Miles writes:
Clayton answers:
"Hello Clayton,
I'm finally getting toward the end of building my Tempo (which I bought plans for over 6 months ago, wow didn't realize how long it's been until I actually counted back). But as I noticed on your recent blog, you were talking about not putting bushings on wheels because you design some holes to be specifically oversized.
Along that note, when I was putting arbors into my frame for the first time I noticed that the center wheel arbor (3/16") was loose in the frame. I figured I had messed up and drilled the wrong hole size, but when I went back to check the pattern it specified a 13/64 hole. It didn't make sense to me that the center wheel arbor would be loose, so I drilled the hole larger, plugged it with a dowel, then re-drilled with a 3/16" hole.
Now I'm starting to question if that was the right thing to do. Is the center wheel arbor supposed to be loose in the frame?
I look forward to sharing pictures of the finished product. It's definitely been the most fun woodworking project I've done.
-Miles Hatem"
I'm finally getting toward the end of building my Tempo (which I bought plans for over 6 months ago, wow didn't realize how long it's been until I actually counted back). But as I noticed on your recent blog, you were talking about not putting bushings on wheels because you design some holes to be specifically oversized.
Along that note, when I was putting arbors into my frame for the first time I noticed that the center wheel arbor (3/16") was loose in the frame. I figured I had messed up and drilled the wrong hole size, but when I went back to check the pattern it specified a 13/64 hole. It didn't make sense to me that the center wheel arbor would be loose, so I drilled the hole larger, plugged it with a dowel, then re-drilled with a 3/16" hole.
Now I'm starting to question if that was the right thing to do. Is the center wheel arbor supposed to be loose in the frame?
I look forward to sharing pictures of the finished product. It's definitely been the most fun woodworking project I've done.
-Miles Hatem"
Clayton answers:
| "Glad you read my new blog. Yup, the drill sizes shown are correct. Go ahead and re-drill to the correct size. Send pix when you get your Tempo completed. I always enjoy seeing the creativity of other woodworkers. Bob, one of my builder/proofers, just loves his Tempo. He says it's the best design of mine that he's ever built. I hope you feel the same way. Enjoy. Aloha. Clayton PS. I don't think you'll find any mistakes on the plans I sent you. You can build it as shown, and guess what?...it'll run! Yay!" Miles writes back (and a new Tempo is born!): "I've finally finished the build!   I decided to make the entire pendulum (actually almost the whole clock for that matter) out of a single 96"x11"x3/4" piece of maple. And since I had one large piece of stock, I took a bit of liberty with the pendulum and made the transitions a bit more flowing. Luckily I had the forethought to add some length to the bottom to account for the extra weight at the top. And, since I had the blended transitions in the pendulum, I went ahead and redesigned the hands to match.  I've had it running for a few minutes at a time, but have some minor stopping issues related to a very slightly bent escape wheel arbor (hoped I could get away with it, but apparently I can't). Also, my counterweight is a bit on the light side (~3lb). I only have it filled with steel BB's, so I'll have to try and find someplace here in California that sells lead. It runs fine if I double the weight even with the bent arbor, so hopefully if I fix both issues it won't give me any trouble at all.  The next design of yours I'm looking forward to building is the Medieval Calendar Clock, though I think I'm going a bit crazy for thinking I can do it. I guess if you throw enough time and frustration at anything you should be able to achieve your goal, right? Anyways, I probably won't get around to starting it for another few months, since I plan on building myself a desk first. So I'll have to get back to you when I'm about ready to start so I can buy the plans. Thanks for offering these beautiful designs for others to build. I have thoroughly enjoyed building this, and am sure you have heard the same from many, many others. -Miles" Thank you, Miles, for sharing pictures of your beautiful work, as well as notes and questions from your journey along the way. Note: Miles sent me a video of his wonderful Tempo in action, but I was unable to download it. So here's Bob Brown's Tempo in motion instead: |
