Four solid wooden clock designs and plans

This clock with wooden works was the maker's FIRST attempt at designing and building a wooden clock. The gears were cut with a home-made CNC machine and finished by hand. The maker's extensive experience with 3D modeling software surely helped, but it is an amazing feat to have a working clock from the first design. He has gone on to design four other clocks. You can order finished clocks from his site. He also sells plans for 40 Euro.

Here is a link to four solid wood clocks by this talented craftsman in Italy.

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Beautiful motorized mechanical wooden fish

Take a look at the lovely construction and motion of this mechanical wooden fish. Very nice work, indeed.

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Book: Making Working Wooden Locks

This book provides plans and instructions for building working locks from wood. The book includes step-by-step instructions, color photos, measured drawings, and advice on wood selection, tools, and finishing. Projects include a warded lock, a combination lock, an antique lever lock, a railroad switch lock, and an antique push key lever lock.

Here is a link to the book Making Working Wooden Locks).

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Wooden clock sculptures by James Borden

I had the great pleasure of meeting and speaking with James Borden, creator of mechanical weight-driven clocks last weekend at the Paradise City Arts Festival. "Clock" doesn't quite sum up what Borden creates however. His pieces are large, artistic expressions of time described in beautiful hardwoods, long graceful curves, and inventive structural configurations.

From the artist's site:

In his Timeshapes, James Borden presents a different vision of the passage of time: Less frenetic and urgent than the normal ticking of a clock; slower paced; peaceful; playful; something easier to live with.

Here is a close up of a mechanism from one of his pieces:

To see more wooden clock sculptures by James Borden visit the Timeshapes web site.

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Wooden mechanical remote-control dinosaurs

I've seen wood dinosaur models, and even wood dinosaur models with a motor and simple movements. This pair takes it a step further with the addition of a infrared remote control and three different operating modes.

From the model description:

The R/C Wooden Puzzle Dinosaurs go one better and add movement and sound to this classic dinosaur format. First you must assemble of course, but once you've jacked in the included motors and electronics you're ready to rumble. Not only can you control your dino's movements via remote, he (or she) roars and reacts to sound.

Here is the link to these two wooden mechanical dinosaurs with remote control.

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The mechanical wooden art of Per Helldorff

Check out about ten automata and other mechanical wooden creations created by Per Helldorff on his web site.

I don't know what all of the pieces do, but it is clear that there is some serious creativity and ingenuity behind them.

Here's the link to the 'Mekanik' section of Per Helldorff's web site.

[ Thanks Charles! ]

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Hand-cranked wooden rotating iPhone dock

In part inspired by The Automata / Automaton Blog, Murtaza Lakdawala created this hand-cranked wooden iPhone dock. By turning the handle the gears will reorient the iPhone to either the upright or horizontal position.

Check out Murtaza's blog for complete details on the iPhone dock project.

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Four free wooden clock plans to download

If you have an interest in wooden clocks and clockwork, you will want to head over to http://www.woodenclocks.co.uk. Not only is there a lot of great information on the site, there are four clock plans that are free downloads. This is a great resource. Thanks to Brian Law of Wooden Clocks for making these available!

Check out the Wooden Clocks site.

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The dangers of an automated snuff machine

Check out this wooden mechanical snuff delivery device. It is ingenious in a sinister sort of way. Let this poor fellow's experience be a lesson to us all!

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Medieval astronomical wooden clock design

Take a look at the beautiful wooden clock video. The wooden mechanism clock was designed by Clayton Boyer and built by Adrian Iredale. Beautiful work. One day, I'm going work up the courage (or set aside a substantial amount of time) to make one of Boyer's amazing clock designs.

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Quandary - kinetic wood sculpture by David Roy

Soak in the hypnotic motion of this kinetic wooden sculpture by David C. Roy. Entitled Quandary, this is one of a limited edition of 95.

See this an more amazing moving wooden sculptures at Wood That Works.

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Del's wooden escapement drive machine

Del has shared with us a wonderful wooden machine he built around 1985. This is a nice example of a mechanism that converts reciprocating motion into circular motion via a ratchet mechanism. The really cool thing about his particular design is that it does not matter which direction you turn the crank -- the ratchet will always rotate in the same direction. Very clever.

If you would like to communicate with him directly, visit Del's YouTube channel.

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