making hands?

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:55 am     Post subject: making hands?

I'm planning to make a wall clock with a dynamite theme as a gift and I have serched high and low for any info about making your own custom hands (ie. whether or not it's possible). This is going to be a rather large clock and I plan to use a high torque movement. Is it possible for one to make clock hands at all??? I had planned to make the hands out of thin dowels (to resemble small sticks of dynamite) I could even half the dowels to create a flat side. would they be too heavy, how would I measure them properly, is there even a movement that could accomodate this idea???
any info is greatly apreciated!
-Darcey

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:07 pm     Post subject:

To be honest, I do not know of many customers that have created their own hands. This is not to say that it could not be done. Some notes on the movement and hands: The high torque movement hands depend on balance. That is, the hand must have some type of counter-balance (on the shorter end opposite the time indicator) so that you do not experience loss of time as the hand climbs back up to the 12 o'clock position. This is especially important with the longer minute hand. While high torque hands are usually made of lightweight aluminum, you may be able to use a lightweight wood material (like balsa wood) to allow the clock a better opportunity to run continuously (yet keep the hands lightweight). High torque hands will also require a friction fit mount for the hour hand (fitting exactly around the circular hour hand collar) and I-shaft minute hand mount (more of an oval mounting hole to better secure the minute hand with the brass cap nut). While the minute hand mount hole may not need to be exactly precise, the hour hand shaft hole must be pretty precise (for the best possible fit). As a side note, rubber cement in the shaft hole of the hour hand may help to provide some friction to help the hand remain in place if the hole should be sized slightly too large.

The only way to be absolutely certain any of this would work is to actually test the idea and let the clock run for a time period. I would allow it to run for a few weeks at minimum (to note any possible time loss and perfect the hand design to better work with the high torque clock motor). I would be very interested in how this turns out if you should decide to proceed (at least for possible future questions from forum patrons who are interested in making their own hands).

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:54 pm     Post subject: thanks

Thank you so much! I'm going to test it out when I gather materials.
I'll definetly post results!