Dial Construction Begins for the Courthouse

Phil Wright has started construction on our new dials for the Historic Cabarrus Courthouse project.  These will be correct in design for the Seth Thomas Company and era correct for pictures that were shown in the 1930's.  It was recorded that the lighter face colors (only pictures are in black and white) were done in the late 1800's for better visibility.  The new dials will be back-lit, as updated in the 1970's so the clock can be visible after dark.  Back-lit dials were available in 1876 when the courthouse was constructed, however wood dials were installed instead.  Ultimately visibility always proved to be an issue, especially only being 34-inches in diameter.

Stay-tuned for more updates!

Laying out the guide lines

Phil uses a mock-up hand (Seth Thomas style) to assist with the layout

Once the hand design was finalized and scaled correctly to the dial size, cutting the new hands could start

Each hand is detailed by hand to be correct in geometry

The stack of hands ready for primer

First layer of primer complete

The paint process will continue and further work to construct numerals will be next.  Cabarrus Time Savers will be assisting with the numeral construction.

Below is a similar style of dial assembly that is being used as a guide for this project.  Also a Seth Thomas installation.