critique please.

[Keith Barrett]

Clock face made with woodturner pro software plan (laminated with maple, walnut and purpleheart). Frame made with segmented rings of maple and walnut, then turned. Thoughts?

 

[Bill Boehme]

Very creative and good work. The segmenting work could stand some improvement. I see a noticeable gap in the maple. Gaps in light wood always show up more prominently than in darker wood. I see a smaller gap in the walnut. There is a lot of complex intricate details in the purpleheart with the 12 maple hour markers. The problem is that the maple points do not match each other very well and is quite noticeable. This is something that is very difficult to do perfectly so do not feel bad about it. Just recognize that perfection requires a great deal of experience and precise cutting. I could not do as well as you have done.

 

[Keith Barrett]

Thanks. Thats pretty much what I saw, but everybody who sees it raves about it. Im my own worst critic, and I needed an objective confirmation of what I was seeing. The maple gap wasnt visible until after turning, so obviously the joint wasnt as flat as it should have been/thought it was. As for the lamination...well thats just hard. Not a bad first try for something like this, but thats what it is.

 

[hockenbery]

It is an incredibly complicated design. I would encourage you to pursue and perfect it.

One comment is a clock face generally has some way to recognize 12.
Think about a way to show 12, 9, 6 & 3 as different from 1,2, 4,5,78,10,& 11
And maybe a way of showing 12 as unique from 9,6,3. Although straight up on a vertical can be 12.

You are aware of the unmatched joints.
The more pie slices the bigger the a small error becomes.
Any error in the thickness of the the strips, accuracy of glue up and angles cut are multiplied by 48.

you can test your angle of cuts on accurately machined scrap wood. Once your test setup fits together perfectly, cut your good pieces.

Maybe work some designs with fewer cuts to build your joinery skills.
I would like to see some future work!

 

[Rob Wallace]

Frame ring alignment...

Keith:

I agree with what the others have already commented on; I have only limited experience doing segmenting (....and really respect those that have mastered this skill!) and don't do it often enough to give useful advice on technique/methods for those small intricate features.. I'm not sure I'd have the motivation to undertake such a complex design, so I'll only comment on visual-impact.

One thing that jumps out at me is the alignment of the 'frame' rings in maple and walnut being "off" a bit. The alignment of the radial joints between them should either be coincident, or fully staggered. Also, what is really apparent is that the outside points of the maple 'number markers' are not either: 1. centered on each of the maple frame segments, or 2. aligned with the maple frame segment radial joints - the number points seem to be off only a few degrees from the maple frame radial joints - this mis-alignment is really visually striking, catches my eye quickly, and is something relating to glue-up and positioning of the rings; it is not directly related to cutting/fitting of the segments, per se. This might be easily controlled by careful positioning when the rings are getting stacked, glued, and clamped, and not allowing the rings to 'drift' when setting them up (...don't ask me how I know that this happens! Glue is slippery!). I now use at least 3 to 5 precise alignment index pencil lines around the piece across every ring contact face to be sure radial joints are in good alignment. This has worked well in the very few segmented pieces I've done, but was a real problem in the first couple of pieces I did when I didn't pay attention to this.

If you intend to do Version 2.0 of this project, I would also love to see that iteration and hear what you have learned in the second cycle of cutting and gluing this attractive form!

Rob

 

[Keith Barrett]

One thing to note...the clock face is a 3rd generation laminate cut into the pie slices for the disk. Ideally, they should be identical (so differentiating 3, 6, 9, & 12 would be problematic unless it was done with stain or something along those lines). As it was, with an untold number of cuts made, my total error was about 1/2 a blade width. That small error caused all the assymetry you see. I will need a LOT of practice to reach the level of precision I'll need next time. The frame gaps I think I can prevent with an edge sander or similar to flatten the end grain joints of the ring segments.

 

[Keith Barrett]

I had also noted the mis-alignment of the maple and walnut rings. Next time will be fully staggered. the clock is actually free floating in the frame...so the hour points coinciding with the maple jointshave already been corrected...I just didnt notice it before i took the picture. I must say, this has been VERY helpful hearing everyone's input.

 

[john lucas]

Keith good job. 3rd generation work is really rough. requires extreme accuracy at every step of the way. I've done a few and had the same problems. I needed a better way to align the blade before I made the cuts. You are right in that there isn't any way I know of to mark off the 3,6, 9, and 12 other than maybe drill and insert a plug of some color. You could do this in the 3rd generation part of possible put the plugs in the maple. They would have to align perfectly with the 3rd generation points though so be careful.
I would stagger the joints on the maple and walnut so you have solid wood over each joint. This helps strengthen the glue joints because you'll have long grain to long grain joints protecting the weaker end grain to end grain miter joints.