This first one, the holes were drilled with a new regular drill bit. The last five clocks, the holes were drilled with 

a forstner bit. The first clock did not hang straight.  It now hangs crooked in my shop as a reminder.

 

 

 The plans were about 24" long and I enlarged them. If it was to hang on the wall, I wanted

it to take up a bunch of that wall. My shop walls are covered with reminders, good and bad!

  Even though I was using a great jig for the drill press some of the holes were shifting more

than I could see with my eye balls and by the time I had drilled two holes in each piece of

wood, gang busters..

  Maybe someone will remember this when they go to build something similar.....and take

corrective measures before hand.

 

 

Edited November 21, 20178 yr by Ron Dudelston
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Cool clocks, and a good tip for the holes.  I would like to know how you insure you are in the right place with the Forstner bit though?  The ones I have and have used kinda sorta cover up the "x" that marks the spot.  Do you test it before turning the drill press on?

Cal

Glad you asked Cal. I built three jigs to hold the different sizes of the watch band. I could 

lock each piece in where there was no movement. Once I was satisfied with where the

hole would be then all the holes would be exactly the same on each piece. And yes I did

make a few extra watch band pieces to practice on.   I started making these around 2000

and had enough pieces for more than 8 total clocks.

  I also used a locking magnet on the table saw for a stop block so each piece is cut the

same length.

   The pieces of the band were 4 foot long to start with then groomed the shapes

with the router bits before cutting them to the desired length.

  With this many holes in this many pieces of wood there has to be an exact way to do it.

If I remember correctly the holes were 1/4" and even using the same type of jigs, a

regular drill bit, even being brand new, would move around so slightly while drilling but

the forstner bit saved the projects.  A person can get really fancy with making these watches. 

   Some of those clocks were with 8 different woods with lots of color but have since lost

most all the older pictures from crashing computers...The only one left was the first practice

model.

Thanks Jess,

Cal