New Project: Spring driven "Vienna" clock.

It has been a bit quiet around this Message Board for a couple of weeks, so I thought it might be a good time to do a sort of "Blog" about my latest project! Now don't get too excited. I work at a VERY VERY slow pace and a long time seems to elapse without much progress on MOST of my projects. I imagine that I will add small amounts to this thread over long intervals for some while to come.

Lets start....

About a year ago, I purchased a mechanical clock movement from a seller in INDIA, via a well known internet auction site. It was advertised as a Gustav Becker Time only Mantle Clock movement. It came with the movement, dial, hands and a short pendulum, although the seller did say that he thought that the pendulum was not original. "Gustav Becker" is recognised as a reasonably good quality clock maker from around the turn of last century. I thought that the "Time Only" movement would be easy enough for me to work on, so I bought it.

The seller's original photographs of my movement can be found at this link.

When I got the clock, it seemed in reasonable nick, mechanically, although the 15cm long pendulum was rubbish and the hour hand did not fit. Attachment 324107Attachment 324108Attachment 324109Attachment 324110

My first task was to pull the clock apart, do a "tooth count", and calculate the rate, and the proper length for the pendulum.

My calculations suggested about 33cm to the centre of the bob, but given the style of pendulum (a rather heavy "grid iron" style rod) this would have to be much longer. The final pendulum that i made is 42cm from the top of the hook to the bottom of the rating thread. This then determines the length of the case that I have to make!

To make the pendulum, I had to source some brass and steel rod from a local hobby store. I cut the centre rod to length and made a thread with a 2.5mm metric die. I made the pendulum hook out of some 6mm brass rod that I had, cut to size, filed and then made the appropriate slots to accommodate a suspension spring with my "Rotary tool" (a cheep Aldi substitute for a "Dremmel") The hook is silver soldered to the centre rod.

I turned the Rating nut on a friends small metal lathe. This was my first real lathe project. Never used a lathe before this year, so I am quite proud of my little nut. I had to make a third and fourth cross bar out of my 6mm brass rod, filed to shape and drilled. I cut two brass rods to size and "staked" them to the top one of my new cross bars, and cut and "staked the two outer steel bars to the top cross bar. I had to "Helicoil" a new thread for the centre screw in the top cross bar and helicoil two new threads for the side screws in the bottom cross bar. I could only find "grub screws" for the bottom side screws, so they will have to do. They really should be much larger and more visible. Maybe, one day, I might turn some screws the right size. For now, the pendulum works, and looks passable from a distance.

Attachment 324111

Once the clock is going fine, the next task will be to attempt to make a "Vienna" style case. Stay posted!

Cheers
Walesey

Will pull up a chair and continue to watch.

Pendulum looks great ! ... At least to my completely ignorant eyes !

Time for an update! (I never said that this was going to be a fast moving project)

I pulled the mechanism apart and gave it a good clean. Polished off all the rust from the arbours and pinions, and tried to make it all a bit prettier. Re-assembled it, oiled it, and now have mounted the pendulum and the mechanism on a makeshift stand attached to some shelves. It is regulated and seems to keep pretty good time. (maybe out by 30 seconds over a week or so.

The problem with the hour hand not fitting was that it was missing a brass collet that is designed to give a medium tight friction fit between the clock hand and the "hour pipe" gear on the clock.

Attachment 326148
(The brass collet in the photo is the one that I drilled out of the new "Hermle" hands. I just included it to give a bit of an idea of what I am talking about)

I decided that I did not really like that style of hands anyway and that a more traditional style of "Vienna Regulator" hands would look better. I purchased a pair of "Hermle" hands that were supposed to be for a dial the size of mine, but when they arrived
1. They were a touch too long, so I had to cut a few millimetres off the end of each hand
2. The square hole in the centre of the minute hand was too small for my shaft, so I had to file it out larger with a small triangular file
3. The brass collet in the centre of the hour hand was too small and so I had to drill out the original collet and fabricate a new one. Another lathe project to test out my new lathe skills (and my friends mini lathe!)

Attachment 326149

I now have the new hands on the clock. The clock is mounted on a "Test Stand" (of sorts) and keeping reasonable time.

Attachment 326150 Attachment 326153

(Sorry about the sideways photo. It looks fine on my computer, but I don't know how to rotate it)

What I envisage for the case, is something similar to this sketch. Sorry if the pencil is a bit hard to see.

Attachment 326152

I have purchased some "Red Oak" from Master's Hardware, and have now started on the case, but do not have any photo's to show yet. I will keep you all informed as I (Sloooooooowly) progress!

Cheers
Walesey

Ahh!

I have managed to get a little bit of time off. School holidays mean that I can have a bit of a break from work, but they also mean that the kids are at home, making demands on my time! You win and you lose. Still, I have managed to cut up a bit of wood and make a start. I am concentrating on the "Box" first, and then I will concentrate on the top and bottom decorations later, when I have had a while to think them through.

Attachment 326759Attachment 326760

It does not take me long to make a mistake! You might notice that the long edges on the side panels are different lengths. They were not supposed to be! I cut the first two to the actual height between the base and the top (not yet cut out) and then realised that I wanted to attach the sides to the top and bottom using "sliding dovetail" joints, and so they would need to be a bit longer. Oh well! I will put the shorter lengths at the rear, where they will get some support from the ply back panel, and have the sliding dovetails securing the front edge and the top and bottom rail. The error should be invisible and should have minimal effect on the strength of the joint at the back .

The material is Red Oak (from Master's Hardware) which I will stain a little redder, just to accentuate the colour. In the front door section (In the middle of the photo), I have routed a very narrow channel (3mm) around the shape of the (to be) glass opening. The idea is to make an inlay out of a little bit of white "hoop pine" that I have left over from a project several years ago. I think it should look good having the red door with the white "pin stripe" inlaid around the glass opening. We will see.

The plan is to finish it with shellac and then wax it.

Stay tuned for the next instalment!

Cheers
Walesey

I think it is looking good so far.

A few more photo's.

I have cut out the top and bottom pieces and routed dovetail slots for the "Sliding Dovetails"

I was very chuffed when I slid it all together for the last photo and saw it all starting to look like a clock! Still a long way to go, though!

Attachment 327556 Attachment 327558 Attachment 327559

I wish I could figure out how to make my photo's go the right way instead of sideways!

Cheers
Walesey

Not a lot of progress to report this week. Family business and doctors visits have been taking up too much of my time.

I have stained all the parts shown in the last photo's with a diluted mahogany stain (10% stain in 90% metho) to make the colour more red. (The "redness" of the of the "Red Oak" did not really show through the orange shellac) The colour ended up a bit redder than I had anticipated, and my shellac application technique needs some (dare I say?) polishing, but we will get there. Sorry. No photo's yet.

A question for all you accomplished cabinet makers....

I want to make a bottom piece, and a top piece as shown in the diagram that I submitted a few weeks ago. The bottom piece requires three sides to be sloping down. i.e. it would be wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, sloping in on each side and sloping from the front down toward the back on the front side. Can anybody explain to me how to cut the miters for the corner joints? My head goes in to a spin trying to figure it out!

Attachment 328347

My idea had been to fabricate the piece out of 19mm board, and then to cut out (sand out? ) the curves. Any better ideas?

Thanks
Walesey

I have splashed on a bit of shellac onto the mahogany stained parts. This is just the first coat. probably several more coats, and rubbing back and some more coats then final polish will be with fine steel wool and wax to (hopefully) get a nice satin shine.

Attachment 329408
...just to give you a bit of a taste of what it going to be like.

Actually, besides being regularly hijacked by children, a wife and domestic chores, I have been trying my hand at a bit of metal work, of late. To connect the clock mechanism to the back of the clock (which will be 6mm ply wood) I have made a couple of brass "L" brackets, joined with a brass strip. I have made a brass riser to hold the pendulum suspension post. At the moment, the riser is not connected to the "L" bracket assembly, but when I get the distances just right, I will solder the two componants together to make one large assembly. Once the vase is assembled, I can position the clock and screw the brass bracket assembly to the back of the clock.

Attachment 329409Attachment 329410

I have still not solved the problem of making that bottom piece, as described in my last post. Any advice anybody?

Cheers

Walesey

Just so that you do not all lose interest and go away!

Attachment 331681

I have not glued anything together yet. No glass in the door or the sides yet. Still need to make the top decorative piece and the bottom decorative piece.

I have polished all the brass up a bit since I took this photo. Slow progress!

Maybe the Christmas holidays might give me a bit of a run at it!

Cheers
Walesey