Abong Vera Wooden Crafted Clock Kit | Do-It-Yourself Project

A first rate product. One gripe, So let’s get that out of the way. The manual is great. Whoever proofread it has better skills to offer in any other task. There are a total of four potentially disastrous errors. Two are noted on an added sheet. Two I stumbled upon in a review also posted here. Very important to annotate your book before you begin.That out of the way, the Abong Vera is a great homage to timekeepers of old, with two critical updates that make it a pleasure. The tubular graphite axles are a fantastic upgrade. The twelve ball bearing pivots are even better. They don’t show once completed, so they don’t spoil the vintage appearance.The birch ply is first rate, and cut well with a fine gradient laser cutter.I’m a rank novice with clocks, but have extensive RC airplane building and fine woodworking experience. I wouldn’t recommend it for a first of any kind kit build, but for the experienced and patient builder, it’s a fun project, with just enough fiddling at the end to make it go to keep it challenging.Pay close attention to sanding all contact surfaces. Gear teeth must be very smooth and kept square to the faces. Be careful and use good light, magnifier if needed. A few craft sticks filed to a knife edge with 220 sandpaper wrapped over the edge and glued will make excellent gear teeth sanding tools. Also highly recommend using GEL super glue. Loctite super glue gel in the blue dispenser bottle is really easy to use and works well.Overall I’m very pleased. My vision is horrible, guide dog horrible, so it took me a bit to make all the gears run smooth, but once running well, it’s very satisfying.

instruction were not that great. The adjustments needed to make on the piping that all the gears ride on are critical. The wood itself and the laser cuts provided were good. But because I had already glued the spacers to the pipe, and now I have no adjustments I am going to have to find new pipe and spacers and then attempt to re-assemble.

I’m giving the Vera clock kit a 4 out of 5. I really like the product and it runs well; however, there are a couple of errors in the instructions. One led to damaging a part trying to correct the mistake.First, I would recommend not using just any super glue, even medium super glue sets too quickly. I used super glue GEL. A couple of the gears may be warped. This can be fixed with a little water and some patience. Just dampen the wood and lightly bend.There is an addendum to the instructions correcting 2 errors but there are two more. Page 25 number 41. The picture is incorrect, triangle not diamond. Page 37 number 3. Picture is correct, instructions are incorrect. It should say “marked side up.”When matching the gears in pairs, you should be able to get the gears turning smoothly by just blowing on them and they should keep turning after you stop. If they don’t, then there is some friction or tightness in the gears that need to be addressed.Final weight of my counterweight is 1lb 4.5oz. If your pendulum stops swinging, adjust angle at which the clock is hanging. Mine is not hanging vertically, the bottom point is about 0.25 inches to the right of the vertical line.

When I opened the box and saw the sheer number of parts on the lasered planks, I know this would be a problem. I have worked with wood for the past 30 years and to be able to fit that many pieces in the exact location as shown by the plans, this would not be possible. I invested approximately 50 manhours on the clock to the point that I got it, but the axles would not remain fit in the bearings, and the bearings would not stay in the plates. My suggestion is that the axles be cut to size on delivery and not to be cut with a fine tooth saw. I don't recall the specs indicating that such a saw be available. I had one because I work with wood. Further, if slots are to be used with plug-in pieces, the slots need to be much larger to accept the plug. Further, the sanding of the gears need a sand blaster to a good finish. Sand paper does not finish the gear edges. The instructions had the axle washers slipped on the axle during the assembly of the gears. This doesn't seem necessary, as it works better in the finish assembly, when the axles are inserted in the bearings. Also, please re-think the printed plans to address each gear to be built, with a sheet to place the gears on with a resembling unit. Also please find a way to keep the bearing in the plates. It is annoying when you are about to mesh the gears and the bearings become dislodged.

I am disappointed not to be able to build this kit, since I was really looking forward to it. The concept and design for this clock kit are great, but the execution is poor. The laser-cut plywood was slightly warped, one of the laser-cut pieces was missing, and the tip of the carbon fiber pendulum rod was broken off (the tip was not in the box, so clearly the rod was packaged in the broken condition.

It was a gift for my son and he loves it. It’ does require some time, effort, skill and patience to assemble. That’s exactly what he liked about it.

When I opened the kit I found all of the wooden parts were at least a little warped. Even the 3/8"thick frame pieces would not lie perfectly flat on a table top. And as in almost every other review I've read, the parts were almost impossible to remove from the sheets. I was very careful and used a scalpel, and still chipped edges of many of the parts.The 1/8" sheets would not even sit flat in the box they came in.Upon further inspection I found that the laser cut parts were not cut straight up and down, meaning the edges were on a definite angle. This was clearly visible to the naked eye, as if the material was warped even before it was laser cut. The tiny round holes that located the gears and spacers were not perpendicular with the part faces, even with a snug fit to the tube shafts.Needles to say I found the quality of the kit was very unacceptable and not functional without major reworking.Very frustrated!I am going to return this kit.