Build Started

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I stopped by the hobby shop on Friday and picked up some more hardware to work on the Whereabouts clock. I've been working with Sketchup to model the clock in 3D before I start cutting brass tubing and plywood. I was able to model the servos and gears and got a good top-view of the mechanism. I printed it out full-scale and was able to use my drill press to drill the 6 holes for each servo shaft and the center shaft. I then used the scroll saw to open up the holes in one piece of plywood to make the holes where the servos mount. For the brass tubing, I was planning on using a regular tubing cutter, as the guy at themagicclock.com had used, but I must say it was a dismal failure. I knew that the cutter would leave a bit of a lip on the inside of the tubing that would need to be filed off, but it actually resized the end of the tube slightly smaller where the next smaller tube would no longer fit. I quickly abandoned the tubing cutter and went with a Dremel tool fitted with a cutting wheel and grinding stone. I was able to make quick cuts through the tubing without having to resize it after each cut. After a full day's work on it, I have 4 of the 5 servos mounted to the back piece of plywood. I have all the brass bushings for the axles on the front plywood, but these will need to be glued in later. I don't have the nested center tube completed for the hands yet, but I was able to successfully stack all 5 center gears and the individual servo gear on their own axle. I even plugged them into the Arduino running the same little servo test from a previous post and they all work just fine! Here's a picture of the progress I've made so far:

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