Thread: My Wooden geared clock

Clean machine....can you give me a link to the video that David Atkinson shows how he puts a clock together?
cheers

Dean.

the site is
www.woodentimes.com/index
on the bottom right of the page is a link to tutorials.One of the tutorials is how to put a clock together.

Wow that's a great site. I love sextus as a clock. If I was gonna build another clock that would be it.I think I have found a way of moving my drum more towards the rear of the clock while still allowing it to be wound from the front! More soon.
Dean.

I have recently returned my electromagnetic pendulum kit as it malfunctioned. It seems that the kit can only be added to a clock to accurately keep time IF that clock runs already within 5% accuracy. My hope was to use this kit to reduce the weigh required to run it normally. No can do!. The kit will work but the clock will not keep time accuratrly. So I have 1 more avenue to explore...more on that later. For now I have embarked on re-designing the arrangement of gears to place the drun at the back of the clock; this will reduce the amount of distortion the weigh will cause the frame. Here are some pics of the proposed set-up.
Old set up




The blue wheel will be used to hand wind up the weights.Any comments on the asthetics or otherwise are welcome.

Dean.

Without putting too much thought into your most recent modification, is it possible to have a pull cord like a grand father clock, instead of winding the blue wheel by hand?

As for keeping time, don't you have to move the pendulum weight either up or down the oscillating rod?

Cheers

Yes hadnt thought of a cord! That would be good. To adjust the run time of the pendulum you need traditionally to move the bob up or down the pendulum rod. With the advent of electronics you dont have to play by the same rules.
Dean.

Originally Posted by 1964deano

To adjust the run time of the pendulum you need traditionally to move the bob up or down the pendulum rod. With the advent of electronics you dont have to play by the same rules.
Dean.

But you would want to get it close though at first, wouldn't you, so the electronics doesn't have to work overtime to "fix" it up?

Cheers

Yes that's my understanding....the electronics keep the clock accurate and compensate for humidity variations and wheels that run unbalanced and the like. The electronics in the kit I purchased wil only work to correct a set up that is out by 5% max! Any more than that they are not able to help keep accurate time. Does that make sense?
Dean.

Originally Posted by 1964deano

Does that make sense?
Dean.

Yes, it does.

Thank you.

Cheers

Dean
I do like the hand wheel that is straight out of left field.
The only other thing is you have remove the only diagonal and even with the weight moved there is still the frame and gear weight to think about...

Russell

Just hit Wiki on Grandfather clocks, and came across this. Not sure if it applies to your clock, as I can't quite work out if yours is this movement, or the verge movement. Just wondering if any friction here could be giving your clock a hard time.

Anchor escapement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Disadvantages

The anchor escapement is reliable and tolerant of large geometrical errors in its construction, but its operation is similar to the old verge escapement, and retains two of the major disadvantages of the verge:

• It is a frictional escapement; the pendulum is always being pushed by an escape wheel tooth throughout its cycle, and never allowed to swing freely. This makes the clock's rate sensitive to changes in the drive force, a problem called lack of isochronism. Any small changes in the force applied to the pallets, by a change in lubrication or the declining force of the clock's mainspring as it runs down for example, will change the period of the pendulum's swing. Anchor clocks driven by a mainspring slowed down slightly as the mainspring unwound, and required a fusee to even out the force of the mainspring to be accurate.
• It is a recoil escapement as mentioned above; the momentum of the pendulum pushes the escape wheel backward during part of the cycle. This causes extra wear to the movement, and the backlash of the gear train applies varying force to the pendulum, causing inaccuracy.

Cheers

Thanks Rod I dont think my clock is the same as the one on Wikipedia. I dont think friction think is giving my clock overly a hard time. It takes 2ks to make the gear train wind over! Thats not too bad. . My problem is that the drum is at the front oif the cock instead of the rear. To that end I have done another design to address that and here it is below.
The drum if would be located at the back of the clock while the escarpemnt is located in the middle. The large wheel at the back would be a hand drum to wind up the weights; i would abandon the other two gears that are used currently to achieve that.


Thsi will be the arrangement if I cant ge the electronics to both regulate and help pulse the bob. I am in discussion with Dick Vipe from the carveshop right now and should hope to have something sorted soon.

Dean.

Hi Dean

I think the 2kg to drive the gear train may be excessive. I had problems getting my Bird of Paradise clock to run reliably and was advised by the designer that the gear train should turn over with 100grams of weight. Once I got it to this point the weight required to run the clock came down to 3kg.

Philip.

I think that is my point....Clayton's clocks are way better designed than the laws ones. Your clock has fewer gears than mine. There is no way mine would run on 100g un-escarpered! After the gear train re-design we will see. I will post currrent weight and the new weight required to run un-escarpered. I will anticipate little difference between the two as there are same numner of gears in both designs.

Dean.