Hi Group,
I built this clock as a 50th anniversary gift for my Parents. I had the thing up and running (but not polished...still looked good) and I invited them out to my house last April to see it. My Mom was in the later stages of Parkinson's, and in a wheelchair. She couldn't get up to take a close look, but she loved it! My Dad, too. Soon after, they moved to North Carolina to a retirement community. Sadly, my Mother was very ill from the start down there and she passed away in July. I'm just glad she had a chance to see the clock. It hung on my wall keeping excellent time until just before Christmas. I was going south to see my Dad over the holiday, so I spent a couple weeks polishing and lacquering the brass and finishing the walnut base. I installed the clock on the wall of my Father's apartment the day after Christmas. He tells me it's running good. I really enjoyed building the clock. In fact, I got Bill Smith's Grasshopper Skeleton clock book about a month ago. I am indebted to many members of r.c.m. for bits of advice I picked up from you whenever I got stuck along the way. Thanks too, to John Shadle of onlineclockbuilding.com for answering a couple questions about gear cutting that had me stumped. It was also from his site that I got the instructions for building gear cutters. They work great and it's worth a trip to his site to see his beautiful work.
Thanks all, Nok