my first fully made clock

[Burkhardt]

.... I thought of bamboo plywood too but I hate the smell of the stuff and it is easily splintered. not sure if it would work well for the gears or not.

Bamboo is in principle excellent for such parts, as long as you get the straw yellow natural material. This is not brittle at all and cuts like a dream. No surface tear-out and smooth cut. I use it a lot and actually the entire frame and gantry of my CNC machine is made from Bamboo plywood.

Do not use the heat treated "Carbonized" amber or brown variety. This is indeed brittle and much weaker.

That said, bamboo plywood usually comes in 3-ply only. If less than 3/4" thick it has a tendency to warp, making it unsuitable for such precision parts.

As for Baltic Birch, you can get aircraft rated sheets, e.g. from Aircraft Spruce. The 5-ply 1/8" or 12-ply 1/4" should be the ticket for such mechanisms.

[knight_toolworks]

I don't know if the bamboo would polish up like the plywood does. I wanted the aircraft spruce but it is just too expensive. the fellow who makes the kits uses it and it is cheaper to have him cut out the parts then for me to buy the sheets. he charges about 35/00 for all the parts cut one 2x4 sheet of 1/4" is about 100.00 with shipping. plus his cuts don't have toolmarks but for the tabs.