Clayton Boyer Clock Designs

Clocks on this page do not have plans available.

 

This beautiful red colored wood is eucalyptus robusta. There used to be three stumps lined up here. Inside of the third stump was this torsion clock. All I had to do was chip away everything that didn't look like a clock.

This "Torsion Tree Clock" will run for 34 hours on a winding and is nearly silent - a very calming movement. As the small lantern swings from side to side, it is mesmerizing to watch.

The Moon Phase Clock shows the seconds, minutes, hours, day, date and phases of the moon, all operating with levers and pulleys and without the use of any gears. It even strikes the hour as the lever returns and hits a little bell.

Laminator

This monster is about 5' tall and was made especially for that one, last, empty piece of wall in my office. If you look closely, you'll see the weight cord exiting upwards. It goes up to a ceiling pulley, over the window to another pulley and the weight drops down on the right side of the window. This is my wife's least favorite design, and would just as soon see how many BTU's it contains.

This beautiful mechanism is a timer. As you can see in the close-up, it has an odd three tooth escape wheel that is as unique as it is noisy. To operate this timer, the wheel on the right is wound counterclockwise - the number of the minutes showing in the circle on the face. As the wheel is wound, the weight is lifted. This mechanism can be wound to over two and a half hours. As the time runs down, the weight lowers onto an adjustable pin in the base of the frame. This causes a lever to raise the rod you see on the left side of the clock. As the rod rises, and the minutes reach Zero, the steel ball is loosed onto the track that runs across the top of the clock. Eventually, I will create a ball race down the clock, but at present the ball flies out into space and lands with a crash in the metal bucket on the floor. An experience you will not soon forget, especially if you had forgotten the thing was running. Then, after your heart stops pounding, you can go check to make sure the cookies are not burning.

 

This wonderful little clock has as close as I've ever come to making an enclosed cabinet. It has a triangular back picece, and see that round piece hanging in front of the pendulum bob from the two strings? That's the front of the cabinet. It really does work to stop one's eye, and completes the balance of the clock.

Mechanically this clock is a bit unique, too. It has seven wheels - five of which are identical. So, in theory, one could just cut out the two wheels that are different and one of the five identical and use a router to cut the other four identical wheels...which is what I did. If I ever get around to finishing the plans for this one, I'll include the router jig. Makes cutting the wheels for this clock a dream.

My wife calls this the "Paisley Clock." It was one of my first designs.

I call this the Behemoth. She is one of my favorite mechanisms. Because she is so huge, with her five foot wing span, I had to mount her waayyy up at the top of my office wall, and still I had to shorten the weights on both of her arms. Since I have 11 foot ceilings, it is difficult to get a good photo of her. These don't do her justice. Because her movement is so beautiful, sometimes I'll go get a ladder and climb up and just stand there and watch her rock back and forth. She's lovely up close. She is made completely from a mango tree stump that a neighbor pushed off in my driveway.

Honukulele

Of course this is an ukulele, the king of instruments here in Hawaii. On the front piece I have cut out a likeness of our local sea turtle, which in Hawaiian is called a Honu. Thus...Honukulele. Clever, no?

Surprisingly, it gets raves from people that can actually play it. Here's a video of my good friend doing just that:

 

This is a dulcimer. We are not allowed to own these in Hawaii.

Way back at the turn of the last century Hawaii faced a dilemma - one very much like, “Which shall it be, VHS or Beta, 8 track or cassette, 45rpm or CD?” Hawaii’s debate was, however, over which string instrument should reign supreme in the islands, the ukulele or the dulcimer? When the question went to the legislature in 1921, with much heated debate, they finally decided upon the ukulele. This was not really surprising in that “ukulele” is a Hawaiian word and dulcimer is a retching sound. The two parts of the word, Uku and Lele in Hawaiian mean; lele – to jump around in a crazy manner, and uku – a small bug, such as a flea, or more correctly, head lice…one of Hawaii’s major export products.

Under the guidance of my friend, Wendell the Dulcimer Addict, a fine luthier and notorious outlaw in his own right, I constructed this wonderful, musical instrument. Fortunately, he lives in the hills of Arkansas where dulcimers are legal. When I finished her, I took her to the music shop for some strings. She cooperated nicely with the guys down at the music shop, and they could really make her sound beautiful. To date, however, she is steadfastly resisting my advances.