Thread: My Wooden geared clock

3.4 kg WOW
All those bearing must of paid off
You have inspired me to have another look at my clock it has nearly 6kg on it

The official turning on and ribbon cutting must be soon

Russell

Well I have made a discovery....I think the electronics were making fools of us....today I had the clock running on 2kgs! when I noticed the red light on the electromagnetic pendulum was quietly flashing red every stroke. At this stage I have unhooked the unit until I can figure out what's going on. I observed strange behavior in that I moved the bob up 300mm up the shaft to speed up the stroke time and try to rid of those red flashing led....it made no difference; I even removed the bob altogether! And nothing changed. That's when I twigged that something was awry. Tonight I have the clock running on 7kgs. We will see how it goes overnight.in summary the emp unit was doing 90% of the pushing allowing me to be able to remove most of the weight.
Dean

Dean
I forgot about your electronic helper, That explains the 3.4kg as you said.
So is the electronic helper now running with the 7kg?

Russell

No the electronics are stopping the pendulum, so I disconnected them. I think either the batteries are flat or the mechanism is malfunctioning.
Dean

Here is my progress to date in pictures.(especially for Russell!) The micro cogs are installed and working, the hour gear assembly is in place; the face is re-installed.( I wanted to see what difference the weight of the face would make to the overall runing; it has made some. It currently is working against the weight system which is pulling the frame upwards).
Today I might be able to get some idlers made and installed. These are designed to re-rout the path of the RHS string and stop it derailing.


Dean.

Here is some footage on Youtube Deans Wooden Clock Take 2 - YouTube. If you carefully you can hear the tick getting softer throughout the video; this is when the high spot is ecountered in the gear train. It will be my next task to replace that 4 spoke gear with a 6 spoke.

Dean.

Dean
You do not get the idea of how big that clock is from the drawing or the individual parts, but when it on the wall it is impressive and that clock face wow just love it.
I do like the whole thing with the strings coming out the top of the clock and into the big bracket (i call it the harbor bridge) and down the sides make it interesting and gives it individuality.
Bugger with the four spoke gear, but we do live and learn I guess.

Russell

That clock face just demands attention. Big, bold and beautiful.

Thanks for the complements...I always disliked the single weight especially as it is so prominent. I am right into symmetrical design so after seeing my friend Stefan's clock which had 1 weight and noticed the extended run time by running the weights from higher up, it was really the only solution.I too did not realize how big the clock face would be until I saw that 600mm measurement. I like it now.I contacted Dick Vipes re the electromagnetic pendulum and he agrees that it is not behaving as expected. So i will be posting it back for a replacement.
Oh well I can still work on the clock while that gets sorted out.
Dean.

Hi a quick update on the progress of the idlers. I installed these to straighten up the RHS cord from the drum to the top pully. Originally its path danced between the two shafts and onto the pully. The problem was that the angle was not straight enough resulting in the rope comming of the pully. To prevent that i made 2 idllers that sat on the 2 shafts. These once installed did not work and added additional pressure to the gear train resulting in extra weight needing to be added. This resulted in the clock stopping.! So its back to the drawing board. Ideally a solution will involve the idler device being fixed independantly from the shafts.

Dean.

7 kgs driving wieght sounds a lot for the frame to support. Do you have a dial indicator and can you measure the deflection of the main arbour when the weights goes on it. What diameter and material is the main arbour. Actually when you are at it measure the deflection of the frame when the weights go on.
I havent been back thru all the posts to see if there are drawings or photos other than the last ones you posted. When you take the wieghts of how much effort is there to run the clock by turning the main wheel by hand.
Perhaps you could look at adding a (or the) strongback lower down so that the turnaround pulleys would align the cords to be diametrically opposed instead of trying to tear the arbour out of its bearing as now.

Cleanmachine...It think it is alot for the frame to support....I dont have a dial indicator. What is the main arbour of which you speak? If it is what i think it is, then its a 12.5 mm brass rod. The gears are easy to turn over by hand. Without the escarpement it needs 1.5kgs ish to run. Yes it would be nice for the weight pulleys to pull in opposite directions instead of both up. Is this what you mean?
Dean.

Dean
A possibly solution to your string problem This would mount on the back of the front frame . This would also apply the weight force in opposing direction on to the main shaft.
It has little visual impact from the front, but you would need the pulleys to be as wide as the winding drum so the string will flow on to the drum evenly,,, If you follow what i mean.

My $0.02 worth

Russell

I think Rusel's is an elegant solution to taking the weight off the main arbor and would not detract from from the ascetics.
I think the arbor carrying the weight, the ratchet, and the first wheel in the main arbor. I dont have any reference books with me so I can't check what the professionals call it.
When I get home I have the plans for Woodentimes Sextus to build. If you have a look at the site, in videos, David Atkinson shows how he puts a clock together. I found it most enlightening. He mentions the distortion of the frame by the weights.
The "wow" thing was his clock would spin the gear train by blowing on the escape wheel.
He also talks about how long the gear train and the pendulum take to run down and stop. None of my efforts have been close.
What type of ball bearings have you used, shielded or sealed?