Project - "Making the Grandfather's Clock - Getting Started"

When I was producing videos, it was said that a day of preplanning could save an hour of editing. That was a bargain when you considered editing could cost from $400 to $1200 an hour.    So when Beth and I started this project (in inset), we thought that it would make sense to do as much planning as necessary.    We were lucky in that we were using some plans for the project. But, as we learned from the bar project, plans, themselves, required some checking.
	These plans are from Marc Sommerfeld. I have now built a couple of projects using his plans, so I have more faith in them being usable "right out of the box."    Note that the plans are printed on large 30" X 40" sheets (9 of them) with full scale drawings — sort of reminds me of making model airplanes from balsa wood and pinning the pieces right to the plans [that was a long time ago — after the Wright Brothers, but barely.]
There are some 71 pieces and most all are from 1/2" walnut, so the first task was to figure out the actual footage we needed.
	Can you believe that we entered each and every piece into the calculator to get square footage?    My plan was to order the 1/2" walnut, and I needed the square footage to help me place that order.    Why order  1/2" walnut rather than to plane and cut it down myself? Easy, my walnut supply is low, so I would have to order the wood anyway, AND, I found one lumber supplier that sells 1/2" walnut that is thickness sanded to its exact dimension. That sounded good to me.
I have ordered from Steve Wall Lumber (http://www.walllumber.com) before so I was pretty sure that what I ordered would be great walnut, and it would be ready to use. They sell "UPS packs" in 5 square feet, so I figured, 3 packs* (15 square feet at $16.25 a pack) will cover my needs — I had calculated 11.0408 square feet. This will give me some room for error and will allow me some selection based on grain patterns.    A few days later, the UPS man delivered my bundle of 3 packs. I was a little surprised that the board edges were exposed. It doesn't look much like a clock yet!    [Note - as we finished the clock, we found that we really needed one more UPS pack — 4 in total.]
	With the 3 packs unbundled, the true quality of the walnut became apparent. I couldn't find any shipping damage. Every piece is usable.  I decided to let them rest and get use to their northern climate.
It's two weeks later and Beth is back from the Fiji's. We finally got some time to start the clock making. We looked over the walnut and checked it against our plan requirements.
	Beth measured each piece and found that each one was  exactly 1/2"thick. That's a real help.
No additional sanding was necessary for the two faces. Steve's thickness sander is way better than mine. This alone will save a lot of time. So far, buying these bundles is making sense.
	Most of the clock pieces are narrow for making up the rails and stiles. Straight grain, non-figured wood will work best for that.    Beth sorts through the stock to find pieces that will work for the first section.
The large plans gave us a chance to exam those clock pieces where the figure of the grain will be able to really pop out.  Some of the boards had some attractive grain patterns that Beth wants to place in the paneled sections. She will mark these so that they will be available when it is time to cut the panels.
	When we looked real close at the picture of the final product, we could see that Marc used some really strikingly beautiful walnut burl that was book matched. I showed Beth some walnut burl that would be equally nice. We, both,  really liked the veneered raised panel, and we will make the same. But we will do it both ways — the veneering will be at the end.
It's time to start cutting.   It is very tempting to cut all the pieces like we did with the bar project, but Beth wanted to do one section at a time. The cabinet front is first. What is nice about the plans is that they are organized by section, and the cover sheet has a color coded "exploded parts diagram" to make it easier to take the process one section at a time.
	We decided that we would use the miter saw for the cuts to length and leave the table saw set up for ripping. She double checks to see that the fence stop is set accurately to the blade. It is.    By the way, I wanted to be sure that these cross cuts were as clean and crisp as we needed. I installed a brand new CMT blade designed for this type operation. It is the CMT Model 219 for compound miter saws. In the 8 1/2" size, it is 60 teeth (equivalent to an 80T 10" blade.) With careful cutting, it gives us perfect cuts.
She starts the cutting process.  The rails of the front are specified as 9" wide. This allows for 3/8" tenons. Beth and I decide that we can use biscuits, so she adjusts the stop to 8 1/4". This reduced size is also marked on the Plans.