Small steps...

So, let's get this rolling.  I want to get started and a little step will get it going.  The first bit of work will be redoing the corner posts.  Tomorrow I will appraise what metal stock I have.  I may have what I need but I'm not sure if its clean enough (not too badly pitted with rust).  I want to get started this weekend even if it is only a few hours of work.

During 1996 and 1997 I worked in London.  My office was in the heart of the city and I used that to my advantage.  Just a few blocks from the office was the British Museum.  I found myself often visiting the museum over lunch time.  As any who has visited the museum can tell you, it is massive with many areas to explore.  I was drawn time and time again to the section of the museum with clocks.  In particular, I found myself repeatedly visiting the same clock.

A video of the Cassiobury Park Clock:



At some point on one of these visits, I decided that I wanted to make that clock.  I was naive.  I thought it would be relatively easy to pick up the skills and thought at most it would be a 2 years project.  When I returned to the states, I had very little in the way of shop tools or experience.  I decided the best thing to do was to make a mock up of the clock in wood.  This was always intended as a working model to get me to the point of being able to make the clock using traditional techniques.  The photo below was my second version of the clock.

So starting in about 2002, I finally decided to try and make the clock for real.  I started getting everything around to make the clock the proper way.  I started to teach myself how to blacksmith.  In 2008, I had gotten to this point...




To be honest, I am rather proud of this.  Quite a bit of time and effort went into this.  Things were moving along great.  Then, the worst enemy of a project like this hit.  Its called "Real Life".  I started a new job which no longer allowed me to work from home which in turn cut into my blacksmith time.  One thing led to another and here I am 5 years later with no significant progress.

I won't spend time making excuses or whatever but I want to get back to this project.  I don't know if it will be this weekend or a few months from now but I don't think I will be happy in my later years if I have not finished this challenge.  So, here are a few of the things I am going to do to finish the project.

1. Start fresh.  I am going to start from the very beginning and rebuild the frame.  I am doing this for a few reasons.  The biggest reason is that honestly, I don't feel a connection with the work I've done over 5 years ago now.  I would prefer to give myself a fresh start.
   
   This also allows me to correct a few minor issues with the frame.  Nothing significant but I would like to do it over.
   
   Finally, I would like the new frame just to get my blacksmith skills back up to snuff.
2. Time Commitment.  I tried doing this before but I really didn't stick to it.  What I mean by this is committing to doing a certain amount of work each week regardless of how minor.  If I am not in the mood to work on the clock itself then I make tools that I will need for the project.
3. Patience.  This killed the project as much as getting the job.  When I finally got to the point of making gears, I started rushing which means I started making mistakes and spending massive amounts of time on parts that were throw away.

Anyway, its time to get back to this.  This Albatross has gotten a little too comfortable and I need to get it off by neck.

For archival purposes, my original effort was documented at bomlin.xanga.com

Shutting this down

It is at this point in the blog that i switched from using Xanga to using Blogger.  Any posts prior to this were from the original Xanga blog.  I've imported them here to have the record both for the reader and myself.