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template tom said:

Hi Harry
Great to hear from You Here is your Balloon Clock you made a few years ago
Tom

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Hi Tom, here are a couple of pix of recent projects. Harry

I appreciate you're kind remarks,you were correct in not seeing any filler, I find that filler sticks out far more than an imperfection. Mistakes I make plenty of, for instance when making the cufflink box as a Christmas present for a good friend, I made the top then measured it and made the bottom, but when it came to assembly, the bottom was 20mm wider than the top! I had measured from the inside of the frame and cut the piece of Sheoak to that size. I was now faced with the problem of how to rectify matters, because of the mitred frame it wasn't possible to cut accross on the radial arm saw so I considered using jig saw, band saw, scroll saw etc. but non of these methods would leave a perfectly straight edge so I went back to my training under the master of the router, Tom O'donnell (template Tom) and decided that the router was the only way to solve this problem so I made the template shown in my posting to Tom and using a 40mm template guide and a 6mm cutter routed out the surplus material as also shown . By the way, I do measure several times but still make these mistakes, not surprising at 73 years of age.

"French" balloon clock

Thanks Walt for you're interest in the clock, using Toms methods I designed and made two of the templates shown in pix, my original idea was to trim the sides and top on the radial arm saw, but when I mentioned this to Tom he very nearly had a heart attach!, the result was that HE designed the third jig for trimming using the router. The template for routing the body was simple to make as the shape is symetrical ie: the diameters of the head and waist are the same so starting with a vertical line up the centre and a line at right angles at a height to suit the centre of the face, it is a simple matter to draw the shape with a compass then drill center holes for the circle cutting jig. Next decide what size template guide is to be used on the router and repeat the drawing at this distance. I used a 30mm guide with a 10mm straight cutter. I read in a magazine some years ago that to decide the diameter of the clock, add 15mm all round to the size of clock to be used, in other words 30mm greater dia. than the movement. I'm sure all this will make more sense when Tom eventually releases a DVD course in plunge routing, 'till then have fun,Harry

Balloon clock

Please Walt, forget the bandsaw, make a template using a circle cutting jig, which doesn't have to be as elaborate as this one designed by you know who! Most woodworking books show such things starting with a simple strip of thin ply screwed to the base of router with a nail tapped through at the centre point of circle. I know that Rome wasn't built in a day, so I don't expect to see a pics of you're finished clock for a few weeks. Harry
Please let me know if attachment fails to arrive. H.