Precision-Cut Parts for Mechanical Wooden Clock Builds — South Africa
CNC-Routed & Laser-Cut Gear Sets • Vectorised From Official Drawings • Birch Ply, MDF & Hardwood
Based in the Garden Route. Shipping cut kits nationwide.
You’ve found the plans — Brian Law’s Woodenclocks.co.uk is the best-known free resource for mechanical wooden gear clock designs anywhere. What most builders don’t have is a CNC router or laser cutter accurate enough to cut interlocking wooden gears that actually mesh and run.
That’s where we come in. Send us the design you want to build, and we cut every gear, plate, and pointer to size — ready to sand, glue, and assemble.
Why CNC/Laser-Cut Instead of Hand-Cut?
A wooden gear clock only runs smoothly if the gear teeth are accurate and consistent — a fraction of a millimetre of error compounds across a full gear train and the mechanism binds or loses time. Hand-cutting 40+ interlocking gears with a scroll saw is a genuine skill and takes many hours. Our CNC router and laser cutter hold that tolerance automatically, on every part, every time.
- Vectorised From the Official Drawings: We take the designer’s full-scale reference drawings and convert them into clean, CNC-optimised vector files ourselves — you don’t need CAD software or DXF-editing skills.
- Consistent Gear Meshing: Every gear in a set is cut on the same machine pass, eliminating the tooth-profile drift that causes binding in hand-cut mechanisms.
- Nested for Minimum Waste: Parts are nested across your chosen sheet material to keep material cost down.
- Sand-and-Assemble Ready: Parts arrive cut, labelled, and ready for glue-up — no scroll saw required.
Available Designs — Free Drawings
Four of the original Woodenclocks.co.uk designs are available as free, full-scale drawings direct from the designer, and are our most-requested builds:
| Design | Character | Cutting From |
|---|---|---|
| Clock 1 | The most popular of the range — a compact in-line gear train with an early Verge & Foliot–inspired look. Straightforward to build. | R2,250 |
| Clock 2 | A larger-format companion to Clock 1, with extra gearing for smoother second-hand motion. | R2,900 |
| Clock 4 | Compact pendulum design, wall or shelf mounted. | R1,850 |
| Clock 5 | Compact pendulum design, wall or shelf mounted. | R1,850 |
Beyond the Free Four — Paid Designs on Request
Woodenclocks.co.uk offers dozens more designs — spring-driven, wind-up, non-circular gear trains, and large-format clocks — where the CNC-ready drawing files are sold directly by the designer (typically $26–$42 depending on the design or bundle). If you’ve got a specific design in mind from the site, tell us which one:
- We purchase the official drawing file on your behalf and add it to your quote as a once-off drawing fee (from R650) — no markup games, we’ll show you the designer’s price.
- Or, if you already own the drawing files, upload them directly and skip the drawing fee entirely.
Why Locally Cut Beats an Imported Kit
Precut wooden gear clock kits are widely sold online from the US and UK, but South African import duty on wooden toy/puzzle articles runs up to 45% of customs value, plus 15% VAT on top, plus international courier freight and a clearance fee. Once that lands, an imported kit costs more than having one cut locally — and takes weeks, not days.
| Imported Precut Kit | PrecisionFab SA | |
|---|---|---|
| Kit / cutting cost | ~R700 (~$38 typical) | R1,850 – R2,250 |
| International freight | ~R800 – R1,200 | — |
| Import duty (up to 45%) | ~R680 – R900 | R0 |
| Import VAT (15% on landed value) | ~R350 – R450 | R0 |
| Clearance / agent fee | ~R350 – R450 | R0 |
| Landed total | ≈R2,900 – R3,700 | R1,850 – R2,250 |
| Turnaround | 3–8 weeks, customs risk | Days |
Cut locally, you also get material and thickness options, no customs delay or damage risk, and support from someone you can actually call.
Cutting-Only Pricing — By Mechanism Size
For builders who already have their drawing (free or purchased) and just need accurate parts cut, here’s our standard pricing by mechanism size and material. All prices are cutting labour + material for a complete gear/frame/pointer set; hardware (shafts, bearings, weights, pendulum bob) is not included.
| Mechanism Size | Example Designs | 3mm/6mm Birch Ply | MDF (Budget) | Hardwood Frame Upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compact (under 300mm) | Clock 4, Clock 5, Starter Clocks | R1,850 | R1,350 | +R900 |
| Standard (300–450mm) | Clock 1 | R2,250 | R1,650 | +R1,150 |
| Large / Complex (450mm+, spring-driven, extra gear trains) | Clock 2, spring-drive & wind-up designs | R2,750 – R3,800 | R2,100 – R2,850 | +R1,500 |
What’s Included
- Vectorising the design into CNC/laser-ready files
- Nested cutting on birch plywood, MDF, or hardwood (your choice)
- All gears, frame plates, pointers, and pendulum parts in the set
- Parts labelled to match the designer’s assembly instructions
- Packed flat for courier shipping nationwide
What You’ll Still Need
- The designer’s assembly instructions (included with the free or purchased drawing)
- Hardware: brass shafts/rod, small bearings, wood glue, and a weight or spring (available from local clock-parts and hobby suppliers)
- An afternoon (or several) for glue-up and tuning
A Note on Design Rights
These are Brian Law’s original clock designs, and his drawings are provided for personal, non-commercial builds — not for resale or redistribution. PrecisionFab SA cuts parts to order from these drawings as a fabrication service, the same way we’d cut any customer-supplied file. We credit the designer and don’t claim these designs as our own. If you’re building to sell finished clocks commercially, that’s between you and the designer’s licence terms — worth checking with Brian Law directly.
Start Your Clock Build
Pick a design (or send us the one you’ve found), tell us your material preference, and we’ll confirm pricing and turnaround within 24 hours.
💬 Connect on WhatsApp: +27 67 069 6251
Also Available: Small-Batch Manufacturing
Need more than one? We also run low-to-medium volume production — 10 to 500+ units per batch — with your toolpaths and material specs locked in for repeat orders, no factory MOQs or hard tooling costs.