Themed Mechanical Pendulum Clocks
Thank you for visiting my site dedicated to the design and manufacture of made to order Limited Edition, theme based mechanical pendulum clocks.
A Bit About Me...
My name is Darren Simmons I'm a Mechanical Design Engineer with a strong background in manufacture. In 2015 I decided to have a go at building a wooden mechanical pendulum clock purely as a spare time challenge, but as you can see I took it too far... Please check out the "About" page to find out how I got obsessed with clocks...
About The Clocks...
I guess the full description for the range of mechanical pendulum clocks that I am offering at this time would be, limited edition, made to order, theme based, wooden, gravity driven, mechanical pendulum clocks, I think that covered everything... Let me go into more detail of what that all means.
Limited Edition & Made To Order...
All mechanical pendulum clocks are Limited Edition meaning that only a certain number of each design will be made. Each year a small batch will be released until the Limited Edition number has been reached. All clocks are made to order, cut, hand finished, and assembled just for you.
Theme Based...
All of my mechanical pendulum clocks are going to be theme based, offering a range of clocks that appeal to a wide range of interests, hobbies, and passions. I'm launching the site with 3 themes, Days of Steam, Iconic Aircraft and Nature however more are definitely on the way. For me, I've always been interested in aircraft and would quite happily spend a fare amount of time at museums and airshows, so there was always going to be an Iconic Aircraft theme, and what a beauty to start with, Concorde.
Wooden...
At the moment my mechanical pendulum clock designs are offered in American Black Walnut and Oak real wood veneers on a medium density fibre core. Smaller parts such as, gear hubs, shaft supports etc, and two small gears are made from acrylic, offering stability and precision where need. All parts are generally assembled using tiny M2 screws.
Using real wood veneers offers that feel and warmth that is only achievable with hand finished real wood. This material choice is perfect for providing a consistent edge finish on intricate wooden parts that are geometrically stable when compared to solid wood, which, in thin sections, is likely to warp and split over time. I have created a page demonstrating why solid wood is not suitable for my clocks, please click here for more information.
Gravity Driven...
Batteries not included, in fact batteries not required. For that true authentic design and feel, all of my mechanical pendulum clocks are gravity driven, meaning they are powered by a weight and the pull of earths gravity... There is a weight, typically located to the right of the pendulum and wind handle on the left. To wind the clock, simply pull down on the wind handle until the weight rises to the top, it literally takes seconds to wind the clock up, which now has enough potential energy to run for for over a full day.
Mechanical Pendulum Clock...
A pendulum clock is a clock by which the speed of operation is regulated by the oscillating (back and forth) motion of the pendulum. Theres a bit of science here for which I write an article but for the sake of this brief explanation of the mechanical pendulum clock I'll keep it simple. The pendulum used on my clocks is designed to take 2 seconds to travel from rights to left and back again to its original starting position. Knowing the time it takes allows the escapement mechanism to be designed so that in 1 minute the escapement wheel rotates once. Once this is established, the mechanical gears are used to give a ratio of 60:1 (the escapement rotates 60 times which rotates the main shaft once) giving the relationship of 60 minuets in 1 hour and controlling the minute hand. Now for one last element, driving the hour hand which is achieved with another second set of gears in a second reduction with a ratio of 12:1 (the minute hand rotates 12 times which rotates the hour hand once) giving the relationship of the 12 hours needed to rotate the hour hand completely around the clock face.
Thank you for taking the time to read this "Themed Mechanical Pendulum Clocks" page. I hope you found it interesting and informative, however if you have any questions or comments about the page or any aspect of the site or clocks, please do not hesitate to contact me.
One more thing... it might worth taking a look at my FAQs page, a growing page of common questions that people ask when viewing my mechanical wall clocks. Keep those questions coming... Thanks Darren
