Project - The Garniture Clock
A huge thanks to Chris Hayes of the East Central Chapter who submitted this beautiful project - If you take this challenge on at home be sure to send us your pictures for inclusion on the website - info@iwg.ie
About 20 years ago, John Austin, a turner from Essex, described in a popular woodturning magazine his version of a lyre clock. The design was based on a 19th century French garniture clock that he saw in a museum. Austin developed his ideas to allow most components to be made with basic equipment and tools, not even a chuck.
I am fortunate in having acquired a good selection of helpful hardware over the years, so it was easier to use both screw and scroll chuck to make some of the turned parts. My bandsaw fitted with a narrow blade made short work of the tricky side arms.
I used lime for my first attempt, with all blanks supplied by a good friend, cut to size and ready to use. Although it looked alright, I felt that a more colourful wood might stand out better. So, I choose to make the next clock in yew and once again I was presented with all the blanks I needed, cut to size and with no obvious faults. No excuse for delaying further. See photo 1
Austin’s design is based around a 70mm clock which dictates much of the construction detail.
Note: One can use a smaller or slightly larger movement, but the overall clock body size should not exceed 80 mm diameter if working to the dimensions given below. See sketch, Fig 1
The critical measurement is the height from the base of the sidearms to the centre of the dowel hole which provides the upper clock support. This must equal the combined height of the lower post, clock body and upper post to the centre of the dowel hole. Fig 1 shows this to be 150mm overall. Equalising these two measurements will ensure correct assembly later, Fig 1
Cutting list: all in mm
Side arms 190x70x15 2 off
Clock body 80x80x50 (0r branchwood 90x50)
Clock base 150x150x70
Body support 30x20 (offcuts or branchwood)
Upper post 150x40x40 (branchwood)
Dowels for Assy 5 dia x40 1 off 5 dia x10 2 off
Feet 14x8 dia 4off
Figure 1
Construction
I decided to make the side arms first on the basis that these two determine how well the finished clock will look. I pasted my full-sized template to the 15mm blank and then drilled 8mm at two positions in each corresponding to the tightest curves. This helped greatly when cutting away surplus material on my bandsaw. Before anything else I carefully extended the dowel-hole positions onto the inside edges and drilled 5mm holes, four in total, to the required depth. I found that a pillar drill with a suitable vice is the easiest and most accurate way to do this as all dowel holes must be square relative to the face of the arms. Sanding and finishing the surfaces to a good finish took much of the time spent on this project and was concluded before moving on to the next stage. The design calls for each side arm to be reduced in thickness from about 12mm at the base tapering to approximately 6 at the tip of the upper curve and I gave my sanding belt and disc plenty of use in achieving this. If you lack such a useful machine Austin suggested fixing a sanding disc to a faceplate with some form of support for the sidearm attached to the bed bars.
Next up was the clock body. With the blank mounted on a screw chuck I drilled a 50mm hole first and opened it up to accommodate my chosen clock. By reversing the body onto the chuck, sans screw, I shaped and finished the body. Before moving on I drilled two 6mm holes on the centre line of the body and at opposite sides at about 20mm from the front edge. Again, drilling was carefully done to ensure that upper and lower post would align properly.
Turning the clock base was relatively straightforward, utilising my screw chuck again. Having marked the centre of the top surface I drilled two 5mm holes in a line, each 20mm from centre, for mounting the side arms. A 6mm hole drilled at centre completed the base. However, I decided to make and fit the four feet to the base at this stage. Once sanded, sealed, finished and stable on its new legs I could forget about it.
The upper and lower posts were turned between centres, abiding strictly to dimensions given. The lower post required 6mm spigots at both ends to match the respective holes. At the assembly stage later, I found I had to remake the post slightly shorter, not a difficult task of course.
The upper post was a different matter. No margin for error here as I had no yew left if I messed it up. Before roughing the blank to a cylinder, I drilled the 5mm hole 47mm from the baseline-see fig 1. The rest was just turning to a pleasing shape while maintaining the critical 47mm measurement to the end. Both posts were sanded, sealed and finished as normal.
Last item to make was the 5mm dowels, one 40mm long for the upper post and two 5mm ones for the side arm base. The length of any dowel depends of course on where it is going, and I did have to make changes at the assembly stage. The holes left by my screw chuck were plugged with a button shape in yew.
To test the assembly for fit I started by fitting the lower post and short dowels to the base followed by the clock body and upper post. When trying to fit the side arms I found some slight adjustments were required-mentioned above. Eventually all parts fitted together well and without strain. I coated all spigot and dowels with Titebond and re-assembled the lot. Still holding up, glad to say.
If you are interested in trying this project, I can supply you with a full-size template for the side arms. That together with the photos and critical measurement shown on the sketch is all you need. Finding suitable timber might be a problem, but that’s part of woodturning. No?
-Chris Hayes
chrishayesd11@gmail.com
