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WOOD CLOCK MECHANISM 
This piece was one of my toughest projects. It is a Thomas design wooden clock mechanism and is made of dark walnut wood. (ClockPlans.com) This piece in its tall case won the Best of Show at the 1992 Atlanta Woodworking Show. The mechanism is approximately 24 inches high. The gears range from small 8 tooth pinions up to 8 inches in diameter with 80 teeth. The clock is powered by a wooden bucket filled with 24 pounds of lead. The bucket is suspended on a 4-pulley system to provide a longer running time between windings. Timing is regulated by a 1 second pendulum. The clock has hour, minute and second hands and will run about 3 days on one winding. The finish is 6 coats of boiled linseed oil and turpentine. The estimated time to completion was over 500 hours. Probably took about another 50-60 hours to get it to run in a consistent manner.
KIT CLOCK This clock was made from a kit that was furnished by the guys at Clockplans.com. The gear arrangement is simuliar to the Wooden Grandfather clock shown in Gallery 1 although somewhat smaller. All the pieces were cut from 3/8 or 1/4 inch thick plywood so they only required sanding and finishing. I did not like the kit time dial and front plate so I took some liberties and made my own from walnut wood. I also veneered the kits back plate and the bottom supports. The hands are new and made from cocobolo. The clock runs on about 4 lbs of lead shot in a small wood canister. You can see more of this clock and others at www.clockplans.com The finish is several coats of spray-on polyurethane with a fine steel wooling between each coat. You have to tape the teeth so that no poly gets on the teeth surfaces. Estimated time to complete and have it running was 30 hours.
JEWELRY CABINET
This beautiful jewelry cabinet was made for my Bride of 51 years. It is made of black walnut and stands 38 inches high and 20 inches wide. There are 8 drawers that have various dividers to hold rings,bracelets,etc. The drawer fronts have a burl pattern in the wood. Each drawer is lined with a hot pink fabric. The doors on each side swing open to provide space for hanging necklaces. The overall height is 40 inches, width is 16 inches and depth is 15 inches. The finish is 6 coats of wipe-on polyurethane. Estimated time to complete - 80 hours.
This maple chest was made to house my carving knives and other chip carving accessories. The front of the chest is hinged at the bottom and drops forward to serve as a desk and enclosure for patterns/books. When down, the four drawers are exposed. The upper three drawers are 2 inches deep and contain mostly knives. The bottom drawer is 4 inches deep and contains sharpening stones, strops, and small carvings. Each of the drawers have full extension wooden drawer slides. This is a neat feature in that it permits the drawers to be pulled out to expose the entire contents and not fall out of the chest. The drawers are lined with green felt. Overall size is 12 inches wide by 10 inches deep and 12 inches high. Finish is about 6 coats of wipe-on polyurethane. This is another major task just to build and it has been a winner! It got First Place and Best of Show at the Atlanta Woodworking Show in March 2002. The carcass and doors are made of butternut and the drawer fronts are basswood. I wanted just a little contrast between the drawers and the butternut divider strips. The doors have a short piano hinge in the middle to allow the them to fold. Strong magnets epoxied in the doors and the case holds the doors closed. The chip carving design was accomplished on the computer using Autocad Lt. The overall theme was ellipses and I feel it worked out very well. The case sides were carved prior to assembly of the carcass. The doors were carved seperately. The ellipse on the drawer fronts is a single large design from which the drawer fronts patterns were cut out and applied to each individual drawer. Then each drawer was individually carved. The overall size is 19.125 inches high, 11.625 inches deep and 22.5 inches wide. The finish is 6 coats of polyurethane. A light sanding with 0000 steel wool was done between each coat. The overall chip carving design took several hours to finalize. A zerox copy was made and this was placed on the chest sides, doors, and drawers with the ink side to the wood. I then rubbed the back of the copy with a cloth dampened with laquer thinner to tranfer the pattern to the wood. This process is a real time saver as it would have taken days to draw these patterns by hand. If you use this technique remember that the ink is permanent so when you carve always carve the lines off. My best estimate on the carving time is 80 hours and about 40 hours just to make the piece. These urns are almost mirror images of each other. The urn body on the left has Butternut outside and basswood inside. This was accomplished by laminating two 1/4 inch boards. The only problem with this type of construction is that you have to carve the inside board before you laminate. The bowl on the right is just the opposite. The elipses were cut with a router using guide bushings and a templete. The top of each urn is a real task to make as it is a six sided compound cut. This was done on the tablesaw. The overall height of the urns is approx. 12 inches, and diameter across flats is approx. 7 inches. The finish is 6 coats of spray-on polyurethane. A light sanding with 0000 steel wool was accomplished between each coat. My best estimate on the carving time is 30 hours per urn and about 20 hours each to make the urn. This is a standard 8 sided stave constructed Urn. The major wood is basswood and the dark wood between the panels is walnut. The knob is walnut. The chip carving utilizes all triangle shaped cuts and are extremely small. One observer was interested in the number of cuts and took the time to estimate how many. He came up with 15,144. I did not validate! The overall height of the urn is approx. 10.75 inches, and diameter across flats is approx. 7.75 inches. The finish is 6 coats of spray-on polyurethane. A light sanding with 0000 steel wool was accomplished between each coat. My best estimate on the carving time is about 80 hours and 10 hours to make the urn. These two bowls were made for gifts and are made of basswood with walnut bases. Standard 8 sided stave construction was used and then each bowl was turned and shaped on the wood lathe. Since there is no flat surface on the bowl, the chip carving pattern had to be hand drawn. The overall height of the bowls is approx. 7.25 inches, and diameter is approx. 6.5inches. The finish is 6 coats of spray-on polyurethane. A light sanding with 0000 steel wool was accomplished between each coat. My best estimate on the carving time is about 20 hours and 12 hours to make the two bowls.
CARVING KNIFE CHEST
JEWELRY CHEST This is a jewelry chest made for a young lady's graduation present. Her Dad wanted it chip carved so the entire chest is made of butternut wood. The two doors are side hinged and when open reveal 4 drawers for the jewelry. These drawers also use full extension wood slides. The drawers are lined with hot pink fabric. Space inside each of the front doors can hold necklaces. The top lifts and provides additional storage for small items.
TURNED BOWL This is one of those real fun projects - a stave bowl. This bowl is actually made from staves similar to a barrel. This particular bowl used 8 oak staves plus 8 walnut dividers. The oak pieces were tapered before glue-up to give the bowl the tapered shape. The base is made of walnut. Overall size is about 10 inches high and 6 inches in diameter at the top. After turning on a wood lathe, the wall thickness is about 1/4 inch. Finish is 6 coats of wipe-on polyurethane. While the wait times get long on this type project, the actual time in making this bowl was about 6 hours.
BASSWOOD/WALNUT URN It was a major task to fabricate this urn and another one to carve. The urn consist of 6 seperate turnings, each indexed to each other to insure a perfert fit. It uses the stave construction and each turned section has 12 staves. The white wood is basswood and the dark is walnut. The overall height is 17 inches and the body diameter is 9 inches. The chip carving design was accomplished with a AutoCad program and took several hours to finalize. A zerox copy was made and this was placed on the bowl body with the copy to the wood. I then rubbed the back of the copy with a cloth dampened with laquer thinner and this tranfers the pattern to the wood. This process is a real time saver as it would have taken many hours to draw by hand. The lid is a different story, this had to be freehanded since there are no flat surfaces. All carving was completed before the sections were stacked and glued. My best estimate on the carving time is 60 hours. I did not keep track of the time to make the urn. The finish is 6 coats of polyurethane. A light sanding with 0000 steel wool was done between each coat.
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SPICE/TEA CHEST
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BUTTERNUT/BASSWOOD URNS
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BASSWOOD/WALNUT URN
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BASSWOOD/WALNUT BOWLS
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