Work continues...

  Finished up post #3, started #4.

Steel run!!!

  Well I have to say that actually working on the clock has really increased my blacksmithing energy and interest.  For about 18 months now I have been learning the basics of blacksmithing.  What used to take an hour I can now do in minutes.  A simple tent stake would take 10-12 heatings(number of times put in the fire to reheat) but I can do them in 2 heatings now.  One heating for either end.
  The frame posts are coming to the point that I need to start making the other parts of the frame soon.  To do that, I need to pick up some more metal.  The posts are made from 2 1/2" x 1/2" stock.  I think the crossmembers will be either 1 1/2 x 1/2 or 1 x 1/2.  I am keeping pretty close to some period examples.  Some of the period examples are a much thinner stock but I chose heavier for 2 reasons.  First, I simply like the heavier look better.  Second, I expect to have to transport this clock on several occasions so the heavier stock should make it more durable.
  Unfortunately, I am teaching this week.  I will have to wait to pickup the steel until early next week.

Still continuing...

  I put a few hours in on post #3.  Its almost done with the hot work.  My coal supply is getting very low.  Down to about 30-40 pounds.  My regular supplier is currently out but a local blacksmith said that if worse comes to worse, I could have some of his.  I may be calling him soon.

Work continues...

  Started on post #3.  I was able to get about halfway through before it got too dark.  The more experience I get doing this, the faster it is getting.  I'm including a pic below that shows what the post looks like after cutting the excess material away.  This is from post #2 before the cleanup hammerwork has been done to straighten it back out.



  And now, I had a fan last time I was working, including his pic here...

Thinking can be dangerous...

  Allright, all this work on the clock has gotten me thinking about techniques for different parts of the clock.  One of the most critical areas, for obvious reasons, is the teeth on the gears.  The cutting of these teeth has to be pretty precise.  When I did the wooden clock, I cheated.  I wrote a simple computer program to automatically draw the gear for me.  I would then take that pattern, glue it to the wood and cut out.  I could produce one of the larger gears in an hour or two.

  For this clock, I want to be much more authentic so I'm not going to cheat by using a computer drawn pattern like that.  Much of the layout work will be done using a compass.  My greatest area of concern has been the actual cutting of the teeth.  Because I will be using a hacksaw and files to cut the teeth, I was worried that it would be easy to screw up by cutting at a bad angle or cutting too deep.  Then, I realized a technique on the posts would be perfect here.  I created a template for the posts then I clampled the template and the new post together.  I could then use the hacksaw through the template to get an exact copy on the new post of the cuts.  I can do the same thing for the gears.

  What I realized was that I can create one template that has two gear teeth and the cuts for the opening between the teeth.  Then, for each tooth on the gear, I can clamp the template onto the gear and perform the cuts.  This, in theory, should give me nearly identical teeth around the whole gear.

  The other bad part of thinking?  I realized that for some of the larger gears, I will essentially be cutting about 6-8 feet of 1/2 inch steel using the hacksaw just because of the number of teeth involved.

2 down, 2 to go...

  Well, somewhat.  I removed the excess material from the second post and created the thin post for the finial on the end.  I've decided against doing any more decorative work on any of the posts until most of the hot work is done.  That way, I don't accidentally screw up the decorative work.

  The second post went much quicker and much cleaner.  After I removed the excess material, the cleanup hammer work only took me about 20 minutes.  I think the very first post (which I've since rejected) took me about 2 hours of cleanup work. 

  I'm glad I decided to go ahead and start working on the clock.  Even though I have a lot to learn, I'm one of those types that learns much better if I'm working on a major project instead of a bunch of little ones.  I don't mind having to throw away and retry stuff over and over again.

Steady progress

  Not much to report except that I am working on the second post on removing the excess material.  I was making good progress until the evening rain hit.