My first ever gear box clock was a commission with a brief as simple as a clock based on cogs but the looks like it was from machinery and could move. After I found some images of planetary gearboxes the design process was reasonably straight forward with machining on my trusty Workbee fairly straight forward. In reality, I’d made the fit between all the various teeth and cogs a bit too tight. Since I seal the wood with a paint and then apply several coats of my favourite rusting treatments any play within the gear box disappeared and, to be truthful, it was impossible to fit all the gears in to the outer ring. Lesson learnt. I re made the central sun gear a few millimeters smaller in diameter and everything went to gether well and with enough play to be able to rotate the outer ring by hand.
As with all these rust inspired projects the real fun is applying the rusting solutions and watching the painted MDF turn to rust. I’d like to be able to say that it happens before your eyes but in reality it’s a 24 hour process before you can apply more treatments. The wait and the end result is well worth it.
I’ve been selling these clocks on Etsy for some time now and they have ended up not only in the UK, but in Europe and America.
It’s great to get reviews with photos such as :
“So so pleased with this. It’s such a beautiful piece. It’s really worth the money and cheap for the quality of the clock. It came with 4 cogs so you can choose whether to have it symmetrical or not. We chose to put stickers to mark the 4 quarter of the clock and use only 3 of the 4 cogs. The rusting effect looks really realistic. The outer cog doesn’t move unless you move it. It’s such a beautiful statement piece and looks really industrial in our lounge. Thanks for your fast service. Would definitely recommend.”
You can pop over to Etsy for this clock or direct from here. The price for UK main land delivery of the wall clock version (free standing currently out of stock) is £140 inc postage, if you are outside the UK then message me for a price to delivery my e mail address is daveworxwood@gmail.com