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Paul Seller's Clock in Cherry

  This is a relatively common build. Followers of Paul Seller's make and post images of "Seller's-inspired," "my-interpretation of," or "Purist" examples of his clock, which originally appeared on YouTube in a  free online course he offered. This example of mine is in the "Purist" style. I typically look at pieces online or in a magazine and then draw a picture of what my take on a particular piece would be and come up with some measurements, which get refined a number of times, decide on a wood species, and hit the tools. The problem for me with this kind of adaptive learning is that half of the education, as in the instructional/teacher insights is omitted. I wanted to build my first Seller's clock as Paul did. I wanted to go through the processes he does. More than a clock, I wanted to understand how this master applied his trade, in terms of design, tool choice, order of steps, and methodology. And, I certainly wanted to do that...
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Paul Seller's Clock in Cherry

  This is a relatively common build. Followers of Paul Seller's make and post images of "Seller's-inspired," "my-interpretation of," or "Purist" examples of his clock, which originally appeared on YouTube in a free online course he offered. This example of mine is in the "Purist" style. I typically look at pieces online or in a magazine and then draw a picture of what my take on a particular piece would be and come up with some measurements, which get refined a number of times, decide on a wood species, and hit the tools. The problem for me with this kind of adaptive learning is that half of the education, as in the instructional/teacher insights is omitted. I wanted to build my first Seller's clock as Paul did. I wanted to go through the processes he does. More than a clock, I wanted to understand how this master applied his trade, in terms of design, tool choice, order of steps, and methodology. And, I certainly wanted to do that before I started designing what my take on it would be. I litterally wanted to work in a new way.

The Build:

 


This is a completely handtool build. It is made from cherry. The boards were cut and squared up with a hand plane. The dados were marked out. Both ends of the dados were chiseled, to severe the fibers. I then cut along on the dado lines, using a Dozuki. I really like a Dozuki, although it is technically the wrong saw, for this purpose. The Dozuki, designed for cross-cuts, has a back, but it also is small and has a small knife immediately at the front. I am able to start the dado cut with the knife and slowly bring the blade down. It can be extremely accurate. Generally, blades are so thin on Japanese saws that the "leave the line" adage is no longer applicable provided you can cut straight. Almost always, I start the process of cleaning out the dados with a bench chisel. Remove the waste to right above the line. It will take more time and effort to clean out the stopped side of the dado. The Dozuki is only able to get about one-third of the way down, The process is aways to chisel down a little on pieces against the grain and then to bring those side with the grain even. Do not pry, The dados on this clock run relatively close to the edges of the piece. Prying will result in busting the dado out on the unsupported side. Once it was near the correct depth, I switched to a router plane. This style of clock is a gluing up nightmare because in order to clamp it you will need to to have the sides and top glued on. So, we're talking twelve dados, and eight pieces wood and a bunch of glue and clamps. The bead were done exactly the same as with my Scrapwood Birdhouse Clock. I inserted a large straight wood screw into a block, leaving it pertruding a quarter-inch. There are rails both in the front and on the back, however, there is no panel in the back. The hole for the clock was cut out with a coping saw.

 The Scrapwood Birdhouse Clock is my take on Paul Seller's clock. When side-by-side you can see the similarities-- the paneled front, the bead going around the face, and, though not visible, both use stopped dados as its main means of joinery.



Finish:


 Not everyone agrees, but I usually apply at least one coat of water-based dye. In this case a mix of misson and red. I do this for uniformity between sapwood and heartwood. The clock was then applied numerous coats of a canned shellac-alcohol mix, roughly 40/60, respectively.

Conclusion:

 As I mentioned in my post Scrapwood Birdhouse Clock, if I were to build another clock I would use sliding dovetail dados on the sides and top. My wife hated this clock. More precisely, she hated all that real estate on the faceplate. Consequently, I gave it to my oldest son who allowed his mom, my ex-wife, to hang it up and now she won't give it back to him. So there I go, building clocks that only my ex-wife wants! I did have fun with this build and studying, in this microcosm of Paul Seller's workshop. 

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by Stephen Koonz







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Location: Albany, NY, USA

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