Clock 2

I have decided to start a whole new clock, now that I have learned from my many previous mistakes. Here is the start of the drive wheel.

 This wheel will have 72 teeth, and hopefully turn once an hour....if my wild ass guesses work out OK!

First pass filing done.  Its very time consuming, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I am laying out the teeth differently this time as well, the last gears I made I tried to use geometry, this time I am using thin strips of metal marked at quarter inch intervals and transferring the marks to the wheel.  So easy and perfect every time.  I also got to test out one of the files I made a couple of months ago, turns out it was just the right width to file between the gear teeth.  I was very surprised at how well it worked, and the teeth on the file didn't really dull down much! 

I started to make the frame for the clock like my first attempt, similar to the 'monastic clock' in my pictures section, or like the The Cotehele Clock in the UK, but it was too heavy and unstable, so I decided to go with a later frame style.

Starting the next gear in the train

Fitting the spokes to the gear wheel

The spoke ends split and pinched onto the wheel.  The tooth tips have been marked out and center punched.  The copper strip is the gauge I used to mark out the tooth placement. (much more accurate than trying to lay them out with dividers!!)

 Starting to file the teeth again, goes much faster now that I have it down to a science.

Second wheel and lantern pinion added to an axle.  It actually runs pretty smoothly, maybe it wont randomly stop every 20 minutes or so like my first try.

This is the start of the crown gear for the verge and foliot escapement.  Once again a copper gauge is used to mark off where the tooth tips will be.

Lots of filing, and realizing that I made a mistake again.  I should have attached the spokes first before filing the teeth.  I will run into distortion problems again like on the first crown wheel I made.

Going to continue with it anyways, not even sure if my estimate for the number of teeth is correct....time will tell (hah!)

 Yup, I should have installed the spokes first.  I am attaching them in the same manner that the Salisbury Cathedral clock was constructed.

The parts for the next lantern pinion all laid out.  These are much easier to make now that I have made a sort of jig to keep the parts consistent.

Just have to make another axle and key these parts into it.

Third axle in place.

Another view of the gear train.

I am not sure that I like the way the ratchet turned out, I may do it over again a different way.

I remade the ratchet and barrel all over again, I wanted it more compact and with a larger barrel I get greater mechanical advantage (I have to use less weight to run the clock).

Sorry the picture is blurry, but you get the idea.

Feel like I have been making every piece twice, but the clock is at the point where it runs....mostly.

Still needs some adjustments, but the verge and foliot are all assembled and it works!

This is the first time running, I still need to add weights to the foliot to make it adjustable.  Made the video with my phone, sorry for the poor quality.

Well the brass ring looked nice, but it had to go.  The clock runs out much faster than I want it too, so I added a longer foliot with heavier weights.  Also a new crown gear that doesn't work well at all :(

Starting to amass a nice collection of useless parts! The 3rd crown gear works the best, only 13 teeth on it and that gives the foliot a large swing and the clock has a slower beat.  Still not what I wanted but...oh well!  Started on the clock face gear. 

Clock face gear with spokes added.

hooray.  Lots of filing..... hooray..... until next week.

Teeth all filed and armature made for face gear. 

Face gear on clock.

Pinion gear that drives the face.

Have to make new weights still, and figure out why the clock stops every 5 minutes! arg!

(and clean up that ugly brazing job)

 Making the weight into a two fall system, have to double the weight but I get 2x the run time before winding.  I filed and sanded the pulley to get the shape. (I looked around but didn't feel like constructing some sort of rudimentary lathe...heh!)

What the clock looks like so far on the display stand  I made for it.  Not sure I like the way the sledge hammer head looks, but it was the right weight (8 pounds)

I decided to go with a white face (instead of a brass one like I was originally going to make) because the white paper mock-ups that I taped on it looked so good, and many of the historical ones from paintings and museums looked similar.  I made the dial part from thin copper and painted it (should have practiced more, kind of shaky! never said I was a painter...)

What the face looks like so far with repousse face.  I will probably plate it gold, not sure I like the idea of mercury gilding.

This is what it looks like all together so far.  I still have to engrave the bell and make a striking system.  The clock will ring 2x an hour, I wanted it to ring just once an hour, but because of a gross miscalculation in the beginning of planning/construction the great wheel goes around 2x an hour instead of once an hour like I originally wanted it to.  I am still not sure what to do about the color differences between the sun and the bell, maybe nothing?  It kind of bothers me.