Late last year, I decided to take a woodworking class at Palomar. It is something I've always been interested in -- and since I wasn't working, it seemed like a good time to try it out. I signed up for the Fundamentals of Woodworking class. George is also taking the class -- and he (and his workshop) have been a big help with many parts of my project.

This document is serving both as my project summary which will get turned in at the end of the semester -- and my personal web page so that my friends and family can check in on my progress! This means my friends and family may read technical details they could care less about... and my teacher, Russ Filbeck, will find out how many mistakes I had to fix. Oh well... I probably wouldn't have learned nearly as much if I hadn't botched so many operations the first time!

In the beginning woodworking class, everyone builds a clock. The school provides four different clock plans to choose from (or you can provide your own). I chose the Shaker style wall clock shown below. I will make the clock carcass from oak; the back and dial board from sycamore. I really wanted to make the entire clock from sycamore, but at the time I was buying wood all the sycamore looked warped and split and difficult to deal with. Being a rank beginner, I decided I didn't need that added complexity. Maybe my next clock will be just sycamore.

Jan & Feb

The class started in late January. The first few weeks of class included lectures on wood technology, picking lumber, sharpening chisels -- and a safety test on the shop equipment we would be using. Being a complete novice, reading the safety manual was both confusing and terrifying. Who knew there were so many ways to get hurt on so many pieces of equipment that I'd never heard of before! Needless to say, I passed the test and was soon let loose in the shop.

Picking the lumber...
I spent no less than an hour agonizing over lumber. In its raw state, it is difficult to see how it will appear in a finished piece (at least for beginners it's difficult). I finally settled on oak -- it will match most of the other furniture in my house and the oak available had some beautiful grain.

Laying out the clock pieces...
The next step was to chalk out on the raw lumber how I would cut the stock to make my clock. This step was even more agonizing than buying the lumber. I really wanted the finished clock to show off the wood to its best advantage. I finally settled on pieces with nice cathedral points for the sides, bold vertical stripes for the door stiles and bold horizontal stripes for the door rails. The top, bottom and pendulum shelf would have some interesting figure as well. I would later buy sycamore for the back and dial board.

Preparing the lumber...
The next order of business was to surface the lumber and make it square. I used the jointer to create one flat face and one flat edge. I then thickness planed each board to create another flat face and to get the stock to 3/4" thick. Next... the dreaded table saw to square the ends and cut the final edge.

Conquering the table saw...
I literally had nightmares for the week before I had to use the table saw. Of all the equipment in the lab, this seemed the most likely to cause personal injury. I had heard too many horror stories of kickback and injuries, and I really had trouble working up the nerve to use it. Alas, I eventually had no choice, and after much procrastination I got Phil (the worldest greatest Teaching Assistant) to step me through the process. I lived to tell AND managed to cut the pieces of my clock carcass to size.

Documenting the process...
In mid-March, it occurred to me that I should be documenting this process... and so I started taking frequent pictures of my project. So, here's how it went from there...

March 14.

By mid-March, I had completed the following:

• Jointed stock to get one flat face and edge
• Planed stock to desired thickness (well, close... who knew you needed a math degree to read a pair of calipers)
• Squared up stock on the table saw and cut the sides, top and bottom to size.
• Routed the through dados in the sides (where the pendulum shelf will be inserted)

March 21.

Today, I was all fired up to get a LOT done because we were going to have a full working day in the lab. Normally the day is part lecture, part lab, but this week Russ (our teacher) was on a woodworking trip to Japan. What I hadn't realized was that my trusty TA Phil was also gone. We had a substitute teacher -- but alas, I couldn't seem to get any help. This led to a valuable and painful lesson -- just because someone sounds like they know what they're talking about, doesn't mean they do. Almost every time some student in the class (besides George) has tried to "help" me, I have ended up messing up whatever piece I'm working on. Today, I managed to mess up the stop dado in my clock's top. The substitute teacher told me how to repair it, but it put me even further behind schedule.

Today's progress:

• Consumed no less than 6 Diet Cokes and 6 Ibuprofen
• Routed stop dado in top and bottom (still need to complete repair)
• Cut pendulum shelf to length on the table saw and used the band saw to cut out the area for the pendulum to swing. Used the spindle sander to smooth out the cut.
• Learned to sharpen chisels. Learned not to test them for sharpness by running your finger along the edge. Learned where they keep the band-aids.

March 28.

This week was Spring break at school, so we didn't have class. During the week off from school, George and I built a router table and fence for his workshop. Then I began the (numerous) repairs required on my clock.

In the picture below, I have patched the right dado in the clock top (upper piece). When I cut the dado, the stock had not been secured well enough to the table allowing it to wander during the routing operation... resulting in a dado that veered off to the left. I squared the dado out with my chisel, cut a patch and glued it in. Then (using George's new router table) rerouted the dado.

April 4.

I'm getting further and further behind! I spent most of the class sharpening chisels. Geez. Why don't they just come sharp when you buy them???

April 11.

Almost did some woodworking today! I am so far behind in my clock (but it's not a race... at least that's what Russ said at the beginning of the semester... back when I wasn't hopelessly behind!).

Today's progress:

• Dry fit my clock carcass and measured for the door. I can't do the glue up yet because I still need to finish a repair.
• Laid out my clock door pieces... ready to cut now.
• Guess what? Worked some more on those dang chisels.

April 18.

Finally - did some workworking today!

Today's progress:

• Finished jointing the stock to use for my door.
• Used the table saw to cut all my door pieces to size (well, I left them a little oversized... the final cut is made when the door is fit to the carcass).

April 25.

Very little progress in class -- but got a lot done over at George's this week.

This week's progress:

• Finished repairs to my clock. Yay! When I thicknessed the stock that I used for my sides and my pendulum shelf, I had undersized them slightly (not on purpose of course!). This meant I had a sloppy fit into my dados (which I did not undersize). So in order to get a good tight fit, I cut some veneer strips and glued them on in the area that would fit down inside the dados. Then I planed and sanded the strips so that they were flush with the edge.
  
  I also glued some veneer strips onto the pendulum shelf as (alas) it too had been a little undersized and did not fit nicely into the dado.
  
  
  
  
• Glued up on my carcass! Another big YAY! It's actually starting to look like a clock carcass!
  
  I couldn't have done this step without George. Even the simplest glue-up can strike fear in your heart as the glue starts to set and you realize you're still not square! In order not to have too much panic during the glue-up, we decided to do it in two stages. First we glued in the pendulum shelf and just dry fit the top and bottom so that we could square up the carcass. After that was dry, we glued up the top and bottom.
  
  
• Glued up my door, too. Now we're really cooking!
  
  
• Installed the hanger. I made the hanger piece which will allow me to hang the clock on the wall. It is glued in place in the upper part of the back opening. I cut rabbets in it that allow it to slip in flush against the clock carcass, and allows the clock back to fit in flush against it. Alas, no pictures.

May 2.

Got an amazing amount done in class today. I guess it helps to go in with a check list.

This week's progress:

• I resawed some sycamore using the band saw. Resawing involves cutting the stock in half lengthwise. This allows me to bookmatch the two pieces to create an interesting (and somewhat symmetrical) grain pattern for my back and dial board.
• I ran my door through the big drum sander.
  
  
  
  
• I fit 3 sides of my door to the clock carcass. The fourth side (the long side opposite the hinges) is fit after the door is hung on the hinges (in case something shifts!).

It's really starting to look like a clock here. You can see the bookmatched sycamore on the back wall of the clock.

Of course, the back isn't actually attached... and the bookmatch isn't actually glued yet... and the door is hung with masking tape... and I haven't cut the hole for the clock face yet, but other than that, it's starting to look like a clock!

At George's house, I got even more done...

• George and I made a circle jig to make it easier (and foolproof) to cut the circle for my clock dial. I was really concerned about my ability to create a perfect circle with a jigsaw and a sander. Instead, we decided to cut the perfect round opening in a piece of plywood, and then (assuming we ended up with the perfect round opening) use that as a guide for the router bit to cut the circle in my door.
  
  
• I rough cut the circle on my actual door using the jigsaw - being very, very careful to stay away from the line where I had drawn the circle.
  
  
  
• Then I routed out the rest using the jig as a guide. Worked perfectly -- and very low stress. At this point, I did not want to risk having to make another door!
  
  
• Voila!
  
  
  
• I glued up my dial board and back.
  
  
  
• I planed the hinge side of my door a little, as I wasn't quite happy with the fit. Check out that pile of plane shavings!
  
  
  
• I cut hinge gains in my door and installed the hinges. I also cut hinge gains in the carcass, using a backer board so that I didn't break through my carcass wall.
  
  
• Alas, I wasn't quite happy with how the door hung, so I plugged the screw holes for the hinges with toothpicks and decided to try again.
  
  
  
• Yee ha! I've got a door!
  
  

May 9.

Got lots done in class today, too. It's getting close to done.

This week's progress:

• Scraped the glue squeeze out from the back and dial board and ran them through the drum sander to get them to final thickness.
• Ripped the back and dial board to final width using the table saw. Then used the cross-cut sled to cut them to final height. The dial board is a little big, but I will finish it with a hand plane.
• Cut a long 3/4" x 3/4" strip to use for my dial board braces. I'll finish them at George's house.
• Routed the rabbets in the back of the door to make the opening for the glass.
  
  

At George's house, the progress continued:

• Cut my dial board braces to size and used the router to apply a 1/2" roundover to the ends. These don't really need a decorative edge because they are hidden between the dial board and the clock back, but I still thought it would look cool.
  
  
• Planed my door to final size. The hand plane is cool!
• Used the router to apply a 1/8" roundover edge to the outside edges of my door and a 3/8" roundover to the inside edges of the circle and rectangular opening in the door.
  
  
• Drilled keyhole slots in the hanger bracket. They look lopsided in the picture, but they're really not. They are engineered so that the screws that hold the clock will be equi-distant from the sides of the clock once it is in its final resting spot on the wall.
  
  

May 23

A lot got done in the final couple of weeks of class.... the result -- a clock!

Here's what got accomplished in the final weeks...

• Glued the dial board braces in place
• Drilled a hole for the clock movement and test mounted it on the dial board
• Installed the door magnets (I decided to put one at the top and one at the bottom given that the door was so massive. The fact that the door was a little bowed and doesn't quite touch the carcass in the middle had nothing to do with this decision... really!).
• Cut the glass.
• Used George's handy little circle gig to cut a circular retainer to hold the glass in place over the dial area. Also made a rectangular retainer to hold the glass in place in the pendulum area.
• Put it all together to see how it looked. Awesome! I decided that I probably wasn't going to put numbers on the clock face, because I think it's perfect just as it is.
• Removed all hardware so that I could sand and oil finish everything.
• Sanded everything.... over and over and over. Ugh!
• Applied the first coat of oil finish. Woo hoo! The wood looks awesome!
  
  
• That's all I had time to do before the final class on Thursday the 23rd, so I put it all back together and brought it to class. Here's George's and my clock (and yes -- it was 12:30 am on the night before the clocks were due!).
  
  

All done!

Here's the class picture of all the clocks. Pretty cool! Mine is in the back row, just about in the center, and George's is in the front row just below mine. Of course, ours are the two coolest clocks in the class!

Here's a close up of mine at home. After this, I had to take it all apart again and sand in two more coats of oil -- then apply two coats of wax. But - now it is truly done. I just need to figure out where to hang it.