Robo-Clock

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I decided that a clock would make a good first CNC project on my Sherline CNC equipped bench mill. I cut a few other little bits & pieces before this but nothing too serious. This is an original design of mine and cut on my basement workbench from aluminum and brass retrieved from the local scrap dealer. I need to disassemble it and clean up a few details yet.      Drop me a note

Arms - about 4.5" long
I sanded these lightly with wet / dry emery paper under
running water. Then, I  polished them with brown Tripoli and a buffing
wheel on the drill press, washed well to remove the wax, and then 
sprayed them with clear lacquer.

Partially assembled. The tabs in the upper brackets mount
 in the back of the clock body. I milled rectangular pockets in 
both the base and clock body. They are held in with epoxy.

Base with mounting brackets epoxied in place. 

The base & clockface are both 3.8" in diameter. The engine turning 
finish is done with a drilling pattern laid out in my Cad program. I set Sheetcam to start on the outside and successively complete each circle moving towards the center. The pattern was executed with a home made mandrel and green Scotchbrite pad.

Face with clock movement mounted

Due to the way it bolts together, you could set the clock body and arms
a bit more vertically or perhaps forward of vertical. It just ended up this
way as I was doing the final tightening of the socket head bolts. I kind of
liked it.

You can see the .250: deep pocket milled out of the back for the movement.

Updated: August 25, 2008