"Major Canuk" wrote in message
news
Does anyone know where I can get free plans for a Grandfather clock. I
want
to build one for my father in-law for Xmas. I want to start soon. I would
like any advice or comments before I start. Thanks.

In the mid 1960's fresh out of grad school and gainfully employed, I tackled
my first woodworking project . . . . a weight driven clock with wooden
gears. I set up a small work table with a vice in the corner of my
apartment; purchased a supply of ½ inch kiln dried birch and ordered a set
of full-sized plans from Constantines ($5.00 plus shipping).



I hated to booger up a good set of plans, so I took them to the office and
copied them on the office Xerox machine. I glued the copies to the birch
stock with rubber cement and, over the next 3 months, carefully cut out and
shaped the parts of the movement with surgical saws and fine-toothed files.
When the project was finished, there was a quarter inch layer of birch dust
over everything in the apartment, but the parts looked great.



However . . . .



When I put the thing together, everything was about half a bubble off. On
rotation, the wheels and gears either bound up or were too loose. For
another month I tried adjusting the wheels by filing the parts that bound up
.. . . . which seemed to change with every re-assembly. Eventually it
occurred to me to compare the parts that I had made so carefully with the
original plans.



Turns out, that our office Xerox machine had a fairly significant amount of
distortion that wasn't noticeable on a page of text but managed to turn
circles into ovals. To save five bucks, I had created a series of
non-workable, interlocking cams.