Welcome to Brian Law’s wooden clocks
Free plans to help you build a wooden clock. The plans on this site are those of clocks designed by myself over the last few years. At present there are eight sets of plans available, and it is intended to add to them as new designs become available.
Each clock design is illustrated with a series of rendered images, and a set of drawings, drawn to scale and presented as PDF files. The earlier clocks were originally drawn to scale so that the prints could be attached directly to the timber and a band saw or scroll saw used to cut around the profiles. Now it is more common to use some form of CNC machining to produce the gear profiles, so the DXF files for the clocks are now available and in some cases the 3D model files as well. These enable the clock builder to not only simplify the construction but also to increase the accuracy.
The original clocks are still available for free but as the new clocks appear I will make a small charge for the files.
The site has undergone a complete overhaul for its 10th anniversary, to try to get it cleaned up a bit and make it easier for you to find your way around and for me to update it more quickly. I hope to be adding new clocks on a more regular basis now that I have more time to devote to it. There are three projects on the horizon plus thoughts on an off shoot to the site that opens up the opportunity for me to work on a wider range of mechanisms that can be equally rewarding for the those who enjoy this type of project.
I hope you find your visit to the site rewarding and if you have any comments or suggestions please contact me.
To read the PDF files you will need Adobe Acrobat reader so click on the image below to install it on your computer.
Coming in the future
- A clock designed to be built using SLA’s
- A clock with off the shelf plastic gears
DXF files available
If you require the DXF files for any of the clocks on the site then go to the page for the clock that you require where you will find the DXF files listed along with model files for the newer clocks. The files can be used either to produce Gcode so that you can machine the profiles on CNC machine or it can be used for your own design projects.
Special offer
Three of the latest clock designs on the site are all built from the bottom up in inches, so if you have trouble with metric these are the clocks to go for. I have bundled the plans and the DXF files for these together and I am offering them for $15 for a limited period.
Clock 10, the Steampunk style clock has been added to the site. You will get both 2D and 3D data if you purchase the files for this clock. This is a very compact design with a short pendulum and a chime on the quarter hours
Free DXF files
If you want to try a sample of the DXF files for a test on your CNC machine then this small assembly is ideal. It has 2 gears mounted onto a base strip with the centre positions set so that the gears mesh correctly. The file has some dimensions in dual metric and imperial formats so as to allow you to check the correct import into your system. The holes and pins are Ø6 mm but can be drilled out to 1/4” if you are working in imperial.
The sample is of course free, simply click on the image to download.
A new clock Clock 7 is now available for download.This clock was designed in inches and is the largest clock that so far. To see a comparison of the clock alongside clocks 1 and 6 go here
I have been asked many times if it is possible to double the size of the clocks without compromising their function and the answer is always yes as long as you do not change the length of the pendulum as this controls the accuracy of the clock. This new clock is my attempt top produce a larger clock, nearly twice as big and large enough to work in a large room.
Like Clock 1 it is an in-line gear train that makes it easy to hang on a wall rather than have it shelf mounted.It also has an extra set of gears to get the second hand to run in the right direction, something I never fixed in Clock 1, but works well in this design as it fills out the interior of this larger format design.
The biggest change has been to design the Clock from the ground up in inch's so all the shaft’s work out correctly for all those working in imperial measures. Gears never work out in round numbers though no what unit of measure you use.
A completely new dial design has been made for this clock. It is a simpler design than clock 6 and has a much smaller files size for loading.
Clock 3 has been missing from the site for some years now, and it is only now that I have been able to complete it and put it on the site
Clock 3 was designed to be a replica of a typical 15 th century Verge and Foliot clock, but it never got finished and was replaced with the more ornate design for Clock 4. I have resurrected it here with some small refinements, it is a much simpler design than the others on the site.
This clock using the verge and Foliot was never very accurate, hence the use of only the hour hand. It wasn’t until the introduction of the pendulum that accuracy was improved, in fact many original clocks were modified with a pendulum to improve the accuracy, so very few examples remain.
The clocks movement is controlled by the oscillation of the Foliot backwards and forwards controlling the the release of the escape wheel as the paddles on the verge move into and out of engagement with the pins on the escape wheel.
Accuracy is poor because of number of features that have a bearing on the movement, chief amongst these is the main weight followed closely by the weight and positions of the Foliot weights.
It is a familiar looking design because of its existence over many centuries, so enjoy building your own replica and feeling a connection with craftsmen over the ages.
I have introduced a collection of gears, so that you can use them for your own projects
There are 30 gears in the collection. They are all developed from the tooth profiles used to run the Woodenclocks, so for slow running applications like Automata they are ideal.
I have created a new web site called Leonardo da vinci models
To carry a new range of plans and files devoted to the mechanisms devised by Leonardo da Vinci. There is one model on the site at present, it is a cannon called a Spingarde designed by Leonardo, and it brings together several features used in cannon at the time, but never in one device.
It requires standard model making skills to produce and you should be able to complete the build in a shorter timescale than some of the clocks on these pages.
Do go to the new site and have a look around and please let me know if you find it interesting and what other Leonardo inventions you would like to see there.
This is the most compact clock I have designed with a short pendulum having a period of oscillation of 1 second, that is a ½ second swing in each direction. This required an extra set of gears in the train, to achieve the correct ratio for the escapement.
The unit is hung on the wall by a special hanging bracket that allows the clock to be easily mounted.
The front of the clock has a door to which the dial is fitted, this can be opened
to better view the internal mechanism.
This clock requires that the case be turned on a lathe or machined in 3D, so could be more difficult to build for those who don’t have the equipment. To help with this I have included the 3D data in with the drawings and the DXF files.
The clock was designed in metric units but is dimensioned in both metric and imperial. Click on the image to go to the Clock 9 page.
Another New Project Added December 2011
Clock 11 Compact and relatively simple, so if you are a first time builder this may be for you, but be warned its still not easy.
You will get both 2D and 3D data if you purchase the files for this clock.
Steampunk is a sub genre of science fiction and fantasy, it features a world based on the late 19th century were the greatest works of invention and construction all used steam driven machinery as an alternative to the electronic world we live in today. The technology was based on Newtonian principles and could be readily understood any young engineer, so in a sense it allows us mechanical engineers to return to a world we understand as opposed to the mysteries of electronics.
This clock is my nod to that style featuring a simple gear layout with a short pendulum used in clock 9, but all mounted in a more straight forward framework. The addition of a chime mechanism that uses steel balls, carried around by a large additional gear to strike a coil gong an the quarter hours.
The dial and the brass dressing at the rear transform the conventional layout into a stylish statement of its aesthetic origins.
The clock can of course be constructed entirely from wood or a combination of materials as illustrated in the rendered images that accompany the design.
Following the trend started in Clock 9 the 2D and 3D data is offered to aid in your construction of the clock.
The design was mainly done in inches, with all the shaft sizes given in inches,but the plans are detailed in both millimetres and inches.
Clock 11 is the second new clock this month, and has been designed in response to a number of requests for a simple clock design that could be made by a first time builder.
I have tried to do this here and although the clock is simpler it is still going to take dedication to see it through.
The design is simpler as it only uses 6 gears, by comparison Clock 1 has 12 gears and Clock 7 has 14.
A further change to reduce the number of gears was the introduction of a pull cord that is wound opposite to the weight, so by pulling down on this cord the weight is lifted back up.
I have also tried to reduce the size at the same time so that the largest parts can be fitted onto a small router table. I don’t really know what that minimum size is but the largest piece on this design is 277 mm tall so can be fitted to a piece of A4 paper, or Letter size paper if you live in the US.
Actually the Dial is slightly too large to fit an A$ sheet so you would need to stick two off set copies together to do that.
New Project Added February 2012
DXF files and drawings available to allow you to build these mechanisms for your own projects.
Last year I introduced Projects for gears , which gave you a selection of gears to use in your own projects, this year it is the turn of mechanisms, There are 6 sizes of Geneva mechanism. An inverted Geneva mechanism, a couple of rotary to linear convertors and a couple of Intermittent motion devices.
These are packaged as DXF and PDF files, along with image files and videos to explain the workings.