Mechanical Wooden Clock Kit

Product Description

The Mechanical Wooden Clock is a joy to build and own. The comforting sound and mesmerizing movement create a focal point in any room.

With meticulously designed parts laser cut for accuracy, building a handcrafted wooden clock has never been easier. Along the way, you will learn what makes a wooden clock 'tick', from the graceful pendulum, through to the minute hand.

Clear, well-illustrated instructions will guide you through the construction and tuning of your clock. Required to Complete (not included): Razor Saw, Wood Glue and Sandpaper, Counterweight Material, and Patience.

Features

• Craftsmanship: Meticulously designed parts laser cut for accuracy, making it easy to build a handcrafted wooden clock
• Learning Experience: Gain knowledge about the inner workings of a wooden clock, from the pendulum to the minute hand
• Aesthetic Appeal: The comforting sound and mesmerizing movement create a focal point in any room, adding a touch of modern style
• Material: Made of high-quality wood, providing durability and a natural aesthetic
• Customization: Option to personalize the clock with your choice of counterweight material
• Interactive Assembly: Requires patience and attention to detail, making the building process an engaging experience

Top Reviews

I'm no engineer
by SaM4842 (4 out of 5 stars)
April 17, 2015

Skill level necessary: A LOT. I used to build plastic model cars and robots, but I've never done any kind of woodworking/clock making. I do consider myself somewhat crafty, but with that said, none of those skills were very helpful when building this clock.

Some suggested tools:

Emory boards: makes sanding the gears more bearable.

Sander sticks or popsicle stick with sandpaper wrapped around: also for gears

Mechanical pencil: for tight nooks when lubricating the gears

Regular Elmer's glue: dries clear - wood glue does not

Kneeding eraser: erased the stray pencil marks the best, not necessary, but nice.

A few audio books: might as well "read" something while sanding for a few hours :-/

Some advice on the build:

Do be very careful when sanding these gears and do not alter the shape. I'm pretty sure this is where I screwed up on my first clock, yes I bought 2, the first one was an utter failure, don't laugh.

Carefully sand the outer parts of the pallet where they meet the escape wheel and lube: I found this makes the clock run smoother.

Sand the crap out of the inner part of the minute wheel: this section moves a bit and will clamp down on the axle and causing the clock to stop.

As a clock: not very useful. As another reviewer said, this must be mounted at least 6' high and the numerals are quite small. It is hard to read since you have to be able to see the numerals, unlike a regular clock, the gears move, not the hands. For me, I can only see it once I get within 4'. I have been tinkering with this for a few weeks now and the longest I've gotten this to work is about 26 hours. All the gears seem to be moving freely when I jostle the pendulum again, then it will work anywhere from 15 min to 6 hours. It moves better after I dismount then remount all the gears. When it functions correctly it tells the time quite accurately. This is louder than my other metal pendulum clocks; it sounds more like a light knock rather than a tick-tock. If you can reduce the friction on the gears, you can get away with less weight which will make this clock quieter.

In a nutshell: a fun/frustrating way to spend 20+ hours sanding, a huge sense of triumph/accomplishment when it functions but not a very practical clock.
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Sad clock DO NOT PURCHASE.
by Joseph A. Smith (1 out of 5 stars)
January 14, 2017

Looks cool when assembled however NOT impressed with the overall quality and cost. Parts arrived crooked, laser cuts not correct and a few small wooden washers arrived broken. After assembled, it runs for a minute or so then stops...too much messing around to get it to perform longer then a few minutes.

I called the company for replacement. All they said is the clock WILL work and they will deny a replacement.

I've attached some pics of pegs which were supposed to be perpendicular....clearly were not! (this WILL throw off the entire fluid movement of the final product). Most likely the reason the clock doesn't function.

I've also attached a pic of a small broken wooden washer.

One star was given because it was fun to assemble.
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Very nice kit.
by Quilterb (5 out of 5 stars)
December 28, 2016

Very nice kit. But NOT for someone who in not well versed in fine woodworking. The directions are very clear and concise. If you purchase this kit be sure to pay close attentinon to the sanding reccomendations. Also the kit is supplied with a pencil for the grapite lube, use a #2 pencil instead as the longer one will be much easier to use. Use 400 or finer to sand all surfaces, the smoother the better especially the gear teeth and dowels. I have enjoyed the build process. When applying the graphite (pencil) be sure to use enough to literally polish each surface. Also when hanging the clock it calls for level. For those that have not set up a mechanical clock before, hang the clock from the left mount point and start it running from level then raise or lower the right side slowly till the tick is even. By using plenty of pencil to lube the bearings and the gear teeth and leveling for a even tick the clock ran perfectly the first time. The led to fill the weight tube can pe purchased from any dive shop as soft led weights. 5 pounds will just fill the weight tube. And costs around $25.
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Awesome waste of time (pun intended)
by Quigsworth (5 out of 5 stars)
September 30, 2016

Worked perfectly the moment I set the pendulum in motion...but it there was a long time of spinning gears and tweaking to get there. I built it while binge watching season 6 of Game of Thrones (again) so I was in no hurry. There was a couple cracked pieces, no doubt from them crashing into each other during shipping...seller should look into upping their game in that dept. but you glue them, set them aside and move on. Almost every piece needs some messaging, if you're looking for some Ikea furniture type kit that you can just take out of the box and put together and you're done, you will not be amused. But if want something that will take time and patience and challenge you, you'll love this. Getting the gears and other parts built is maybe 1/3 the job, the real time is in the tuning and tweaking. Well worth it, have fun
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One Awesome Clock!
by Amanda Cox (5 out of 5 stars)
May 17, 2016

I purchased to hang in my office at work. My boyfriend assembled the clock for me, so the following comments are based watching him assemble the clock. The clock can be assembled within a couple of hours. Although he made the assembly look easy, this clock requires a great deal of mechanical inclination to assemble and be expected to work. 1) You must be able to precisely follow the instructions provided. Do not deviate from the guide. 'Creative' assembly would be a very bad idea. Hence, why he assembled for me. 2) You must be patient and meticulously careful with the delicate, intricate parts. 3) Pay close attention to the string on the weight. Make sure it is on its rollie-thingy guide before winding. Otherwise, your extremely patient teenage daughter will have to spend about two hours with various cosmetic and medical tweezers and tools untangling the string from the fragile sprockets. :D The clock works great and I would purchase this item again. Additionally, my boyfriend found assembling the clock to be rather relaxing and expressed an interested in finding similar product to assemble.
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A fun, challenging, but ultimately satisfying project
by Alex Beal (5 out of 5 stars)
April 4, 2018

This is not a kit for the impatient. I'd advise anyone interested to read the one star reviews before deciding if they're up for the task. It's true that some of the parts are warped and don't fit together quite right out of the box. This is just the nature of the material, and getting everything to fit together is part of the fun, requiring hours of careful sanding and tinkering. If the kit snapped together like Legos, the end product wouldn't be nearly as gratifying. Don't buy this kit if you're not prepared to embrace the struggle.

That said, I have no experience with wood working or clock building and was able to put this together in a few evenings. Getting it to run without stopping took another couple of days of adjustments. I really enjoyed every moment of it. It was challenging but also engrossing.

Does this build a practical clock? Not really. It needs to be wound every day and the best accuracy I was able to get was +/- 10 minutes per day, but that's not really the point now is it?
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Poor quality manufacturing leads to a disappointing clock kit
by Lynn (2 out of 5 stars)
May 1, 2018

I build custom clocks and wanted to try a kit, so I purchased this 'Abong'. Even though the parts are laser cut, the fit and precision is marginal.

Below are a few of the issues:
- Alignment holes are not perpendicular
- Dowels are not the correct size to fit in the holes, with some dowels being too large and others too small
- Parts are marked incorrectly and I've had to determine the correct part to use based on the pic
- The instructions are inconsistent and incomplete which, which leads to guess work when assembling pieces in the right position

Overall I am very disappointed as I was hoping for a more precision cut kit with clear instructions.
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I thought the kit looked great. Got started on it
by Chee Hua (1 out of 5 stars)
June 24, 2017

I thought the kit looked great. Got started on it, and had gotten to the point where the piece I needed was broken. I then found another broken piece. I emailed the company to see if I could get replacement pieces. No reply from them. I sent back the entire kit. Very disappointing.
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This is a very interesting conversation piece.
by Rick (4 out of 5 stars)
September 28, 2018

It was kind of confusing at first but when I got into it was very interesting. You must read all of the text in the manual. I had to reorder the palette and they sent a new one no questions asked. I had to use the graphite in places they didn't say use at. I got mine running, keeps pretty good time after I got the weights on the pendulum figured out, it runs almost 24 hours before rewinding. If anyone has any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
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Works if you assemble with great care. Great conversation piece!
by padolph (3 out of 5 stars)
March 11, 2019

At first my build of this kit is stalled because I need the gear that arrived broken. I called the company and left voice mails (they never answered) and sent emails asking for a warranty replacement. I received one email reply saying they will send the part, but it has not arrived two weeks later. I will update my review if I ever hear from them.

This kit requires a lot of skill to put together. I am relying heavily on my Dremel tool to make things fit together: e.g. when a peg/dowel needs to go into a hole, the hole is almost always too small and must be reamed out with a small grinder on the Dremel. I also use a cut-off wheel attachment to cut alignment pins and and a barrel sander attachment sand down trimmings. Doing all this by hand with manual tools would be a nightmare. If you are good with your Dremel and have the right attachments, building this kit is pretty fun.

Edit 3/31/19: I finally received the warranty replacement for the broken part, almost a full month after I contacted the company. So I finally have all the parts now. I'm taking my sweet time assembling it because of the fit problems mentioned above, so this was not too painful. But be aware that if your kit arrives with damaged part(s) like mine did, it will be a long time before it is whole. It would be best to check all parts carefully before you start.

Edit 5/1/19: I finally finished it! It worked the first time and ran for about 20 hours before needing rewinding.

Some tips on assembly;
- Follow the instructions exactly! Don't skimp on sanding where they say, including "laser residue" removal from all the gear teeth
- For your sanity, use a Dremel tool as mentioned above
- Don't skimp on graphite lubrication. Consider buying a tube of fine graphite powder here on Amazon, to use in addition to the supplied pencil.
- Sand axels ultra smooth by mounting them lightly into your portable drill chuck, wrap with 220 sandpaper and run the drill while holding the sandpaper. Then lubricate liberally with graphite.
- Make sure the gears really do spin freely on the axels. This is the most important 'tuning' you need to do. Friction is the enemy! A good technique I found was to wrap one of the small alignment pins with 110 sandpaper, mount it in your portable drill, and feed the wrapped pin all the way through the gear's axel hole. Run the drill while moving in and out. So much easier and faster than doing by hand!
- I found a 5lb lead shot diving weight bag here on Amazon for about $25. I cut it open and poured the shot into the weight tube. Wash your hands after sealing! (Lead is toxic)

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