Project #1: The Clockmaster's Dream

Q:  What happens when you take an old Nostromo n52 gaming pad and use it to set up hotkeys in Google Sketch Up?

A:  You have a new favorite video game to play with, that actually does something productive.

While I am absolutely committed to NEVER building the same thing twice, my intent is to design project platforms that I can use as master concepts for building products with similar design foundations over time.  I'm calling this platform the "Clockmaster's Dream" series, mostly because the clocks I build with it will be VERY easy clock cases for a clockmaker to work with when it comes time to maintain and repair their movements. 

Being a Sketch Up Artist has its advantages.  I sat down yesterday afternoon for about an hour and toyed around with some concepts for this design platform.  Building my designs in Sketch Up allows me to brainstorm construction ideas and manipulate the model in a 3D environment so I can get a good idea of what will and won't work before I ever cut into a piece of wood.  It also allows me to print off design plans with dimensions.  Extra time spent in Sketch Up saves a LOT of time in the shop, not to mention helping to eliminate wasted wood.  Here's a very rough sketch of the preliminary design concept for this project. 

Many things about this design will change before I power up my saw for the first cut, but I wanted to give you an idea of what Sketch Up can do, and how I'll be spending most of my time at the computer these days...