Corners are punched with good results

 I was working from home today so once 5:00 hit, I went outside to see what I could get done and I'm happy I did.  Today I worked on punching the holes on the top of the posts.  These are the mortises for the frame construction.

This photo shows before I started with the holes marked out.  Notice that the area marked is smaller than what the hole will actually be.  This is just to help me start the punch.  Since the punch has a bit of a taper, it opens up the hole some.  After that, the I use a drift to open the hole further to its final size.

I was really happy with the results.  When I actually stack the posts, the holes line up perfectly.  I know that my first attempt at the clock was not this close to matching.  Part of the reason I decided to start from scratch was so I could go back and correct some of my previous faulty work.  I know nothing is perfect but since this is a mechanical contraption, I need to be as close as possible.

This photo shows the result of today's work.  It took about 90 minutes to mark and punch all 4 holes.  I will do a bit of cleanup with a file but nothing major.  Also, the lengths (at the top) are not perfectly matched.  That is because there will be some cutting work up there before I am done.

Some progress

No pictures today but I did work on the corners for just a bit.  The bottom holes are all punched out.  I will try to get to the top holes some time this week.  So, getting things going again.  Hopefully I can keep it going.

Back to work...

Wow...  It really has been 4 months since I've updated this.  With my mother's passing, things were disrupted and it took me longer than I expected to get back into the mood to do hobby stuff.

Anyone, today I actually worked on the clock.  When I last did work, I was working on the corner posts.  I had messed up on one of the pieces and had to remake it.  So today in addition to other work on the forge, I got to work on the clock for a bit.  I finished up some filing and straightening on the piece and it is caught up now with the other three pieces.

I am going to set a goal for myself that tomorrow I at the very least should get all of the holes punched on the posts.  If I can do that, I will feel like I've made real progress.

Here is a picture of the 4 pieces.  The one of the left is the one I worked on today.  Notice a bit of surface rust on the pieces.  It is there to remind me that I've been away too long.