About me
My
youth was in the Northern part of the Netherlands in the beautiful city Franeker
in the province Fryslan. It was an exiting time with the first sputniks and
astronauts.
At about eight I dismantled the electric clock of my parents, they where not
pleased!
As young boy I was already interested in Astronomy, on dark evenings sitting
behind
my
telescope I made drawings of the Moon craters and the position of the moons
of
Jupiter. I made my first telescope support with meccano and had wild ideas about
building a radar, never worked of course. But my own radio (Philips construction kit for
children) was a great success, said all the time, bleep bleep bleep, must have been
satellites! Later I studied at the Art Academy "Sculpture" and worked as Art Therapist.
But because of a poor health (COPD, Myasthenia Gravis and CVID) I have very low energy
and muscle strength. Live is most of the time climbing the Himalayas! Had to stop
active live, also one of the reasons to start this hobby, you can make small parts and
after some time you end up with a working clock! (At least you hope you do)
It took many years being a complete amateur, to learn how to work with a lathe for
making wheels and other parts. In fact I made a start in making wheels from wood
with
nails. Later I tried to make them by hand in yellow brass (see photo).
Of course I can not work as precise like a real professional. There are
three machines
an Emco 5, a Hobbymat and an older engraving machine. I have only
a limited number
of Thorton cutters, so I have to smuggle sometimes a little bit.
Because there is no energy
for more complicated works, I keep it as simple as possible. I hope this site
is a help
an encouragement to start building (astronomical) clocks, for it is a nice hobby.
On the Links page you will find many interesting sites with much information!
Hope you enjoyed my site, Pieter Merckx
Questions? Drop me a line!
Oeps...time goes too fast!
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