Replies

1. 
   woodrae | May 23, 2007 07:19am | #1

   Bill—

   I'm not an expert in this area, having never seen nor made a French-style grandfather clock. The project looks very appealing. You may want to ask this in the "Assign an Expert" area of the board to see if anyone more qualified can help. In the meantime, I can think of a few ways that you might go about building the round section at the top.

   The 'easiest' method would be to turn the top from a solid chuck of wood on the lathe. But there will be some serious wood movement issues to contend with, and the grain won't be continuous, nor particularly harmonious.

   The second method would be to 'brick lay' the circle from bandsawn segments, perhaps with four segments making up the whole. Make each segment from overlapping bands of wood sawn to the desired curved, and then join them to adjoining segments in a brick pattern, gluing and clamping as you go. However, like the turned technique above, there will be some—albeit minimal—wood movement, and the grain pattern won't be particularly appealing.

   A third technique would be to steambend the circle from two or four sections of solid wood. You will have to devise a joint to join the segments, such as a blind loose tenon. but the frame will have great strength. Like the brick-laid approach, there will be some minimal wood movement to deal with, and the grain will be broken wherever the segments join each other.

   The last approach that springs to mind is to veneer the circle, having first made the core, or substrate, from either a stable material such as plywood or MDF, or using the brick-laid technique described earlier. Hide glue, used with the hammer-veneering technique, would be my adhesive of choice for this job, since it will make dealing with the curved surfaces much easier when applying the veneer. There will be no wood movement to speak of, and your grain pattern can be exactly as you want it, depending on how you lay out the veneer.

   Good luck,

   Andy