Project Information
There are several of these Dancing Clocks already posted on LumberJocks and there is nothing special about this one. I used a full size plan ordered from Meisel rather than the one they made available in Wood Magazine. As far as I can tell the only real difference is that the Wood Mag plan has the edges of the body cavity flush whereas the Meisel plan has it stepped inward. I think the Wood Mag design is more appealing but with the Meisel plan the pendulum does not hit the sides (actually it just kisses the side on the left) as posters of the Wood Mag plan have commented.
I made my clock from a 14" wide cherry board making this a pretty expensive project (~$40 wood plus ~$30 for the hardware kit and plan). I couldn't find suitable plywood for the back panels so I re-sawed and planed some more cherry. I had trouble with some of the tight radius corners, the groove near the bottom of the feet and I made my chamfers too long. Some of the other posters of this project did an excellent job in these areas and I'll need to learn their secrets before I make my next one.
Despite several imperfections, this was a fun project, really didn't take too long and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Note that a band saw or scroll saw is a must for this project as is a spindle sander.
I made my clock from a 14" wide cherry board making this a pretty expensive project (~$40 wood plus ~$30 for the hardware kit and plan). I couldn't find suitable plywood for the back panels so I re-sawed and planed some more cherry. I had trouble with some of the tight radius corners, the groove near the bottom of the feet and I made my chamfers too long. Some of the other posters of this project did an excellent job in these areas and I'll need to learn their secrets before I make my next one.
Despite several imperfections, this was a fun project, really didn't take too long and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Note that a band saw or scroll saw is a must for this project as is a spindle sander.