I have very nearly finished the manufacturing of parts for my clock. The only part I have yet to create is the minute-hand. They are Breguet style hands which means there's a round bulb at the end of the hand with a hole though it. I'm on my fourth attempt because I am having difficulty getting the holes perfectly centered. As you can see on the hand below, the hole I drilled was imperfect due to the limitations of drilling holes of that size on a fairly crude drillpress.
I have abandoned the drill in favor of cutting the rough shape out of the hand then filing it to it's final shape. This technique worked on the hour hand so hopefully I can get it to work as well on the minute hand.
I also fired up the mill to form the flats for the pillar nuts, which hold the whole thing together. With any luck I will finish the minute hand tomorrow then all that remains is the tedious task of finishing all the parts to a high level of quality then assembling the final product.
There was an issue with cutting out the hands I had on Tuesday. The blade broke during an upstroke and due the positioning of my thumb at the time my finger got impaled to a depth of around a half inch. The blade couldn't be pulled out due the teeth of the saw so I had to visit the doctor so they could numb it up and pass the blade out the other side of the thumb. Moral of the story here is to be very careful with that particular tool!
As bad as the wound appears, less than three days later it's almost as good as new. Still it's a good thing to avoid, obviously.
A surprisingly small amount of pain.
The pillar nuts drying after being washed in solvent
My second attempt, you'll notice the poor quality of the lower hole
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