Off and on over the past few weeks Bob has mentioned his latest wooden clock project and this time he surprised everyone by bringing the finished work to the Klatsch. If you look about a third of the way up from the bottom of the clock you can see the hands; they are currently reading about seven minutes past eleven. Just to the right and down a bit is the triangular base of the pendulum.

Getting the clock set up, Bob rests the top of the pendulum on the horizontal cross piece near the top. The darker colored wood which forms the body of the clock is called padauk and the lighter wood that the gears are made from is laminated baltic birch.

Here's a look at the gear mechanism.

This close-up shows how the gears are made up of thin layers of wood laminated together. By extending different layers of the laminate, the spokes of the gears can be offset from one another. You can see how this works by looking at the middle of the bottom gear.

The wood alone would not be heavy enough to make an effective pendulum, so Bob sneakily snuck metal shot into interior of the base of the pendulum. When it's put together you'd never know the pendulum was anything but solid wood.

This is the winding mechanism. The clock is wound up by inserting a winding key through the hole in the shaft which extends on the left. This turns and tightens a contorque spring on the other side. This spring has the unique property of releasing its pent-up energy evenly (regular springs lose their energy as they unwind) and it will keep the clock running for eight days before needing to be wound up again. All in all a very imressive piece of craftsmanship. Thanks for bringing it for us to see, Bob!