel table. This cuts down the noise and vibration by a whole lot. Today I got two wheels and two pinions sanded. This is clockspeak. The wheels are the big gears. The pinions are the little gears. A clock (except for the escape mechanism) is nothing more than a gearbox. Geared way up, too. That is why it has such different "gear" sizes.

Eventually the emery board gets all choked up with sawdust. You can rescue it with "sculpy," a modeling clay sold at craft supply stores. It removes sawdust. very well. But sooner or later I will have to cut out another emery board and glue it in.  Small price to pay. I am glad I built the linisher; it will be useful later. But my $10 Dremel is doing the job just fine right now.

And thanks to Carlo Croce,  q.g., Italian clockmaker extraordinary, for his suggestions on how to modify a Dremel jigsaw. Carlo has a web site well worth visting if you are interested in mechanical clocks. He even has an English version. Stubborn that I am,  I read it in Italian. Errm. What does comunque mean? Consult your handy online Italian-English dictionary. There is also a Forum; you may get to it via Carlo's website. But you have to interpret Italian. I love Italian. Such a lovely language. I wish I was better at it but I'm glad I can at least read it.

Wooden Clock

The problem with making a wooden clock is the number of things that you have to make to get from part A to part B. So I now have cut all my wheels out on the bandsaw. Now I have to sand these things down to the lines. For this I built the linisher, Topsy by name. Topsy is almost there. What we have to do is find some hose clamps to tie her down.

I had no hose clamps so I used duct tape (the all-purpose Alaska Solution to all machanical problems) to hold the electric drill down and thus allow me to sand the wheels. And pinions. The pinions, being small gears, are a lot harder to sand than the big wheels.

In the pic above, I am sanding the winding ratchet gear. This is a gizmo that allows you to wind up your clock. The linisher worked to spec for this gear. But now we have to do the pinions. They are very small gears that mesh with larger gears. Alas, the linisher does not do them very well. One reason is that the belt flexes. So I need yet another sander.Or YAS if you want an acronym.

So I thought (based on an isnpirational YouTube video) that maybe I could use my $10 Dremel jigsaw. I have some boards made for buffing your fingernails. Useful little files, in fact. If I could adapt them to the Dremel jigsaw I might have something.

But the Dremel sander uses blades held in by pins. "Piolini " if you prefer Italian. So my idea was this. Put some pins into a piece of cut-off broken bansdsaw blade. Glue to this piece some cut-up nail-buffing files, sold at any store for peanuts. Would this work? Real problem is putting the pins in. Which brings up the problem of making holes for the pins to go through.  Also brings up the problem of what shall we use for pins?

The answer turns out to be quite simple. (a) use safety pins for pin material. (b) silver-solder these pins to the piece of broken bandsaw blade.  Drilling the bandsaw blades to accept the pins takes some doing. These are very, very small holes. Less than one millimeter. That is as small as I can drill without extreme measures. But first we must blue the bandsaw blade ends. You will not get a hole through a regular bandsaw blade without bluing it. This means softening it in a flame until it turns blue color. So when you have done all this here is the soldering jig:

Here we have a completed blade, left. The embryo blade is to the right. Note the modeling clay, AKA "Sculpy". Its purpose is to hold the pin still while you solder it. It is very difficult to ensure that the pins are at right angles to the blade. With the Sculpy you can make the pins plumb to the blade.

So we have made a blade of sorts. Now we have to glue abrasive to it, abrasive meaning nail files, so stay tuned for our next episode.

The linisher project

We now have cut out all the wheels for the clock. But now we have to sand them. For this, Mr. John Wilding MBE, FBHI, recommends that I use a sanding belt on my bandsaw. Well, his had one. My chances of finding such a belt for my bandsaw are somewhere between zero and nil. So I have decided to build a linisher myself. This is a narrow belt sander, usually upright. Very useful for many purposes, including knife-grinding. This is a Topsy project. She just growed, as they say.

I started out by gluing up plywood and making two wheels, thinking I would use a screw-and slot adjustment of the tension. I did not think of bearings. I turned up the shafts on the Taig. Put them into holes in the wood. Used a cut-down belt sander belt for the linisher belt. This arrangement did not work. Too much friction. So Topsy began her growth. I soon found I had to add a third wheel for tensioning. And I had to add a rubber band for (insufficient) tension. Furthermore the belt would slip; so I added a rubber tire on the rightmost wheel above. Cut it from a old bicycle inner tube.

I also had to make proper bearings. The thing now runs on brass bearings, bronze would be better but this is unobtainium in Alaska. Had to make the bearings, too. Then I had to remake the stand (a piece of 2x4above ) because it was too narrow and pinched things. So we got to v0.1.

Although held together by clamps this is a much better proposition. I of course have got to replace the clamps! And I have to make a table for it. And... it keeps growing.

However, the trial run worked.

The contraption is being driven by the ubiquitous battery drill. It spins. Topsy, as I call her as of now, is getting there.

But today our fabled snow splitter collapsed. Flimsy nails mostly. So today was spent on salvage. And shoveling snow. Live and learn.

Next the table, and a way of holding motive power in place. She grows.

Wooden clock: crossing out. wheels

I am getting used to clockspeak. Gears are wheels. Almost. Big gears are wheels. Little gears are pinions. Axles are arbors. Sometimes arbours, depending on the brand of English you speak. Bearings are pivots. What horrifies me is that I have learned both the Italian and German equivalents to these terms. And so we come to crossing out. For a clock to work, we have to have minimum mass on all the wheels. This makes it easier for the weight, or spring depending on your clock, to drive the stupid thing! So it is a time-hallowed practice, dating from the 16th century at least, to remove as much material as feasible from the wheels. In fact we make spoked wheels. To do this we cannot use a bandsaw. The blade of a bandsaw is continuous and we cannot stick it inside the wheels without breaking it. So I used my faithful jigsaw. I got this contraption at a thrift store for $10. A best buy to be sure.

What you do is drill four holes inside the area to be crossed out. Then you unship the jigsaw blade. You then insert the blade through the hole you have drilled. You then hook up the blade again. This is not as easy as all that. You cannot see what you are doing and must sort of guess where the blade goes. But it is doable. Then you ever so carefully saw out the wheel. You could do this with a fretsaw. But it is an awful lot of work by hand. Above, a wheel all crossed out. Approximately. It still needs to be sanded down to the line. Another wheel on the saw. the escape wheel to be specific. I now have all the wheels crossed out.

The whole thing about sanding down the various wheels and pinions is problematic. John Wilding found a linishing belt for his bandsaw. Good luck with that. Never even heard of one till I read the book. No such nimal at Home Depot (or Lowe's, pr even AHI). So I am now in improvise mode. I am making a linisher. This is a low-profile belt sander. Stay tuned.

Clocking with plywood

Long ago now, while I was in Juneau, I bought a book by John Wilding, FBHI entitled The Construction of a Wooden Clock. You may google on it. It seems like an auspicious project for the new year. I really want to make a clock; I had the book. It seemed like a nice way to break into the business. It came with full-size templates for absolutely everything. You can, in fact, make the thing out of plywood. You do not even need power tools. You can cut everything out with a coping saw, even. But, after some experience, I would not advise it. There is awful lot of cutting to do, and for once power tools are indicated. Either a bandsaw or a scroll saw or even both,  and even then it is a bit of a via crucis.

So here goes. There are many useful videos on YouTube that will amplify my directions. Look under "wooden clock". The general order of work is this: first, you make copies of the plans that came with the book. Absolutely necessary. If you make a mistake you have not only ruined your piece, you cannot get back to it. Lots of places these days will make copies for you, even in Alaska.

So far I am following Mr Wilding's directions to the letter. He has made more clocks, as we used to say in the Air Force, than I have passed telephone poles. So you find a suitable sheet of plywood. Here I am limited to what I can find at Home Depot/Lowes. We will see how it works out. Then you glue the templates on to the plywood with contact spray. Then you cut the stuff out on the bandsaw. I have no scroll saw.

I began with the plates. These are the frame of the clock. Above, fresh off the bandsaw. This is the front plate. The back plate is identical, but has no holes cut in it. The purpose of the holes is to display the works. The clock would work just as well without them. But if you're building a clock, might as well watch all the gears go round. So we cut the holes in the front plate.

I  used a circle cuttter on the drill press and it was awful. We will either figure out how to fix it or re-make the front plate. Next we smooth
 things with our faithful Dremel.

 Now we have something resembling a front plate. Do the same thing for the back plate. Now we have the pillars to make. This is lathe work. I used dowels and the Taig lathe.
 
This is relatively simple work. The key points are that the plates have a separation of 135mm and that must be exact. Second, the ends of the pillars must fit through a half-inch (say 12mm) hole in the plates. I decorated the pillars a bit by turning a groove in them. I may get around to making them fancy later.

Next part, and by far the hardest, is to cut the gears. Now clockmakers call these things "wheels" and not gears. So let us use clockspeak. We cut these wheels out on the bandsaw.

This is mind-bending work. It is very finicky. If you did not know what a bandsaw can do, by the end of this clock you will be a bandsaw expert. Mr Wilding gives you very clear instructions on how to do it. Also see numerous YouTube videos. At the end of the day, we have a pile of wheels.

As you can see, I have a lot of wheels done and two to go. The hard part is the teeth, of course. One slip and you have lost the wheel. Or the pinion as the case may be. A "pinion" is a small-radius gear, and that is clockspeak too.

So at this point I have all done but two wheels. Then I have to "cross out" the main wheels. That is clockspeak again, meaning I have to saw out all but the spokes of the wheels. Then I have to sand them. And there is much more, but it will have to wait.

However I am quite pleased with progress so far. I find this bandsaw business quite tedious. But it works. Stay, as they say in the TV biz, tuned.

A Knife for John

So we continue to catch up with our Christmas projects, which can now be revealed. I made a knife for John. It is a big step. I am going from hacksaw blades (or even a cut-up circualr saw blade) to an old file as raw material. As I found out, there are some bumps in the road, although the principles are exactly the same.

 I started out with a worn-out file. It was annealed overnight in the woodstove. In retrospect it was not enough! But OK, live and learn. I have, since I did this, gotten a book as a Christmas present. It is a book entitled Hardening, Tempering and Heat Tratment by one Tubal Cain, a pen name for the late T.D. Walshaw. You can google on it faster than than I can type in a long ISBN. Priceless. Anyway, I started with this semi-annealed file.

I then ground down the blade to what I thought was a nice shape. I also gave the thing a few touches with a file. This is a full-tang knife. So to handle it I will have to drill holes in the tang to accept the handle. The handle is a more or less straightforward piece of woodworking. I happen to have a few priceless pieces of applewood. I turned them inside out, pith outward, because it looks much prettier.

Now we have to attach the handle to the blade. For this kind of thing we want rivets. I happen to have a bunch of brass rods which are intended for welding (actually brazing) . But I use them for rivets. You cut them a bit longer than they need to be, say 1mm longer, and then whale the daylights out of them with a hammer. They will spread out and hold your handle firmly. Needless to say you have drilled matching holes in tang and handle. These brass rods may reappear again in another role. Stay tuned.

The rest of the knife is the business of honing.  I've been before there on this blog! Try the "sharpening" label. And we must, of course, apply linseed oil to the handle.

Main lesson learned from this project. As if I didn't know it theoretically. The bigger the mass the more heat it needs to work it.  Tempering this thing was a bear. From the book I cited above, I now see what I should have done. However, ignorance is bliss. I got away with it, and it is a very nice knife indeed.

A Christmas Carol, I mean Ulu.

Now all may be revealed. Christmas is over. I have to catch up on my Christmas projects. The first one to appear will be KZ's Ulu. Now an Ulu is a Northern Native knife. I am appalled that I can't give you a label, but I have posted on it before. I now have an "ulu" label. I make my ulus out of old circular saw blades. I will have to repeat some pictures of the manufacturing process. I take an old circular saw blade and cut it into fourths, first removing the teeth. For this I use a circular saw with an abrasive cutoff blade. I cut the saw into quarters, much like a pie.




Now we have to grind the edge on the thing. For this, I use my wet grinder and my homemade ulu-grinding jig.

The jig allows me to rotate the proto-ulu pie slice. If you did not do that, you would simply grind a flat ulu. Not at all what you want. So grind and rotate. Use the angulometer to get the bevel angle, in my case 25 degrees.


Next problem is heat-treating. Circular saw blades are built to take abuse, since that is the fate of a mass-produced saw blade. But as a result they are almost impossible to sharpen. Not what we want. We want to put a real edge on these things. So what we want to do is soften it up a bit. My usual procedure is a propane torch. But an ulu is much too large for this treatment. So I used the kitchen stove instead. A lot more BTU than a propane torch.

Here, I hold the edge of the ulu in the convenient circular shape of the stove burner. Aluminum foil helps keep the heat away from the body of the ulu. I want it to blue, but not to anneal. Tougher that way, you see. I want to temper the edge to "straw" as the books put it. Straw indeed. Looks golden yellow to me. When it gets to the desired color, you quench it in a butter tub full of water. The ulu is still held in its grinding jig. This makeshift arrangement actually worked. I got a tempered edge and a blue body.


Next step is to put on a handle.

In KZ's case, there is a totem pole handle carved from an oddly-shaped birch sapling. I created her totem pole. This was a straightforward piece of carving;  I enjoyed it as a big change from all this metalworking stuff. Note the edge protector. Very important to have an edge protector.


The last step is honing the thing. I use my Lee Valley diamond hone for this job. It may be tedious but it is necessary. A dull tool is dangerous, period. I was very pleased with the bluing on the upper part of the ulu. Exactly what I wanted.


I made a similiar ulu for Fluffy, but I did a turned handle for it. I turned it on Polecat, my trusty pole (bungee) lathe which I documented before. Fun. Lovely turning, too. I forgot to take a picture. I think making ulus is a great game. Furthermore ulus are useful. I chop almost everything with a ulu except when I emulate Jaques Pepin. Then I use a 30 cm chef's knife. That is a better slicer, but the ulu is a better chopper any day. Those Inuits know what they are doing. In Point Barrow they flense whales with ulus; only much bigger than mine.


By the way, the pattern I use is the so-called "Fish River" pattern. I do it because it is less work than other patterns. If you google on ulus you will find various learned works on ulus. Happy ulu new year!