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Stan Bray introducesthe fascinating world ofhorology to the complete bK inner.This bookexplainsth1&
ofthe clockmakerand provides generaldetails ofclock construction including layoutofwheels and esc
a numberofthe Iatterbeing described.
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C ontents
Introdtlt
rli(
.
'11
(.-haptc1'(-)ne

Fat-es-l-1al
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IS!)N 1-Ft:
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Introduction
thc work. A lthough a special
workshop is not rtlquiredl one thing
that Bri11 not do is to work in a
uxlrkshop that is fulI of svvarf and
ot11cl- rubbish. a
'Xtlcepting that '
we
cannot alsvays llaN'
e a clinically elcan
plaklc in Nvhich to operate,partictllarly
if it scrvkls st
psr
tlralpurposes,it is still
possible to lllake a clean area for
spccial tlsu- alld tl1is should be a
priority.A tlorneroftht
lNvorkshop can
bt
ltrlcalled ll1
ld Llny oil01
-grease lying
()11tht
? bench su abbcd off Keep this
area clean NvlliI(
) clock nlaking
operationsal
v in progrcss.ltis a good
idkla to 1'
11aktl a false top for the
svorkbench and coveritw ith baize ora
A lthough clocks come in a11sorts of sinaiIarnaaterialwhich issof'tand w i11
shapes and sizes the basic principle notcatlse dam age to polished l
mkltal.
behind a lllechanical clock las not
changed for aboutfivk
lhundred years. Aswi
th a1lneu'projects,do nottry
Ofcourse m odern m aterials and tools and run before yotl can walk. Don'
t
have superseded som e of the oldcr startby trying to btlild a col
mplicatcd
ones butthis apartthe horologistwill lmechanism such asa fulI'
W kstm inster
still tend to work in the traditional Chilne but rather nlake som cthing
fashion.C lock nlaking has long been silnplc, A m echanisll'
l with a single
part of the m odel engineering hobby hand isa good idea.sttch :
1piecc w'llen
ratherthan being entircly thc preserN'
c well polished tran look attractive as
0f the horologist and thc type of well as being fascinating to watch
workshop owned by thc avtlragc wht
,n it is working. Visit l
m tlsetmns
m odel engincer is quite suitablc for '
w lnere (2lock nRovcm ents can be

Clock m aking appears to hold :

1
fascination al1of itsown,particularly
am ongst m odt)l engineers, many
deciding to makc a elok:k afterhaving
m ade m odcls i
At-variolls types.Tllere
is something absolutcly fascinatillg
about clock luaking that seel
-ns to
draw one towards it. This book is
intcnded as a brief introduction to thc
tools,m aterialsand nRethodsgenerally
used and to offer all explanation of
generalform sofconstruction.Itisnot
a book of plans btlt those who haN'
e
sufficient contidence could usc ll'
1t?
inforlnation it contains to l
'
nakc a
sinlple clock.

A.1Ivve art'
tIooking t'
(
.
'rNvhen ll'
lt
'
tk'il'
lg a
clock is a l
'
neans of nlakil1g a spindlk.
l
u/th a hand attaohed to itrotate at11
given specd.The spindle lltpeds to tne
driven by sonnt2 forl
'
n oF poNs'
er.
usuaIly a very pri1nitiN't'
: fo1
-1'
1. A
I'
neans to regulatc that poNs'
trr is :l1s()
required-i11 order tllat itvvil1rtll'
l;
.
tt :1
Inartickllctr speed.I1-ytltlllrt'
rI
lollillg t()
ti11ish your tirstefforts in 111s sitlk2t)1'
tle Ilobby- NN'
itl) t lllastel'pitttrt'
t tllttt
neitller Ioost?s ()1'gCtil1s l'
lltpl
'e tlltll :
.
1
secontl or tvvo :1 yu'i
.
t1
' tllell ),tltl Ctrk
.
l
prtlbtbly gklil)g to bt'
ttlisttloil'
lted. 1t
u'iI1 1
3k2 13(
.
)ssiblt
? to ac1
)itls'c tl
rcasollablkl dk
lgree t'
lt- aceLlracy al-l
d
l'
nork? iIllportal
ltIy t() tlisctlN'
tll
-Il()vs'to
.

@ tl-act1ol'l tpl-lgilles. NN'lt't1-k? 1I)t?l't'.- artl

I11onc ptlrtrhases :1very'oltlclt'tlk'thtl

kzlallces of it tlv'
el
-bk
ling l
vgtllated tk)
kcep acculute till'
ltlal
'k2getlkprally very
sl
mal1.lNk art?tlsu'd i1)this day and age
to being ableto t
nt.
lq'N'tlry cheap (2Iocks
allmost anysvhk
lrkl tlatttre relmarkably
acctlrate.Thkly are controlled by ur
hat
anaountsto a eolllptltcrtr1'
lip and thisis
hou'thataccuracy is obtaincd.These
tiInepitlckls are vvhat onk? l11ight
dcscribk?assotl1-1tlss-tllc).
'tlo nothavk
2
tllc lastri1atio1l ()f tllc I'
lt?c11:
.
111ikra1
devi(2e-althotlgh it nntlsl bt?atll
'
nitted

ForttlnateIy tor tllose u'ho are

begil'
llling. thk? llaterial tlltt u.
'1ll be
used is llklilllert
lxtktllsiv'
e t)l'tlxpk
lllsikkt
wllen klolllpared to thtl eastil
'
lgh;.tltcused form odelcngineering ptlrposesso do notbe frightened to l'
nake a part
l'
nore than once ifsonaething hasgone
vvrong.lt is far better than trying t()
recovk
lr sol
mething that has not been
correctly nladt
l in tl
'
1c first place.
Unlike btlilding I
modellocol
uotivcs()1-

do thkli1'1(3t
3pdrltlctIy,Tl
lk?factthat.
N.
't
z
c:
.
111)ot gtrt t1)is 1
)ig11 tlcg1
'tlk.
'
l ()f
ltctrtlracy does11t'
bt111tli.
t11t1'
1lt1otl1
*clock
yN.
'i11 bc otltlagk
lt
.'tlsI
y in:tctlrtte and
afttll
'al1 tt'
ll
-n)ally y'
klars it Ns'as qt.
lite
ctlstol
laary to sct:1(
.
21klck to t1)k?corretrt
tiI110 Ol1Ce t
2V0l-j''
WC0k ()1,SO.

cxllensivc cflstiI'
lgstt'bi
lbtltlgl
lt.solllc
bl
'tss slletlt,a l2u'bils 111'
1(1 1)1tlct'
ts of
s1I&'erslek'
.
tIand Nve are in bus1ness.
NVe aIItk.
lnd to t11i11k'of cIotrks bei1g
nladk
2 frol'
n brass and steel btlt other
nnaterials can be used.Tl'
lu
'
lld are a
nulnber of plans availab1e tbr the
constrtletion of wooden cIocks and
Nvhi1e this l'
nay not sound a suitablk
?
lnaterials it is surprisingly robtlst.thc
(.
'
Jtlrnlans have used it for ycars to
lllak'k
?clockscol
-nnlercial1y.N ou'
adays
pl:!h:tit
? can be :1uscfu1l'
natt
ll
-ial. It is
t
zasy to u'
klrk u ilh- itis hard u'earilg
and a clock I'
ntkltl of a trallsparent
plastic can be a fascillatil)g tI1ing t()
see.A Iso Clq'
fti1ltblc arcplallsfork2Iocks
l
'
nad: frtll
)) pllper and card. Thcy
appcarto u ork N'
cry svelland Iastfora
Iong ti11)e.

Tools
s'
l()sl o1-the toklls Iikely to btll'
lcetltltl
u'iIlbe lbtlnd i11the '
tvorkshop of tllc
average nlodelellgilldtlr.Ntlt
ldle f'
iIeshacksavv,Iathe,stllnc snlaIIdriIls and
taps are thc basic itellls that artl
wanted.In addition a slmalItiNze-sidttd
broaeh is possibly the only essential
.

u..z..
1jL...
Il.a..kkidk

'

'

'

itell'
ttlltll111igllll'
It'
k
t1'll
'elttly be IA;tI
'((41'
tl'
lkl $'
k)I
'k'sllop eqtliplllel'
lt. Tllel
'k
2
additit'llkllttlolsol'trtltlrsk.
-tltlttiltly ttl
'c
l
'
1()t absoltltely t
'
tsstplti11. W rl
aeel alltl
pil'
liol'
lctlttcrscotl1(
1be very'tlsel
tllbtlt
itis qtlilklpossiblc t()g()NN'
itlkluttltpll'
l.
Thert
l arkr nAany people llllk'iI
1g N'
ery
line clocks vllt? l
laN'
e llever btltlgllt
stl
clla ctlttcr i11tllei1-1ifd.A l
lellt1il
'
lg
tool (See (71
3:1pte1
- 6 for ftl1
-t1er

inforllatiol'
l)is usefulfor layillg tltlt
the Nvhklt?ls btlt oncc l
nore fal' 11
-(
.
)111
essel
ltia1. tlltzre are seq'
tlraI Nvays ()f

tloil'
lg tlc job Nsritllotlt stlcll :$11 itelll
al
ltl1ikt!ctltlel
's-Ctle eltsily il
'
t,47rf.
)N'
ised.
-A
'1(.
Jthe1
. tlst
2fu1 i'
tt'
ln4 is kllk
)Ns'n 81s ;
.
'

t
nc

@
he nthe
'
$N'1tcI
)lllttk'ers'ltltles :
.
11
-:-k'
)xl
'
)k?llsiN'e to
btly alld lre ot- Iitt1c tlsu- tklr (ntllt
lr
Ptlrposcs tllal'
1'
s&'altrll Illak'illg- i1
-1'
latrt
thcy arc o1-doubtftll N'
altlt
? Nvhkln it
conncs lo l
'
naking k.
rIockh;. (J
-cntrralIy
speaking tllt
.
rtypc oflalhc ft'tlllklil'
lthk
l
av'
klragt'
tll-l
odelkpngilleklr's yvorkshop is
quittrstlittlblkl.Thk
?1'
nostpoptlIar()'
f
-all
thesk.
p al't
'
t probabIy the N1yfo1(1 7
Scrik
ls.Nvhich havc a centre hcight of
3r.
'
? i1
-1s. T 1
)otlsands ot- gootl c1ot?ks.
l'
lavt
)bu-el'
lI'
nadc tlsing thcll'
tand other
ltt1
)ch
( of a si1
-1
1i1a1- size and
spk
lc1f-icatik'
l11. T1)k
.
l l)11!1iattlre typc
'
lkttllk
?s NN'ith ccntre h:igllts ()t
' about
11:
.
1lf tllat haN'
c thc atls'
antage k)t-being
chcap and asthey art
?snaall.()bN'iously
lcss spact'
l is reqtlired. 5,
1ost arc
;
.
1N'
aiIablt
'
r vN'ith :1
. boIt tln 1
'
1)il1drill
llttaurhnlk
ll'
lllhatl'
nakt?!
.
itht
lll'
l itltraI lk
n1cl
tting the teeth on l.
N'1eklls. lt is l'
lot
.

possible to givc advickl on thtt bcst

lathe for :1 nt
lur
col
ner to ptlrchasc.il
a1ldepends (
71,
1a partictlIarprklfcrcnt)e
and onc!
.
ibudgel.I11addition lllany t)f
the foreigi1 latllt
?s tl7;lt art
a stlld '
.
1rlx
.
only avaiIabld tbr:1 Iinlitcd period ot'
tilne btlfore the spt
?cificati01'
1 is
changed.Anyonc u,
anting to ptlrchase
a lathe Nvotlld d0 vs,
ellto visitont.
l(4f
the
I
nany
l
uodel-engincu'ri1
)g
exhibiti01
1h; 1
)k
.
pld throughout thc
country, vN'
l'
1dre it u.
'iIl be possiblu-tt)
brosvse throtlgh :1 Iarge nun-1bt
'
?l' ()t'
l'
nachines oftlitferent l
'
nakcs and typkls
to '
hnd '
wrhich I'
nightbtlthcnlostsuitablc.
Solue of the lllethods tlskrd by clock
l
m akcrs a1
-t'
t likely to nlak(
) a1)
expcrit
'
lnced engi11eer u,in(2tt. Fo1'
exam ple. u'hi1e tlle cngintltll' u'ilI
always try and get as nluch bearil
)g
surfacc for a spindle as possible.tllc
elock luaker seenas to try to do the
exact opposile. Holes that arc to btr
used for bt
zarings are dri1lt
ld slllallk
)r
than thc dial
meter of tht
p spindltt tllat
NvilI fit il1 tllklll-l allkl then tltlq' are
realned Nvith a tapcr broach untiIa tit
is lnadc. z'
Ns a restllt th: spindlt'
t is
rtlnning on the thinnestpossiblc ring
of brass. To the engineer tltl idea

stltlllds frigl
ltellil
'
lg btltrealIy itlllakcs
t2(.
)1'
1p1k
zttl sel)se. .
A1thotlgl) tle
Illtlvtllnent or lllecllanislll is rotating
col
ltil'
lual1y.itisl'
lar(l1/.
'goil'
lg t()brcak'
a113,ss.
r
(
)l'ld spklttcll'k
lkrol
'klsi1 s()t1()illg.It
Ilas 10 rklalyN'
t3l'k'to do il1as l
ntltlllasit
is (
71
7Iy dris'
illg 1tstllf and s()thklsllltll
bcarillg stll-llct
:
tl'
lflstlt
.
ladN'tlltage tlat
it ctlts ti-ictltdl'
l (.
1tlu'
n to a l'
ni11iIlltlll'
l
and i
ts l l
'u-stllt reduccs the p(
7
.vN'
t
?l'
I'
lklt
ldtll.
itt'I
'tlll11)ilgs.
.

Term inology
This is alltltherthing Nvhich enginct
lrs
l
'
nay find a 1ittlk
l diffictllt lo
undkrrstand. A sl)11ft or spindlt
l is
'
klltnvn as an arbor alld the bearillg
surfacc attllk'
lt'
llld isnot21shaftt)l'ax1k
?
but a pivot.(iears bceolne svheels i11
spite of the s'
ery obvious tecth alI
round thelm tht)I
'
naking ofNvhich istlltl
l'
nain partofclot-k l'
naking.AIthotlgh
the tccth on thc Nvhklklls are calltrd
teeth,svhen they art
l ()1 a pinion they
ltrt
p frequently describt
ld as Itlavds.
Thesegears(u'
heels)artll
-nadeol-thin
section brass, Nvhich is ideal for tllc
I'
nckrhanisl
'
n that is bcing constrtlcted
in order to give :1 good tit on tllc

@
spindlcs (arbors) tley are '
litled on
bosses fron)now on known as colIets.
To an engineer,a e01Iet is som cthing
which opens and closes to hold tools

H elp and A ssistance

There are :
1 considerable num bcr ot'
plans available for l
naking clocks of
various types. Som e such as the
orm aterial.To a clocklnakertlle term designs of John W ilding are sold in
includes the length of brass tlsed to book form , com plete w ith full
support a wheel- and fillally there is instructions'
,they are to be very highly
the m echanism itselfwhich iscalled a recom m ended. Others silnilar books
m ovem ent.It is a1Ivery confusing at are available as basic plans and in
firstbutwe m ustrelnt
lm berthatevery som e cases com plete kits can btl
tradehasitownterminology.jtlstlook purchased. Thc photograph on the
for exam ple at that ttsed by tht
) frollt covt!r of this book is one of a
computerengineer.
moN'
emttntmadefrom justsuchakit,

+
.i
1.

@ If we accept all thc oddities thatare

by Repton Cloeks and this too is an

idea!way to learn thebasicsofclock
construction.The British Horological
lnstitute,Upton Hall,Upton,Newark
Notts.N 623 5TE stock a large range
ofbooksand otheritem sdealing w ith
clock m aking and in addition organise
courses,both residential and hom e

im posed upon usclocksare fascinating.

There are no heavy castings to hulup

aroun4 thework isnice and clean and

the end result is worthwhile.Even if

afterreadingthisbookthereadershould
decidethatclock making isnotforhim
orher,itisstillworth while taking an
basedaon the subject.Therearealso interest in them ,their history and the
numberofsuppliersofclock partsand beauty of the fmish on m any, in itself
booksbased throughoutthe country, canprovidean everlasting interest.

C hapter 1 - H istory
Before starting on constructional heavens has becn observed for
detailsofclock m aking,awordortwo thousalldsofyears and this movem ent
onthehistoryofthesubjectmayassist has been applied to time-keeping
readers in an tlnderstanding of time- m tlthods. The new m oon appears
keeping in general.lt is not only the every thirty days and the seasons
hum an race that uses tim e-keeping repeatthem selvesevery twelfth tim c it
m ethods,anilnals know'when ittimkl appears w hicll fbrms the basis of the
to go to sleep or,ifnocturnal,when to ycar as w e now record it. The
start searching for their food. Som e cqtlinoxes w'
ere wr
ellknow n and tlsed
plants antl trees w i)l close tlown for religiotls ptlrposes and stars and
flow ers atnight and open them when sun were alm ost certainly used for
daylight appears.Of course this has carly navigation,whetheracrosssea or
nothing to do with clocks as we have land.
come to know'them ,they are reacting
to lightand dark and possibly also to Duringand priortotheStoneAge itis
changing seasons. No doubt the very doubtful if anything m ore
hum an ractl also started in this accurate than this would be required.
fashion,sleeping during darkness and Ifthe sun wasatitshighestpointthen
activeduring the daylight.The clocks it was half way through the day.
in use then wcre the sun and m oon. Hum ans are ncvcr satisfied with
not necessarily the m ost reliable basics and we can only speculate
sourcesas forvariousreasonsthcy are when itbecam e desirable to be able to
not always visible. Sueh prim itive split tim e into sm allcr parts and
m ethods-while notexactly telling the exactly how it w'as donc. It seem s
tim e of the day did give reasonably highly probably that a prim itive
accurate m easurem entOfthe scasonsp sundialwould be the flrstbasic form
of clock. Put a stick vertically in the
had theiruses.
ground and w hen thc shadow castby
ltuus not alIleft cntirely to chance. thatstick isatitsshortestitism idday.
Archaeology and ancientm anuscripts W ho knows-perhapsitwasa tree that
tell tIs that the m ovem ent of thtt flrst gave som eone the idea that the

shadow of the sun could be ttsed to

give :,
.1 approxil
mation 0ftim e.
Sundials did not rem ain as sticks in
the ground and we know stone
colum ns werc used in early times.
m etal pillars of varying shapes
follow ing them .Thisisnothowevera
book aboutstlndials butaboutclocks.

Thesundialsubjeetisso vastthatit
could take a separate book to discuss
it.W hatwe do know is that sundials
were in use around 200 BC and :1
hundrcd years or so later a geared
m echanicaldevice wasproduced for
navigational purposcs at sca, whieh
m ay orm ay notlave been a prim itive
form of clock. ln 600 BC the Pope
decreed that all religiotls institutions
should have a sundialas a m eans of
regulating tlle times for prayer so the
hulnan race wasreally becom ing nlore
tim c consciotls.
Not alI tlle Nvorld'
s poptlIation w'
as
(-lristian and Nvt
.
t1
'
:11.
1st Iook at those
countrics that had not adopted the
religitln to set'
.
-. '
kvhcrtl possiblc, ht
nv
tlley sorted tllingsout.Itis knoNvn that
thtr (l
-hincst had the idea of tlsing
u.
'
illcr and although therc '
svas a
l1Ll1'
llbi
.
?l-ol-v'
al
-iatitlnson ll1etlltll
'
llt'
)-tle
basic princi(
3lt
.
)Nvls to tiI1a container
Nsrit1)svltter.A sllaalll'
lole in thebottol'
l)
yvotlld all()N.
N' it to rtll asvay and by
I'
lptlklsl
-lrilg tlltrttll'
ltltll'
ttllatI
lad gol'
!t'
lit
N5.
'
:ts possiblkl to sekl 11ov l
'
nuch tilzle
1:1(
.
1 passcd i
'
tll(1. if the containcr ysras
I
lnarked yNil1
) glatltllltiolls- tht? tiI'
l
'
)e
uklkllnst'
tl.
lcf
-htlltlbe sk
lel'
l1ttltglance.This
tylc k)'
#-clklck eN'
trnttlalIy becalue used
:1ll (
'
)N'
e1' tlc NN.
'
t)1-ld k)nd variotls

ilnprovcluents Iuade to the systeln.

including '
htting a dial. ensured that
the water clock rem ained in tlstl for
hundreds ofyears.
-andles were also used as a m klasure
of tim e.O nce itcould be established
how nxuch a candle burnt down in a
partictllar period of tilme. it was a
sin4pIe m atter to nl:1rk the sides,
show ing how lnuch tim e had elapsed
sincethe candlcwaslit.King Alfred is
creditcd w ith being the lirstpcrson to
use candles fortimekeeping,althotlgh
if he acttlally did burn the cakes the
candles could not have been very
rcliable. lt is still possiblc to btly
candlesl
marked in this w'ay'
'nowadays
thcy only have novelty value. An
alm ostidenticalidea to thccandle was
to btIrn oiI, in a container with
l
'
narkings to retrllrd the til'
ne that had
passed as the quantity of oiI '
w as
rcduccd. Forshorttim e pcriodsthklre
was also the sand-glass w ith '
which
many ofus w iIIbe falnilitlras an cgg
tilncr.The glah;s and quantity ofsand
had to be c'arefuIly lzaatelled to thc
tin'
le required and so the systel
m Nvas
generaIly used only for spkleifit2
ptlrposcs, as indicating inlennediate
ti1'
1
'
1t'
lbkltsveen filIing and enaptyillg thc
glass u/as notptlssiblc.
W lz
dtofthklreligiotlsorders thatsvt
pnt
t() prayer lligllt and day? Solnethillg
Nvas needt
ld to teI1thel
'
n vvhen itNvas
tiI
mt
lto go to the c1:1)3t)1.F.vcn thougll
tht
lPtlpe had dtttlrtlttd that:1llrcligiotls
ilpstittltes shtltlld have a sundial. tl1is
Nvasofno use af
terdark orin l'
nuch of
the Nvklather vve havc in Britai1'
1.

various ingeniotls m easuring dt

w ices
that sounded alarm s were deviseds
'
these included wcights on a pece of
string that was set '
lirtl to. After a
periodoftim ethet
lam eburntthrough
the string and the weightwould drop
on to a gong telling them onksthatit
w as prayer tim e. The idca w as
extended to include a num ber of
weightsstrung to a fram e.Thestrings
were ofdiflkrentlength and so burnt
through atdifferenttim es.In this way
thegongcouldbt
tsoundedatltom atically
atsetintervals.
Nobody know s whon the first
m echanicalclock cam e into being.by
whom or how it was invented. The
oldestclock known of in Europe was
at Salisbury Cathedral antl is dated
1386. lt is still in working order,
although no longer in the toweritcan
be seen in the nave ofthe Cathedral.lt
is quite an advanced clock. which
incltldesam dchanism forstrikingthe
hours as well as one for telling the
tim e.Even this is notthe lirstknown
m echanicaldevice:in 1090 StlSung
m ade a device in China thatrang bells
at given intervals in addition to
driving autom ata although it did not
have a dial for tim ekeeping. Driving
autom ata was popular with
clockm akersand oneearly exam pleat
W ells Cathedral. and built in 1389.
can stillbe seen working.Itis a very

be quite crude, m any were in fact

sophisticated pieces of m aehinery.
Early clocks wt
prc used for ptlblic
purposes and were very large.
Generallythey wouldbehousedinthe
towerofa ehurch orcathedral.
There are records of clocks for
dom estic purposes as early as l343 in
France and England. The earliest
surviving exam ples date from around
thc fifteenth century and are of iron
construction, the m echanism being
scaldd down from the larger oncs in
public places.A l1 these early clocks
were weightdriven and exaetly what
date the pendulum replaced the folio
control we cannot say. However a
claim is m ade thata clock was m ade
w ith pendulum control in 1656.
Spring drivc is hrstheard of in 1450
and thdrefore pre-dates the use ofthe
pendultlm . Regular im provem ents
were m ade to tim ekeeping
m echanism, including in particular
the invention of new m ore reliable
escapem ents and in l7l5 Georgc
G raham invented the deadbeat
escapdm ent m aking clocks m orc
reliable still.

lt is quite am azing to think that

modern m echanical clocks work on
exactly the sam e principle asthey did
w hen George G raham invcnted his
escapement.Materialshaveimprovett
elaborateaffairwith knightsjotlsting with brass and steeltaking over from
and a1lsorts ofotherm ovem entsatset iron, otherw ise there is little
tim cs. W e do know therefore that differcnce in the basic construction of
elocks have been in use for many any typc of m echanical clock. M ass
hundreds of years and although the production was really the only big
construction ofearly ones appcars to advancem entfrom then on,butm inor

@
ns for
in)proven-1ents to bol1) cIocks Ct11(1 M any people buy nltlchanislthese quartz clocksand l'
nake cascsof
Nvatchescolltillued.
various types to housc thel
-n: it is a
In the twentieth century, clocks alltl hobby on its own in which large
watches have sklen advancem ents that numbersofpeoplearchappy to indulge.
would nothavebeeltthoughtpossiblc.
cven atthe startofthe century.A bout Betbre '
linishing Nvith the history of
sjxty years or so ago people hrst clocks it is interesting to think how
started to experim cnl with the ustlof tinle itself has changed. Until quite
electric clocks. t-'ertainly thcy u'
crut late in the ninetecnth century ey'
ery
vcry prim itive in comparison w ith town or district kttpt its own time.
whatwas to com e later,butthey had Com m unication between areas was
the advantagc that it was possiblc to very poor,w ith Iim ited transport and
synchronisc several clocks togcthcr itm attered notwllattim c it was in a
which was idealin a factory orsim ilar tow n forty or lify m iles aw ay.W ith
(
.
,slabIishm t
)nt wherc m any people the com ing of the raiIw ays al1 this
werc elnployed and a!I wouId be changed.A person travelIing frol
n say
starting and stoppillg work atthe sal
ukl London to B irm ingham and then
tim e.Priorto thata bcllorhooterw as wanting to get a connection to
used'
, a system that in may placcs
som cwhdre else netlded to know what
Iltstcd tlntiIquitc rccenttim es,
tim e that connection would leave in
In-lprovcl
m ents in thc Iuanufacturc of relation to the train on which he orshe
elttctric clocks were rapid unti1 Nve would arrive.The railways thcrefore
reach the stagc at u/hich svt? are at organised their ow n time, known as
today where it is possiblc to buy a Railway Tim e, which was consistent
clock w ith :1 digita
.I rcadotlt so that right throughout the country.
Ilobody trvtln needs to know how to Gradually thiswasadopted throughout
teI1 thkl tim e anym ore. The m odern thc country until evcryone used the
eleclronic m astcrpicccs can keep saluc.N ow tim e is relatcd directly to
perfbcttim : and are farm ore accurate thkl firccnw ich M eridian,and know n
than any except the m ost expensive as Grcenwich M ean Tim e. Othdr
m echanicalclock. Probably because countricsalso take theirtim e frol'
n the
ot
-thcirefficicncy they do nothavethe m eridian w ith allowances m ade for
faseination ofm echanicalones,which tim e zones.A sresultitis possiblc for
art
l stiII m ade today 170th anyone,anywhere to know whattim e
eom mercially and by alnateurs.
itis in any othcrpartofthe world.

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C hapter 2 - T he F ram e
The fram e ofaclock willgenerally be

The nexttask is to m ark thd position

made of two flat plates. joined ()f the pillars which join the plates
together, at or near the corners with
pillars.Al1 parts are tlsually m ade of
brass except in exceptional cases
wherewe m ightguta steelfranle fitted
with bushes.The plates are sawn and
filed to sizeand afterensuringlhey are
flat and square they should bc hcld
firm ly togetller w ith clalups.
preferably thc toolm akers'type urlile
two or three sm al1 holes are driIled
through som dwhdre ltlar tlltlcorners.
These holtlsarutto actzdptpinsorrivets
that are tlsttd to cnsurd tlle plates tlt)
not separate during operatio1sm
' onct!
the pins and rivots are i11 plactr thkl
(
2lal
mps can be rel
moved.

''

. 1.1..i1;.

''.' ' '

''

together and drillthe holes forthcl

-n;
wt
lw illcol
-ne to how they can btlfitted
shortly.OccasionalIy clock designsdo
not have this type of plates instead
they arc m adc Nvith strips of brass.
lmort) otztcn lhan not ctlt into fancy
shapesand instead offourpi1larstlleri
a
are only tuo- one al catrh tlnd.The

principleofjoiningthelzntogetherand
drilIing thtl piII:
11
' holt'
ts renlains
cxact1y t1k
l sa1'
ne. .
A.
s 1
3tli!ding
.
Progrklsscs011diffcrencesyviIIelutplgt'
!for k
lx:1lup1(
.
, thcre NviII 1'
1ot bkr a
pendtllul'
)
l alltl so they Nvill not be
fitted svith a back cock.

@
T he Pillars
GencralIy speaking the piIlars or
spacersas the laym an woultlcallthem
w illconsigtofbrassbarsand they m ay
or m ay not be shaped.Shaping is a
m atter ftl1-the individualbuilderand
in alim ited way istheopportunity for
him or her to express hiln/hcrself.
Fitting thc pillars to the fram c isdone
in severalways:son'
ld are hoIIow and
a stud ispushed rightthrough and the
parts held secure w ith a nute or
perhaps the cnds of the pillars
nlachined dou'n and threadcd to
akleept a nut. ln othe1-k'
laskls they are
drilled and tapped and screws passed
through the fram es.into them .A third
alternative,isto l
'
nachine a step in the
pi1Iar cnds and pass this tllrough tht
l
holes in the fralnes, vs'
hich arc thell
seeurcd '
w ith a taper pin, htted in 11
holedrilled acrossthe step.Onething

thatis conllllon to alIlnethods is that

when asselnbled the fralmes m ust be
rigid and square.

Setting O utT he Train

M arking O ut

The m ost Comm on way Of setting out

the train is to scribe a straight line
lengthways dow n the plates and to set
the escapement,centre or hour wheel
and the great wheeland barrel along
this.Thethirdwhcclhasto be setatone
side in orderto allow the pinions and
wheels to mesh.Just occasionally we
com e across another dcsign w here the
escapementand hourwheelarein Iine
and both the third wheeland barreloff
set.This is very rarc and any details
requiredforsuchanarrangem entwould
be available tiom the drawing and ally
instructionslhatm ightgo along with it.

Som etim os clock plans w ill give

m easurem ents showing where pivot
holesw i11beplaced'
,ifnotitwillbe
I
'
ICCCSSCtI'
Y to Wrrk Otlt Spacings for
oneself.Startby lightly dotpunching
a suitablc place forthe greatwheelon
the centrc line.Use a depthing toolto
mark out position on the line of thc
m inutc wheel'
,thsm eans meshing the
great wheel pinion w ith the m inute
wheelso they run very sm oothly and
w ithout any binding.W hen satisfsed

with themcshingsusethetoolto make

:1 seeond m ark on the linc that has
becn m arked on the plate.

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.

Depthing Tool

@ colsisting oftwo lellgtbsofbarthat

A depthing tool is sonacthing that

solne people Nvill nt't has'
e eoll'e
across before: it is a tool for setting
out gears to ensure that they run
sm oothly.They can be boughtbut for
norm alpurposesa homc-m ade duw ice

willdo jtlst as well,those that are

Purchased being far m ore
sophisticated than necessary for
oceasional elockl
n aking ptlrposcs.
Thetoolissil
m ply a nneansofmeshing
whecls and pinionssor two wheels or
the escape w'
heeland pallets.st
athata
check can be nlade to ensure tlcy rtln
properly.A professionally-madc tool
w iIl be spril1g Ioaded and fuIly

adjtlstable.but good rcsults can btp

obtained fro1,t :
1 sim ple dcvict!

swiveltogcther and with lnJ()holes to

acccpt puncheh
;.The ptlntrlles artl the
sal
ue diam eterasthe whet!larborsand
so the wheel and pinion are simply

slipped on and adjusted.Ifdiffercnt

sized arborsare likely to btlusedafit
brass bushes that can be intcrchangeablc.Oncofthepunchesisset
in the nlark already m ade and the
other is lined up on the line on the
plate. A slighl tap Nvith a snnalI
ham mer and thtlcorrectplace for the
arbor of the hotlr Nvhcel is lmarked,
John W-ilding,who isone ofthe tinest
(21ock lmakers i1,
1 the country
rt
lcolllllltllldsa piece ofslottkld bar for
the saluttpurpose:an idea thatworks
very wel1.

18

...
dkkki;kk

..

' '
.

@ urlleelandexactly the sanae prtlcupdtlre

Tl
'e tool is ntnv used to sct t11e
distance of the third whecl- w hich
tlannotbe sited 01'
1the line betrause it
would then be ilnpossible ttA nlesh al)
the whecls properly. There is no
specific angle atwhicl)to sctthe lhird
wheeland this,pltlsw hetheritshould
be setto the rightorIeftofthkl1ine,is
am atterofindi
vidtlaltaste.Gencrally
speaking an angle ofaboutforty-five
dcgrees is used'
. w hatever happens

istlsed.The l'
nark should be l
madeol)
the Iine used by tht? great wlleelalld
lminut: whce! and that is the clock
train lmarked out.Holcsforthc pivots
can be drilleda but don'tforget they
should be drilled tlndersize.svllellthe
platcs are separated they can be
opened outwith ataperreanlerso thtly
area nice running tituzitlatle pivtAts.

re is stiII ond m ore opdration

naakeanoteoftheanglejustincaseit The
r
eqt
lired inordertom akea11the pivot
needs to be rcferred to later.Having
holes, for the pa1lets of the
escapem ent also need to be set.The
pallets and the escape wheel are
m ounted in tht, dcpthing tool and

decided where thcwheelw illbe going

repeatthc operation with the depthing
tool so that a nlark is nlade for thc
third '
vvheelpivotll0lt).From there thk
l
tool is used to 1ay out thc distancc
fron'
l the third whttt
)l to the escape

adjusteduntiltheyworkslnoothly in
the sam e way as before.

Flilll!r;
A

o0&.
v

,
- BackCoc'k
'screws
.'
W . tobackplate.Notelarge

*
y

hole in back plate to clear

escapem enjpkvotw hich
runsin back cock.

.
.

'
.y

''
..

h
j.

F
rcntPlate

.
'

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j.
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Back pjate

*
@

20

.
1.

u.1.1 .1

@ SonAepeopleliketo fretoultl4ttplatu.s

The plates are now com plt

zle cxcept
thatifthe clock isto use a pendultlllla
back cock lnust be fitlt
ld.This is a
bracket that stl
pports the suspttnsion
jbr the pendultlm , w 1
lich can bc
fabricated orm illedfrom ago1idblock
ofbrass.Ittakesthd tbl-j
n ofabridge
to clear the palletarbor.the pivot of
which locatesin 11hole in the cock,the
suspension being itted on ti
'
le arbor
between the plateand the bearillg, Itis
essentialfor the gootl runnilg of the
clock thatthecock issecured hrm ly to
theplateand w illnotwork loose.Itis
also essl
-ntialthat the escape whccl
arbor when fitted to the coek is at
ninety degreesto the plates.

to l'
nake an attractive pattcrn and tl)is
is a nzatter of individual taste. Thc
fretting wi11obviously need to bu-donc
Nvith the platesseeured together. One
way ofdoingthisistodraw asuitable
pattern on paper,taking care to avoid
allpi
vot holes,cut out the pattern,
stick iton the plates and cutround it.
Do nottry and chain drillbutdriIla
couple ofholcs in strattlgic places and
use a piercing saw or a poweroperated scrollsaw ifone isavailable,

tocomplet:thejob.Finally cleanthe
edges ofthe cutsusing sm allfsles.

C hapter 3 P roviding T he P ow er
M ost people when starting clock
m aking, begin with a weight as the
Power source and so we willIook at
how thisisdone lirstofall.A suitable
barrel is required roulld which a line
can be wound.This in turn istied to a
weight, but not directly because the
weightisconnectcdto:
1pulley andthe
drive line passes through the pulley
and is anchored on orncar the clock.
The usualplace is one ofthe pillars.
Any tubing wiII do for the barrel.
although it m ust be thick walled.

G enerally speaking brass is preferred,

m ainly because of its non-rusting
properties,btltthere isno reason why
it should not be of stecl: many years
ago m ost clocks were m ade of iron,
although theuse ofthatm aterialisnot
to be encouraged tlnless trying to
build a rcplica.A spindle,or arbor as
horologists prcferto callit,is passed
through thc lniddle and on one end of
the arbor isltsquare.This isto accept
a key u'ith which to rewind thc line
when itreaches a 1ow point.

23

. ..,.....k
lz.

T he Barrel

@ round-ended tool.sim ilarto aparting-

One end of tllc barrelis plain-other

than fora hole through which the gut
is secured. The other end form s a
ratchetreferred to as the click wheel:
this can either be m ade integralw ith
the barrel or fitted perm anently in
place to an end cap.How the end caps
are fitted is a m atter of personal
choice,butthere ism uch to be said for
using slnall screw s to hold them in
position as it enables it to be
dism antled should any work be
needed on the arbon Also conneeted
to the arboris a whcelorgear.ifyotl
prefer, callcd the great wheel. This
connects via a pinion to the train antl
the ratchet prdvents the barrel from
unwinding,exceptwhen controlled by
the restofthe clock.To Iocate in the
ratehet is a specially shaped m etal
plate known asa click and a spring to
hold itin position.Although the barrcl
can be left plain it is a good idca to
m ake a continuous groove in it to
allow the gtlt to wind on and off
evenly'
. rather than pile up.A sm all

off tool is idealand ordinary screwcutting m ethods call be adopted.The

depth ofthe groove shotlld abouthalf
thc diam eterofthe gtltbeing used and
about seventeen or eighteen turns are
required.Therefore ifthe barreliszins
long the lathe needs to btl sd to cut
nine threads per inch, or the ncarest
availablefigureabovethat.

@
and to m ake the ratchet sm oother in
use.The m ore normaltype ofratchet
will have about tllirty-six or so teeth
and cutting by lmachine is alm ost
essential.This is not to say that the
work cannot be done by handm buta
high degreeofskillisrequired to get
aIltheteeth tothesamcproGle,notto
m cntion thatthe task w ill take som e
considerable tim e.

The G reatW heel

Thc grcat wheelis mounted on the
barrelarborand drives the train via a
pinionandapartfrom cuttingtheteeth
itisquitestraightfonvard. Astheweight
unw inds,it drivesthe greatwhecland
when the clock isbeing wound up the
ratchetallow sitto slip past.

T he R atchet
The ratchet can again be of steclor
brass although brass is generally
recomm ended and the teeth are cut in
the same way ason aI1the wheels.The
ntlmber of teeth varies considerablydepending on the design ofthe clock.
l11 som e instances designers havc
deliberately kept tbe number of teeth
on the ratchet to the m inilnum .This
allow sitto be filed to shape,avoiding
the necessity to m ake or btly a
specially-shaped ctltter. In these
instances the teeth are curved in a
gentle radius,both to facilitate filing

K.%.

spring
'.'

Click -m ade form

hardened steel

Greatw heel,runs
Concentric wi
th but
separate from drum

x.

- .- -

Yo

.
r
'D
11

'

'
:

- '-

Drive Chord
'.

.
-

Ratchet -connected
to drum
cjjord
AnchorPOint

pujjey
W ei
ght
V
Vz'

z'

25

@
The C lick

C lick Spring

This isthd nam e given to thepawlthat

locates on the ratchet and prevents it
unw inding.Itisusually liled to shape
and the shape isnotdifhcultto m akeq
the only critical part being thc
distance bctween the hole centre and
the tip ofthe blade.Itshould be made

Thttspring holdsthe clickdown onthe

ratchet wheel alld m ust therefore be
strong enotlgh ttA do so. while atthe
same tim e notbcing so pow erfulasto
drag and causc morc power to be
needcd than would otherwise have
been so.Thespringsvary considerably
from gauge plate and hardenett then in length and shape and so materials
tem perdd to a dark blue colour.As an lllay vary w ith differcntsprings.M ild
alternative itcould be m ade from luild steclcan be used tbrm ostsprings and
steeland case llardened and while not although itm ay sountla m ostunlikcly
giving quite as good a result as tlle m aterial. ham mering thin scctions
prcvious m cthod a Iong lasting and causcs a work-hardening effect,
reliable click would stillbe the result. resulting in springiness. Anothpr
'

Screw passes through

GreatW heel
.into click!
y//

k
I

GreatW heel
Aku

'

I 1 I
1

'

>..

'

/);'t/'
d'.
111.t: .jIt'
.py'j7?.j
?f?'k'
.: /

//?c't'/l'('l i.b.5('?'(,Jj'tJt//f)//1(>
Jr/'
tzttJ !11t,Q,I t?/?(l ?!;clI(,.5,
;t.j//?//y(Jl'
(lt('/)(,/$t./2(:(,J.

CIickW'heel

usefuk material that has a sim ilar

effeet is drawn phosphor bronze, a
m aterialwith a naturalspring to itand
which isalso very easy to work. Like
a1l parts for clocks suitable springs
can b: purchasetl eom pleletl and
ready foruse ifone wishes-

The Pulley
The weightthatwilldrive the cloek is
suspended from thedrum viaapulley,
which effcctively halves the weight
27

@ (;enerally the barrel wilI differ

@
applied.There is not:1grcatdealcan
be saitlaboutpulley construction'wut
are aI1 fam iliar with thutshape ofthe
wheel w hich should generally be of
brass and run on a steel axle.The
fram eofthe pulley can bem ade from
a piece ofbrassplate and thatis:111
therereallyistoit.A ppearaneecan btl
im proved by drilling holes in the
pulley wheel.

T he

eight

Various m aterials 111-: used asweights

which arc also made in a variety of
shapes.A nicely polished length of
brasstubefilled with lead isideal;do
rem eluberthata hook isrequired with
which to hang the weighton thc cord
and thatthis m ustbe setcentrally to
the diameterso thatthe weighthangs
straightand docsnotlean atan angle.
A lthotlgh the weight is nzentioned in
this chapter.beeause itispartofthe
driving m echanism , itw illbe one of
the last item s required.lt is obvious
thatwe cannothang any old weighton
the clock and cxpectitto keep time.It
1131.
1st be sufhcient to kecp thc clock
going withoutcausing itto work attoo
fasta rateand so thc am ountofweight
required will be
for
experim ent.

A good idea isto gcta used food can

and fitto itsom om eansofattaching it
to the line from the drum ,fill tlle tin
with pieces of lcad or other heavy
material and run the clock. Keep
rem oving sm all amounts until the
clockstops.Thishastobedoneovera
period of severaldays.W hen it has

stoppe; weighthe contentsofthetin,

add about half again and m ake the
nnished weightto this m easurem ent.

Spring D rive
So farwt?have dcaltonly with clocks
that are weight driven,which m eans
they are either fittcd in a long case or
hang on a wall.W hat ifwe want our
clock to sit on a shelf? It is hardly
practicalto drilla hole in the shelfand
run a cord through that to a wcight.
The answeristo drive the clock w ith a
spring:som ething with which we are
al1 fam iliar and springs are freely
available. They arrive coiled and
sealed tightly with a fastening alm ost
ready for use and litinside the barrel
using two hooks, one of which
attaches to a point inside the barrel,
the otherto the arbor. Greatcare m ust
be taken when dealing w ith springsas

theycancausenasty injuriesanditis
advisable to wear heavy gardeningtype gloves and m ost definitely to
wear protection for the eyes.Special
devices are available for setting
Springs in barrels and. while it is

possibleto do so by hantt ifin doubt

find yournearestclockm akerand take
thelotalongthere,wherea specialdevice
Willbe available which will enable the

jobtobedoneinamatterofminutes.

considerabl
y from that described fbr
thc wcight-drivcn clock.Fora startit
becomesobviousthatoneend mustbe
removable in orderthatthe spring can

beinsertedbutothermajordifTerences
also occur.A lthough notunknown for
a clock to be driven directly by a
spring, particularly if one buys a
cheap one, it is m ost certainly not
good praetice.W hile the weightdrops
at a given speed throughoutits lcngth
the spring behaves vcry differently.
W hen tightly coiled it creates
considerably m orepowerthatwhen it
is only partly wound. W atch a
clockwork-driven toy and see how it
slows down w hen the spring starts to
run down and of course that is
som ething that is not wanted in a
clock.

The Fusee
To avoid this problcm it is usual to
connect the spring, via a device
known as a fusee,w hich is a tapered
and grooved Iength of brass on an
arbor,on which issetthe greatwheel.
M uch the sam e way as the situation
w ith the barrel on a weight-driven
clock.A cord is wrapped round the
grooves in the barreland runs to the
fusec.W hen the spring is fully wound
the chord passes round the sm allest
partofthe fusce,effectively acting as
a brake.A s the spring loses its power
so the chord winds to a larger
diametcr keeping the rotation of the
fusee at an even speed.The arbor on
which the fusee runsis sim ilar to that
29

@ ofmostpeople.Takealength ofbrass

of the barrel on the weight-driven

clock and the barrel now works
independently oftheclock m ovem ent,
providing the powerand nothing else.
The clock iswound via asquare on the
fusee arbor,which in turn rotates the
barrel.A sthe spring is hooked inside
that,ittightensup,to be released ata

bar of a slightly largerdiam eterthan

the maxim um diam eter of the fusee,

putitinthethree-jaw chucksfacethe

endand drilla hole through itslength

for the arbor. M achine the outside
diameter to size and we can now
guaranteethatthe hole forthe arboris
regularspee4 with thefuseeaeting as true to the outside diam eter.Set the
a continuous gear and compensating top slide over and m achine the
for the unequaltorque of the spring. required angle, then use either a
To enable the fusee to be wound the radiusing tool or a hand graver to
conical-shaped part is not directly generate the required curve, which
attached to the greatwheelbutdrfves m ustbe sm ooth.
it through a ratchet as already So farithas al1been easy going but
described forthebarrel.From therethe now we come to the only tricky part,
poweristmnsm ittedtotherestofthetain. which is to m achine the continuous
groove. A set-up for coarse screw
cutting willtake care of the spacing
Fusee C onstruction
w hich isthe sam e asthatforbarrel,so
M any peoplefightshy ofm aking the al1we need is to organisc a toolthat
fusee and preferto purchase it,butit can be adjusted in depth as the
is a task thatis wellwithin the ability carriage m oves along.This too is not

@ setatitslowestpossiblespced forthe

djm cult:m akeupapieceofsteelw ith

jbur pins stted in it as shown in the
drawing and clam p itin the toolpost
Parallel to the lathe axis and f5t a
suitably radiused toolin the end of a
square bar that slides nicely through
the gap. Either fit a handle to the
opposite end or w rap a quantity of
insulating tape or sim ilar m aterial

operation, in back gear if possible.

Bettersti11tlst
n:1handle in lhc m andrel
and rotatethelatheby hand. Although
it is suggested above that the toolbe
madefrom squarebar, thisispurely to
preventitfrom rotating. Readersw ith
sutficient confidence in their own
ability can usea round one. The tool
round itto avoid injury.(Do notuse m ustrem ain atornearthe sam e angle
loose material:itm ustbe held srnaly throughout operations to be
on the tool w ith no danger of it successful. The operation is not

coming off) It is now possible to diflicultandthereisa1otofcnjoyment

apply gentle hand pressure to the tool
protruding throughthetoolpostasthe
carriage m twes along alld in thisw'ay
to m ake the required grooves. If the
first cut is not deep enough the
operation iseasilyrepeatedbypicking
up the groovew ith thetool,betbre the
Iathestartsto rotate.The Iathem ustbe

to be gained from the tkeling of

having created a nicely-shaped ftlsee.
lt is probable that the grooves will
have a rough finish on them so cut a
piece ofdowelto a shape thatwilIfit
them and using Brasso or similar
polishing m ateriatand w ith the lathe
running underpowerand in back gear

Distancebetw een pillars

an exctfitforwidtb of
toolbeing used
Clam p this end in
toolpost

W
31

@ studdillg is notavailable it nlay be

run tllt-dovvutli:
ll(
)llg the groove ul
ltila
sluoolh finish is obtaincd.Finally part
tl'
le vvork 0ff t)r if it is thoughtto be
too large to be parted off,saw itoff.lf
saw n,lllotlntilon a l'
nandrclbdween
centres,tlsillg a half centr: attl3c end
thatissawnswhich can then be faced
to size.A suitable hand-ttlrning rest
for using a hand graver to get the
curvc and a self-releasing handlc to tit
the nnandrelare described in the book
KUseful '
W orkshop Tools' '
which is
nul
mber 3l in the '
W orkshop Practice
Series.

Untbrtunately lhklabovemethodsonly
apply'w'
hen a lathe has suitable screw cutting facilitiesand this is notalways
so.Generallyil'
wouldbeadvisablefor
those w ithotlt these facilitics to
purcllase a fusec ready m adc.Son'
l:
pcopltdonotlikctobuy suchiten'
lsas
they like the feeling of having nladd
every part for thenlselves. For thosd
people, lt is possible w ith a little

possiblt) to oblain a Iarge dianleter

bolt'
. 21 l'
netal scrap yard is a good
plac:to searcl)forsol
nething suitable.
Tht
lothercnd ofthisnlustbe centred
and stlpportedby tlletai1stock.Take a
llut that fits the thread and silver
soIder.or i1 sol'
ne other fashion fit a
shortlength ofmild steelbarto it.Ifit
is Iarge enotlgll perhaps a couple of
sm alIscrdwsurould do the J
'ob.Use a
piece of bar at rightangleg to this to
connectto thd screw-cutting tool,via a
slotin the firstpicce.W henthe lathe is
rotated the toolw illnow m ovc along
the thread and w ith the toolin contact
with the fusee the continuous grotwe
wi1)be m ade. M ostpeople with the
snaalllalheslhataretlleoneslikely to
lack seresv-ctltting facilities, are
tlnlikely to be luak'ing a clock which
would reqtlire 8
, Iarge dialnete'
r fusee
and the above m ethod w'illthereford
vvork quite NveII.

Contintling from the power supply

towards the dscapement are a pair of
wheelsand pinionsdesignated asthc
third and hourwheels.They form thc
just to beatthe oddsand do these m ain partofthetrain ofwheelsknow n
thingstbrthennselves.
asthe gofng train which eonnects the
Thc fusee willhave to be hnished as power unit.whether it is a drum and
1 spring and fusce, to the
far as shaping and driIling is weight or :
e
s
e
ape
m
e
nt
.svhen firstlooking into a
eoncerned. M ake a suitable w ellcl
oc
k
i
t
a
ppc
ars to be a iungle of
fitting m andre1butfittheendthatwiI1
whee
l
s
and
pi
nions and it is this
go in the tailstock centrew ith a length
a
ppa
r
c
nt
di
s
or
der
thatfreqtlently puts
ofstudding wilh acoarsethread.This
P
C
t
op
I
e
o
f
f
m
a
k
i
1g or repairing a
thread w i1I tlltim ately bc the one
cl
ock.
W
hi
l
e
t
hes
e
gears and pinions
transferred to the fusee so itw illneed
to have a Iarge diam eter, in order to m ay be in a num ber ofeom binations,
'
ne for
get a sufficiently coarse pitch. if the actual tbrm ation is the sal

virtually eNr
ery cltnck,The greatw'heel
dfivcs a pinion,which in turn drivcs
the centrc wheel'
.tllc pinion connected
to thatgocs to tlltlthird wheeland the
Pinion for thatis in turn connected to
the escape wheel.

on tl'
le salllt
'
t:1rbol
-astllklcentrc svlleeI.
Thc centre wheelhas sixty-four teelh
and as ifcarrics11)e Ininute hand 11:1st
rotate once an hour. This in turn
connects'
with an eigbt-leafpinion on
third wheel arbor, w'llich has sixty
Basically therefore we have four teeth.Itconnects to anothereight-leaf
pinion on the cscape wheel. '
W hen
wheelsand three pinions,which is a
designing 1 train itisessentialthatthe
nice easy m anageable num ber,
Partictllarly for anyone versed in escape wheel shall m akc sixty
ons (seconds) for each one
engineering
m atters. Various revoluti
r
e
vt
a
l
ut
i
on of the centre wheel
colnbinations of wheels are tlsed but
(
mi
nut
es
). To check this multiply
there m ust be a logicalsequence.Let
t
oge
t
her
t
henum berofa11theteeth in
us start w ith a hypothetical clock,
t
he
dr
i
vi
ng
wheels and divide the
althougb the train used will be one
a
ns
we
r
by
t
he
num bersofleavesin the
thatis quite com lllon.
pinions,lmultiplied together.W ith the
The great wheel connected to the exam ple lhat bas becn used the
drum arbor has ninety-six teeth and tkm mula in tht! appentlix gives all the
w illconnectw ith an eight-leafpinion detailsrequiredto seehow itworksout.

ingenttity to put on a continuous

threakl in these circul
mstances if
sttfficiently detcrlninedo or perhaps

32

.1I
'..kudkki

C hapter 4 - P endulum s
A pendulum is described as a heavy tim ed by using his pulse. The
particle,suspended from afixed point im portant thing about it was thatthe
by a fine inextensible m assless rigid oscillations were isochronous which
threa4 so thatitisfreeto oscillateon m eans sim ply that the tim e for one
a verticalplane.Galileo the fam ous complete oscillation was always the
astronom er is credited with sam e.His son iscredited with the frst
discoveringitand legend hasitthathe use ofthe pendulum and whateverthe
was watching the m ovem ent of a truth of the story it has stood
swinging lamp in church which he horologists in good stead ever since.
'

<....
.ng Suppor
Sprl
t '
:
'
'.
Block ------ /z
Rivetor
Screw

BackCcck
--..
-'
stlspensicn
- '--Spring

Back Plate

1'4

..a

Pendulum
Rod

::
2)..4.
::,':
:
;
.:
1:.:
.
.::
:.,:

:J
;:
!..'
.
...
.
:*:..
:
:
).
.
,...

., ,.

1...
:
,:
.

..
:
: **

'

Make up t?
fpendulum
.
assembl
v, xyou,
'
l.
ng
N
.
uu
b
pensionspring and
methodofadjustment.

v
.

..

t
v NwRatjng Nu
x

Pendulum
Bob
-'
.-

-u ...

ulum Rod.
square whereIt
passesthrough
bok).

Ratl
.ng Screw
35

I.iIA

Although a pendulum appearsto move

backwards antl forwards it actually
takes a sinusoidal l
'
notion, a
m ovem entthatis not quite a circular
one, but w hich for all praetical
purposes we can consider as an
ordinary backwards and forwards
m ovem ent. This is controlled by
gravity and as a result the distance
from the train to the bob varies
according towherethependulum isin
use.There is a also a variation in
gravitational pull, depending on the
height above sea level. Tl4e latter is

Togetherw ith the escapemtlntand via

the suspcnsion and crutch the
pendulum is rcsponsible fol
m aintaining tim e, using Galileo's
discovery that each oscillation takes
the samc pcriod of tim e. A sim ple
pendulum consistsofthree parts;the
rod, the bob and a rating nut, a1l
requiring carefulattention iftbeclock
is to function properly and is to be
accurate.The num ber of tim es the
pendulum vibratesorsw ingsdepends
on itslength and isselected according
to thetypeofcloek being m ade
g
such thatadjustments can easily be case and wallclocksm ore often. Lon
than
m adeto takceareofthevariation.
notw illhaveapendulum thatvibrates
once per second,
'sm allerclocks w ill
have correspondingly shortcr
pendulum s and will vibrate faster.
Q
A
A

@
This m eans that the length of the Suspension
Pendulum is also in directrelation to
The suspension consistsofatlatspring
the clock train: a pendulum that
t
hat is strengthened at the ends with
vibrates every second will need
met
al blocks allowing one end to be
differenttrainto ahalf-second one.
supported by the back cock and the
otherto connectto the pendulum. The
spring must not be too long or too
strong and atthe sam e tim e itm ustnot
be too weak either.M ost designs will
give intbrmation on the correctsizc of
spring to be used:ifnotitw illhave to
be a m atter of trial and error.
Fortunately there is a rcasonable
am ount of latitude available in spring
selection btlt if in doubt it is worth
considering the purchase of a readym ade unit frol'
n a supplier, having in
m ind that unless the spring selection
and m ake-up isrightthe clock w illnot
ftlnction prtlperly.The back cock also
needs to bk
l m ade and assembled
'
carcfully as,ifitisoutofalignm ent,the
pendultlm cannot function properly.lt
mustalso bemadewith suflieientstrenjp
rth
to give good stlpportto the set-up.

The R od

(1O l
The t7r/.//c.
/7is theJplrf thatf.qtnoved /)j.'the

b'
v'
ing t?/'the./'
pt/?7pl
,k/zfzn. It./i'
lx on the ttwrt
?

Relatiollshi
p r?
/'
/pt,?;t/l//l/?A?toc.q'tqw/.?t.?nlovenjf?nt
36

.. ..L
i1

arbol) tht,prongs f'

aa eilht??-side ft'
?(?tr//?kg
'
'/thepEa/llf/?,
fp?suspension spring.
t/gtzln.$

The rod must be straight and have 21

stlitable m eansofconnecting itto thc
suspension tlnit at one end.The end
thatfitsthrough thklbob isthreaded to
accept the rating nut. Depending on
thtltype ofbob itmay be necessary to
m ake the end square so that the bob
cannot tw ist outof line.Selection of
m aterialfortherod isimportant.lthas
already been stressed that for correct
operation the weightofthe pendulum

@ thatisused.A m orem odern material

mustbe concentrated in the bob and if

a heavy rod isem ployed this wil!take
the weightaway from thatarea.There
is also a slight problem ofexpansion
and contraction of the rod w ith
tem perature changes. M any ideas
have been introduccd to com pensate
for this: som e simple, others very
complicated.W hetherornotthe home
constructor will want to go to the
effort of m aking a com pensating
version is a m atter for individual
choice. Doing so involves
considerably m ore work than m aking
a simple one but no doubt could in

is Invar which although expensive

may not be prohibitively so and has
the advantages ofbeing light,easy to

workwithandnotsubjecttochanges
oftem perature.

The end ofthe rod has to be threaded

to acceptthe rating nut,which allows

adjustment of the height of the

regulator.lf a round ortubular bob is

being used then the rod can be Ieft
round where itpasses through'
,ifone
of the flat type is used then the rod
w ill have to have a square on it to
preventthe bob from tw isting in use.
itselfbeaninterestingproject.
Ensurethatthe square ispositioned in
Assuming that at this stage anyway, such a way thatthe bob willrem ain
hen swinging.
readersare going to be contentw ith a parallelw ith thctrain w'
single rod then the materialchosen for lf allowed to twist at an angle the
it is worth consideration.W hile brass balanceofthependulum willbc upset.
looks nice it is also the m etal that
suffers m ost from tem perature
chal
zgesand so ifitused f'
brreasonsof The Bob
appearance the rod shotlld be as thin
Although we tend to think ofbobsas
as possible or alternatively usc thinbeing m ade either in a lens shape or
walled tubing.Alum inium tubing is
rountt in fact.many clocksusedquite
also a useful m aterial and has the
fancy shapes, in particular French
advantageofbeing lightand allowing
clocks were adorned in this way.but
the weight to be concentrated in the of course m any French clocks were
bob.W ooden rods have the advantage
noted for their ornate appearance
that the m aterial is less likely to
anyway.ln generalthehom eworkeris
expand or contract with clim atic
going to use one of the two standard
conditions and on a long case clock a
types and so it is these we will
piece of dow el can m ake a very

effective rott asitisalso lightweight.

Itshould be wellsealed w ith varnish
or sim ilar m edium to prevent the
absorption of moisture from the
atm osphere. M ake certain that the
dowelis perfectly straight in the first
place.as indced m ustbe any matcrial
38

conccntrate on.

For small clocks and probably wallm ounted ones as well the standard
lens-shaped bob is usual and not
diflicultto m ake.Startby m achining a
hollow in a piece ofhard wood;m ake
sure the m achined surface is perfectly

smooth.Cutout two disks k)f brass kt

little largerthatthc outside dianletcr
oftheproposed bob and allnealtlcnh,
if necessary re-nlarking the circltls
afterannealing. A good alternative to
brass is giltling lmaalwhich is l'
nuch
m ore ductiIe and needs less annealillg
than norlual brass shcet. U sing t
wooden bossinglmallctsshapcthetwt)
disksby gcntly ham m crillg them into
the hollow sin the block. As soon as
thebrassstartstowork-hardcn. anneal
them again antl kccp doing so
whenevernecessary'- do notunderany
eircum stances try and w'
ork the l'
netal
if it hardens. Dtlring tlle shapillg
operations take care thattle work is
kept centl-alto the ciretlluferenee of

thc 1,k)lI(
)wrs.ltis alItoo easy to have
the Nvork slide to one side during the
hoI1ou'
ing-otlt process and in '
which
case the bob .
viIIbe ofno use atall.
Periodically put the tu'
o ))ieces
together to check the '
ht- until the
k
ldges naeet alI thc u'ay rould. Each
'
piece ntlcds a snnall section '
I
iled out
fortherod und and atthisstage littlc
lmore than a 1ick yvi1l do. W 'lpk?n
satisfied w ith the ho11ou'illg-otlt
proccsss drill a holc about 5.
.1('
lins
dianzeter in the celltrtl of ontl of tlle
piecesand deburrthe ilolcs.
Clean the pieces tlp by soak'ing thel'
n
i1 a soluti()n of citric acid: two
tablespoons to a bucket of water is
39

I.1
.du.

@
aboutright.Tllt
?y need to stxlk in itfor
a couple ofhours orso to cnsure they
ark)clean entAugllto be silversoldered
together. M ake up a soltltion of flux
by m ixing il w ith m ethylated spirits
into a sm ooth paste and sprcad it
round the inside edges ofeach piece.
putthe two pieces together,with the
Piece w ith 11hole in iton top,making
sure the edgesm eetand thatnicksthat
have been filed otltare levelwitlleach
other.Lay the assem bly on a brick and
puta weighton top so the picces will
retain theirposition.W hellcompletely
satislied that thc parts art
l located

.. ..1
*

correctly heat then) up and apply

siIversolderabotlttllreeorfourplakres
round 1htledges.f'oolittlffand put il
back in thcacid to elean it.

W'ith a needle filea open the places

u'here the nicks have been made and
file a square tbrthe pendulum rod to
go tlzrough. The top hole can bc
opened with a taperream erto obtain a
round hole. M achinc a Iength ofbrass
tubing so thatit is a push lit in the
5/l6ills diameter hole. Nlake up a
shortlength ofrod the salnediamd er
asthatused forthependulum andw ith

a square on it that is also the sam e.

Paintthis.using eithercmulsion paint
or by using the white Puid w'
hich
typists use for corrcetion purposes.
W hen dryopush itintothebob-fitthe
tubing into the hole and then heat
som eleadtom cltingpointandpourit
through thetubeuntilthebob isfull.lt
w illspi11outoftheedgesbtltthisisof
nO COIISCQIJOFICC aSally StlrplusCan be
cleaned off later,Solder a disk in the

%...'k
'(.

'dianleterhole in place ofthe tubc.

Finally use a fine file.tm ttry paperor
cloth and any other abrasive material
thatm ightbe a personalfavourite,to
tidy the surfaeesofthe bob and m ake
itlook presentable.
.

R ound Bobs
Round bobsatfirstglance seem to be
far casier to m ake than the lens type

@ fills al1the space.A good alternative

and in som e waysthey are:,thisdoes

notm ean thatcare need notbe taken
jnthefrm anufacture.Thefinishthatis
required hasconsiderable bearing on
how they arem ade.Forexam ple some
People are contentto drilla piece of
castiron barand usethat,whichwhen
cleaned and painted can look quite
good while atthe sam e tim e itisthe
m inimum oftrouble to m ake.The only
thing that needs particular care and
attention is to ensure that the hole
drilled should be a nice fit for the
thread for the rating nut.The same
principle could be applied using a
length ofbrassrodandthiswouldgive
a betterappearance butlessweight.

A more com mon way isto use a piece

ofbrass tubeand afterensuring both
ends are perfectly square, start by
silversoldering a piece ofplateto one
end.Thisisthentrim m ed totheedges
ofthe tube to give a niceneatfinish
with ahole drilled centrally in it.The
screw for the rating nut will be
travelling through a piece of brass
t'
ubeEtted insidethebob and thehole
should be a close fitforthatto slide
into.M ake up a length ofm ild steel
barwith a step to '
ltthe inside ofthe
otherendofthetubeandaholedrilled
centrally in it to accept the central
tube,referredtoabove. M ake sure that
thistubeisexactly centralwhenfittedo
Othenvise the bob willbe offcentre
and this w ill intertkre with the
Operation of the pendulum .Fill the
Outertubewith lead.lfnecessary heat
the base to ensure that the m aterial

to lead is one ofthe low -m elting point

alloys sold for casting in rubber
m oulds. These also have the
advantagethatthey arenottoxic in the
sam e way thatlead can be.Depending
on theamountofweightrequiredothe
tube does nothave to be filled to the
verytop,butm akesurethattheslling
m aterialfills thearea com pletely and
there are no air pockets that could
throw the bob off balance.The fnal
aet is to rem ove the steelspaeer and
puta brassplate overthe top:thiscan
be soft soldered in position.
A lternativelyabrassend canbem ade
w ith a lip so thatitisa push-fitin the
tube.This allow s m ore w eight to be
added ifrequired.
A merican and French clocksoften use
a fancy shaped bob and these are
usually east'
.they ean be bought.To
m ake thcm oneself requires either a
high degree of skill in beating sheet
m etal to shape or the ability to m ake
suitable patterns to have the shells
cast.Any casting would be bestdone
using thelostwax process.Thiswould
m ean the bob com ing straight from
the foundry with a finish suitable
imm ediately for use.Trying to clean
up an ordinary sand casting would be
far from easy and even then it is
doubtfulifa suitable llnish could be
obtained.
The Rating N ut
The rating nutism adeto fitthe thread
on the rod and can take alm ost any
43

42

.. .
0

@
fon'
n or shape that the constructor
likessalthough it is as wt?llto ensure

inside by (Jriving a piece ofsquare

m ild steelthrough the hole.tlsing a

thatitcanbeadjustedbyhandeasily. ham meralld tappillg lightly.The stetll
Fitthcrod through the boband puton willbe sufficientto clearany lead that
thenuttocheckwhetherornottherod migbtjustbei
ntheway.Thisshould
wi11naove asthe nutisadiusted,1fit notapply totubularpendulunlswitha
shotlld stick at any point easc the centre tube.

C hapter 5 - E scapem ents

The escapem ent is part of thc
m echanism of a clock w hich is
devoted to the speed at w hich thc
clock works.lt consists of a coarqc.

clock.which is derived from a weight

or a spring, is prevented from
escaping and is converted from rotary
to reciprocating m otion. The arboron
specially shapk!tt toothed wheeland wllich the escape wheel, 01-as it is
an oscillating brackd w ith two pegs, oftcn called, tscape whecl'is located
called pallets that locate in the teeth. is connected via a pinion to thc m ain
The title cscapementis used because wheeltrain.Thu.action is such thata
thisisthepointwherctllepowerofthe tootll of the scape wheel is trappcd

45

@ There are m any typesofescapem ent,

and then released at regulated

intervalsand thism ovem entin turn is
sent back through the train to the
hands. W ithout the escapem ent the

so m any in factthatwhole bookshave

bccnwrittenonthatsubjectalone.The

beginnerto clock m aking is generally

train wouldjustunwind atno given only likely to use one of about four
speed and the clock would be ofno types,butanyway any clock plan one
use.M any escapem entswork atarate m ightwork from iscertain to give full
ofone m ovem entpersccond and so if details of construction.Even so it is
ahand issttedto theend ofthepivot usefulto know whatwe are aim ing for
on which it runs the seconds can be and how to setaboutmaking thispart
ofthe clock.
counted offl

.. Fol
io with balance
-.' w eightsforadjustment

..

Crown Wheel
.
:
.

-.

TheVerge and Foliot

. The
l
u
ovem
e
nt
o
f
t
h
t
t
s
c
ape
wht
l
k
lI is
The earlicst forlu of escapenlent
r
c
gul
a
t
c
d
by
t
he
p
al
I
c
t
s
, whi
cll alv
known to be in generaluse was the
pieccs of basically tlat nletal, shaped
verge and foliot.
to a knife edge,attacl
led to the verge
t
ha
t
r
uns
ve
r
t
i
ca
l
a
nd
is positioned so
Itisa very simple device to m ake btlt
t
hat
t
he
pal
l
et
s
ent
e
r
t
he teeth of the
unfortunately is not known for good
*
s
c
a
pe
whee
l
.
Tl
l
e
s
e
pal
lcts are set at
tim e-keeping. Even so it is an
interesting experimentto make one as anangl
eofjustovcrninetydegreesto
itgives som e idea of whatwe w illbe each other and as onc tooth of the
looking for when m aking a m ore tscape w heelpassesone oftht,pallets
advanced version.The*scapeisin the itis Iocked by thc one opposittl.The
tbrm ofa crown wheel.w ith the teeth shape ofthis causes thc lockcd pallet
at ninety dcgrces to the luovem ent. to be pushed outofthe vvay and causcs
There is a sligiltradius ol)each tooth the folio. vvhich is a cross bar, to
and the num ber of teeth w ilIdepend sw ing and in doing so it locks the
tootllon theoppositeside.In thisway
tht
l process is repeated continuall
y
w itl)the foliotmoving backwurds and
I
l
foru ards as illltzlltooth is lock'et1and
i
$
ul'
tlocIkkltt.

palle'
ts

Thkl spced at ur
hich thc mtlchanislm

opklratk!sist(.
ljtlstedbyur
oightsatcach

p.

)
f

/.
1
1

!
'
;

Xi13''f'
'

'

K. ;

w er supp
weightconnected to
drum with cord.

@ on the ntllmberstlsed in thetrain

S,*:k k

.
>'
s<N.
.

>x.

. .,.

end ofthtlfolit'
l
t-i1 Ns'
llicll1'
t
.series of
groovcs ll1
-(
Jctltasa nlcans 0t-holding
tlle u'
cights in ptlsititln. (3f coursc thtt
foliotl'
nust be Nvel1 balanek
ld alld thc
grooves spaced evenly on klithklr sidtl
so that a good balance is l'
naintaincd.
It is a silnple idea alld as such servtld
clocknlakers weIlfornlany yearsuntil
m ore sophisticated ideas cam e along,
Tlle nearer the weights are to the
centrethefasterthel
'
novelnentwilIgo
and vicevcrsa.ifthe weightsarc taken
towardstlle end itwiIlslow down.
To nlaktl the escapelmcnt thkl whct)l
can be m adc on a flatplankland then
rollcd into klircularfornland the cnds
silver soldcred togdher then a cross

46

t...ukl

@ luinutes. Elsesvhere details w iIl btp

bar in which a holtl for thtlpivothas

been drillcd is silNrtlr soldered on.
N eedlcssto say itisessentialthatthe
pivot hole is placed central to the
circunaference ()f the wheelo antl a
brassbush w illalso need to btphtted to
hold the pivot. The teeth can be
luachined to shape but this is an
exalnple ofan eseapelnentwhere itis
possiblc to carefully file the teeth to
shape,w ith stlfficientaccuracy forthe
dt
w ice to work well enough. As a
lueansofgettingan ideaofwhatclock
m aking is about thc escapem ent has
m uch tt) rtltlolnnlend it:collnectto a
couple of whtpels to give sixty-to-one
rcduction, fit a w inding drul
'
n and
weight to lhat and we have a crtlde
elock which w i11 show secollds and

found ofhoNv to convcrtthisto hotlrs

and so using little materialor til
-ne a
clock can be l
'
nadc in this way. Itw ill
notbea11thataccuratebutitccrtainly
lnakes an interesting starter for
anyoncwho feclsthatclockm aking is
adiflicultart.
A laterdevelopmentofthe verge and
folio escapennent was the verge and
balance,thd tblio being replaeed by :1
whecland speed was altered by either
changing the driving weight or by
claanging the depth to Nvhich the
pallds entert!d the wheel. Ul
llcss :1
replica of 1 particularclock that used
tl
-lt
l dcvice is being lnadtl it is not
solnething thatis likcly to appcalin
generalto tl'
le afnateur.

ztt48

@
Verge and Pendulum

RecoilEscapem ent

ltis possible to tlse the crow n whek

?l
and verge antt while retaining its
simplicity, ilnprove accuracy
considerably.The escapem ent works
in exactly the sam tl way, tlxccpt that
thefolio isreplaced witha pendulum .
This is m ade with a crutch in exactly
the sam e way as pendulum sused with
other escapem ents and full dctails of
how to go aboutthosew illbe found in

RQ 11()Wr001110 t() the 113Ore COm 113On

type of eskrapelnents w hich w ill btp
found in m any of the published
designs and the first noticeable
difference is thatthe leeth arc t
ztlt in
the edge ofthe w I
leelrather than at
nindy dcgrtresas betbre.The pallets
arC 111tlCh ITIOFC COm P3Ct 2nd Work
frol
m a pivotsituated above thatofthe
:scape wlleel, w hich generally has
thirty teeth,butthisw illdepend on the

the relevant chapter. Ond major

differenceintheuseoftheideaisthat
the scape w het
ll w i11 now lie
horizontal and so the. dircction of
m ovem entin the train w illnet)d to be
changed. In norm al enginecring
practice we would use a pairofbevel
gears forsuch a purposc,butin clock
making the method isto use anothcr
crow n wheel. sct in tht
) N'crtical
position and locating wth thttpinion
attached to the tseape whtltrl.

@ and ifso the position can beobtainetl

train.The action is sil

nilar to beforo'
.
one nib ofthc pal1etlocksinto a tooth
and then as it is unlocked prtw ides a
slight il
-npulse as the result of the
shape ofboth teeth and pallcts.'
w hile
the otherin the l'
neantime is locking a
t00th furtheralong.The m ovennentis
such that there is a very slight
backward lnovelnent as ul)Iocking
takesplace:an action know n as recoi1.

('
ienerally fulldetaiIs Nvi11be given on
any plans of how to lay out the
escapelnents which 1n:1st be planned
as a whold in orderto find the eorrect
proportions. The pallet eentrcs are
reconlnaended to be ata distance t)f
1.4 tinlcs thc wv
hcel radius frol
'
n its
cclltre and althotlgh therc arc
occasions vvhttn thisnlay vary w'
e u,i1l
tlsc itis ourtigure.A 11tllatis neetled
tl4t)l1is to dravv a centre line.Iuark the
position oftllc '
vvl
'
lcelccntre,l
measure
1.
4 tilues the raditls, l'laktr allother
l'
nark and wt
zhavethe correctposition.
Sonlctilnesthattigure of 1.4 can btlan
extrenlely aw'kward (Al)e to nleasure

by the use ofsomc silnple geol

nctry.
Startby draw ing the circuluferellce ot'
the wheel and tiom the centrc point
draw two lines at forty-five tltlgrees.
svhcl'
e these
intersect the
circul
-nference draw 1ines at right
angles toward thc centre line. Tht)
position atw1)ich thesetwo linescross
is thc one where we '
want the pallet
arborto be.

Assum ing the -scape'w heelwi11have

thirty teeth- their position can bkl
naarked on the drayving. It is llot
nccessary to lmark the position of a11
thetetrth.abouttcn Nvilldo.There '
w ill
betvvel'
tedcgreesbetureneachbutan
allowance has to be n-ladc forthe fact
thattlltlre isa flat01
1each onc and itis
usualto alltlu'onedegree lbrthat.Usc
a protractorto putthe positionsol'
lthc
drauzing. Readcrs who have a
colnpuler w'ith Con'
lpultlr A ided
Design (CAD )softsvar: uri11find that
drasving thtt eseapelncnt is very t-asy
indeed, tlsing 11 protractor and ruler

/j

x,..

hj.

t /g

+< <

wt
@ @ . .
t>
. W
+

ar
y
j (yyryyq;

P
W#
#
,,,,,, .

.
)

NNN
( M n -

X'? ':g
h
x

>

yj
yyjy
r5
!

,,,.,

VM,

' /Y+

'

Nh

# ',.,,
','

with a pencil is m ore dim cult.An

ajjowanceofonedegreeisalso leftfor
tjw dropandthism eansthepalletsare
ten degreesofthecircle.
once the palletshave been draw n itis
custom ary to cutoutthe drawingsand
stickittoapieceofgaugeplateandto
cutand 5leround ittogettherequired
shape.To an engineer it m ay sound a
rather prim itive way of going about
things butthe system llas worked for
clockm akersforhundredsofyearsand
there is no reason for anything m ore
sophisticated.

...I21zI
:.

Brocot Pin Pallet

Escapem ent

Those readerswho w ish to go italone

and to design their own m ovem ents
Unlike the previous escapem ent, in m ightwellbe interested in the brocot
thiscase when the palletslock on to pin pallet escapem ent, the eseape
the tscape wheelteeth with this type wheelfor w hich is virtually identical
there is no recoil action, hence the to thatforthe dead beat.The pallets,
nam e dead beat.ltis aeom paratively however. are com pletely different.
easy deviceto m akeand iscapableof They are in pairs instead ofthe m ore
producing accurate tim ekeeping, norm al nibs that are found in the
although itshould be pointcd outtbat previoustwo escapem ents.Halfround
it is really m ore suitable for large
clocks than sm all ones. G eorge
Graham invented itaround 1730 and
so has stood the test of tim e. lt is
particularly effective w ith weightdlivenclockswherethereisaconstant
Source ofpower.G enerally the (scape
Wheelwillconsistofthirty teeth and
the palletsspan anything from eightto
fourteen teeth. The pallets are
relatively easy to make and the teeth
Canbecutw ithafly-cutter. A swith all
escapem ents the pallets should be
hardened andpolished

D ead BeatEscapem ent

50

$#
'

Dead flf-2t.
7/.Escapelent. Nf)Jt?//7(?/the /'
t?f?//?ut'
e
unJt??r1// bv .
s'j.vdegrees in ol'
derthatonlvthe
/.p willbe in contao'
tu/I'//lthepallets.

/.l?-f'
?t'f)/PilPallel%'t't7/Jt??'
rlf??1l

@ thereforcnecessary to do thework in

sections arc used and thesc ean be

lnade from round silver steel.stepped
to fitin holes in the arm s and tilcd or
m illed exactly in half.Only theseparts
need to bc hardened and the an'
nscan
be m ade froln m ild steeland the nibs
secured with a suitable retaining
com pound.

Pin

heelE scapem ent

a m illing m achine or by using 21

verticalslide on the lathe to obtainthe
required accuracy. lt w i11 involve

(;

'
. ziL

making ajig thatwillhold thepins

securely in such a way thatthe cutter
can rcach thc ccntre line of the pin.
M ounting the pins aecurately on tht
?

wheelalsorequiresasimplejigtobe

m ade up.Thiscan bcfrom astiffcard

A lthotlgh at first glance this type of ifone w ishes antlassum ing it is only
escapem ent '
would seen'
t to be the to be used oncc,otherwise m ild steel
silzlplestofa1Ito m ake,asthere is r)o should betlsed.Thearm sarem adein
escapcwheelassuch to eutteeth onsit two parts and are fairly
is not quite as straightforward as it straightfol
-ward and w illpresentIittle
m ay seelm.Consisting of:1w hcelw ith problem to any one even slightly
a series of hoIes into w l
1ich are versed in m ctalwork techniqucs.
inscrted pieces ofhalf-rotlnd steel.in
a sinailar fashion to thk
l nibs in the
brocotcscapennentsthe spacing ofthe
French Pin heel
holes is a smple cnotlgh proposition
but it is essentialto ensure that when Escapem ent
the pins.which arc usually nnade frona This too is an escapem cntthatm ight
a good quality brass are halved this is prove ofintdrestto the lllotlk?!engincer
done with absolute aeeuracy, It is wishing to go italonc and design his
or htlr own clocke as it is
straightforw ard. Un1ike the brocol
O
eseapem entthepinsare leftround and
tbe arm softhe pallcts'
hteitherside of
the w heel. It is very attractive and
elegantto see when working.Because
% 2 2P,
%%
/
the pins are rotlnd they are easier to
m akeandifam odtrrllm aterialsuch as
%
R
<7
Tellon is tlsed tbr the palletnibs,the
probleln of lubrication,which at one
tim c lmadtlthe escapem cntunpopular
>
o
need be no problen: atall. Both types
>
of pin pallet escapem ent rcquire thc
#C
%
c:
A%
pallets to be offset from the wheel,
Cq
rather than in line,as is the case w ith
the previoustypes.

=
D

o o O o o

o
o
o
o
o
o
o

O
O
O
O
o
0
o

www
o
O o o o O

tendency t() feed a tly cutter into the

ast. To m ake a six-tooth
The wheels ofany type ofescapem ent work too t
c
ut
t
er
i
s
not
8
1greatdealm orediflicult
arealwaysm ortpdifhcultto m akethan
t
ha
n
m
a
ki
ng
a fly cutterand itw'illbe
the norm alwheeltbund in the train,
m
ue
h
ea
s
i
e
r
t
o use.
because oftheirshape. Specialcutters
can bepurchase; which aredesigned First of alI a form cutter will be
to dealw ith a particulartype ofw heel
required in orddr to get the required
so are only usable for the one radius.useapieceofground flatstock
escapem enttype and retkrencdto the or gauge plate as it is m ore often
various drawings w ill show readers
why thisisso. Suitablecutterscan be referred to these daysand drillahole
m ade for the recoil type of using adrillw ith adiam etertw icethe
escapem ent from silver steel and as raditls needed. Filc or saw off the
Only oncradiusand a straightedge is m etalleft at the side ofthe hole and
leaslightrcliefonthefrontedge
requiredathey are easy to m ake.The justfi
Cuttercan bcmadeasa'
Ily cutterbutit thatisleft:do nottouch theradiusthat
is far better to use a m ulti-toothed rem ains.A slightcham fer can also be
Cutterifpossible as a fly cutter always puton the top ifone w ishesbutthis is
Seem s to apply too m uch force for notnecessary asthetoolisonlygoing
Com fort as it m akes its single cut on tobeusedfortheonejob.Cuttheflat
eaeb rotation and there is alw ays a stock to the required length and soak it

M aking EscapeW heels

i
u'1
j
.

!!!,

..

@ dcpthrequiredforvariouswheelsizcs.

' (y

out. The besttype ofeontainerto use

for the ptlrpose is something Iiktt a
biscuittin and the lid w ilI notonly
keep the Oilin place when notin uses
but willalso put out any llamtls that
m ightresultfrom quenchingthem etal.

'

'

clean offthe scale tlzathasappeared

on the m etaland w hen it is nice and
brightplaceitin asmalltin.(asardine

I
j
,
k
!
y
:
t
7
;
j

justmade untilthe edgd ofthe silver

steelbarhasthercquired shape.Usea

tinwilldo nicely)which ishalftbllof cutting oi1 for the operation as the

M achinty a Iittl: off the otltsidt

7
diatnetcro.j
tIstsufficientto takecareof
any occentricity thatthdchuck hasand
then tlrill the hole for the bore: we
now know that the bore is perfectly
concentric w ith the outside diam eter.
Gcntly run the radius tool you have

sand.Heattlle sand from underneath ori

ginalform toolisonlyjustabout
until the m etal turns a dark straw et
icientcnough forthe job and needs
colour and then quench it in the oil any help itcan getin rounding offthe
oncemore.Finallyjustrubthetop of silversteelbar.
the cutting edgesw itllttslnalloilstone
to put som ething of an edge on them Thefinaltaskistopartthebaroffand
this is som ething which some people
and the toolisready forust).
Gnd dim ctllt. M uch depcnds on tbe
To m ake the actualcutter.startw ith a qtlality and sizc ofthe Iathe as to how
length of silver stecl bar m ounted in easy itis and ifpossible itis betterto
thethree-jaw chuck.Thediameterof use a rear toolpostforthe work.For
thebar,w ithin reason,isnotim portant those who really cannotface up to the
aslong as when the m andrelto which idea of trying to part off a piece of
it w ill be fitted is allowcd for, silver sttpel of this sort of diam eter
su cient depth is Ieft to obtain the therd is another w'
ay round things.
full depth of the teeth. The chart W hen the m aterial is firstput in the
shows the radius and therefore the chuck,leave an overhang of aboutan
inch and a half,or forty m illim etres,
butstillm achinethe outside edgesfor
Sizes for m aking C utters
concentricitys but don't drill a hole.
for RecoilEscapeW heels
Turn the radius as deseribed and then
m achinea stem atthe back ofthetool;
Escape W heelPitch
Radiusof
providing the work has rem ained in
lessthicknessof
Cutter
t00thtip
the chtlck thewhole tim e the stem w ill
be perfectly concentrie with the tool.
0.05':
0 l25'
'
0 06,'
O 16''
Thebarcanthen berem oved from the
0 08',
0 2''
chuck and the part saw n off and we
0 10''
0 25.'
have our shaped m etal but with a
0.l25''
0.3125'
'
spigotinstead of a hole for m ounting
0 16''
040',
iton a m andrel.

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Use form toolto

shape cutteredge
make six cuts as
show n.

Bemovem etal
in frontofcuts
as shown

ctltaway
on radius
to leave
ctltting edge

Vethodrl/'
z?pr
.
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l
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uj
.
;multitooth(-lftlel'
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%esilver.
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u,/7(2(,/andpinion c?,?//t?r.s'.

54

55

@ btltthey also tlo a greatdealofwork'

To m ake the teeth.m ark 01#-orindex it

atsix equaldivisions alltlmi1la tlatas
show n i1
'
1 thc draw ing. Fina1Iy
I'
nachine another fla! so that tllere is
plenty of clearanckl: again the
draw ings sllow Nvhat is required.W e
should now'have six sections evenly
spaced and the toolwillwork like this,
but if the square edges have a sm all
relieffiled orm achined on thcln itwill
work evcn better.If howevcr you are
notentirely confidentofbeing able to
get these re1ief angles without
dam aging what will be the cutting
edges,leavethingsasthey are.Finally
repeat the hardening and tem pering
exercise as detailed already and yotl
have a eom pleted scape wheelcuttcr.
lt w il1 not be as efficicnt as a
professionally-m ade one, these have
sixty tceth as a rtlle,butitwilldo the

w'
ith the pallets bal
lging up and dow n
on thcnl fortnvnty-four hours a day.
NVI
'
Iile thereforc itnlay be desirable to
tlst
l soluething a Iittle thinncr to save
weight.doing so cotlld defeatits ow n
purpose,as itis m ore likely to distort
during operations.
Som e readcrs m ay nothave sum cient
equipm entto m ake the above tools or
not feel entirely conhdent about so
doing.Itispossible to file the teeth by
hand aftervery carefulmarking out.It
got
)s w ithout saying that a grcat dcal
ofearc isnccded and in particularitis
cssentialthatthe straightsections art
l
really that and are not angled in any
way.If:
1sm alltem plate ism ade '
hrstit
can bc used to check thatthe radiusof
cach tooth is correct . it is alm ost

job and afteral1itisunlikely to be impossibletodosowhenjustworking

used forcutting m ore than one ortwo
whcels.

W hen cutting whtrtlsand in particular

this type it is essential that they are
well supported to as near tlle point
where the teeth are being cut as
possible, partictllarly w here hom c
m ade cuttdrs of any sort are in use.
The pressure reqtlired to cutthe teeth,
even though we are only removing a
little m aterialata tim e isconsiderable
and the tool w ill tcnd to bend the
metalasitcuts.Thatisthe lastthing
we need.Generally *scape w heels are
m ade from m aterial of 1.5m m or
1/16ins thick and we are torn between
two possibilities here. To get the
m axim um efficiency the %scape
wheels need to be as lightas possible

to m arkings. The tem plate can be

m ade from a piece of card, but
som ething m ore perm anent is
preferable and plastic is ideal. A
suitable piece can be obtained by
cutting up an old cretlit card and
finishing the radiusa w ith an em ery
board ofthe type used form anicuring.
On m any very old clocksa11the teeth
on the wheels are hand cut, and in
comparison to a greatw heelan escape
wheelisvery sim ple indeed.
To com plete the escapem ent w e
require the pallets and to lind the size
and shape ofthese itis necessary '
Iirst
to draw the necessary angles. The
pallets can then bc ctlt out, using
gauge platc to make them . There is
really no way to m ake them except

W jth a fiIe and sau'

.althtlugl
l perllaps
roughing Out could btl done on 11
rnilling l'
nacl
line.ltiscssentialthatllle
Pallets are m ade accurately and tllat
thenibs-which ardthe pointdd pieces
thatstick outhave polished working
surfaces. A s m uch polishing as
Possible should be done before they
are hardened butin doing so the shape
and size m ust be m aintained. Final
polishing can be com pleted aftcr
hardening and m ethods of so doing
willbe discusscd elsew here.

The j
-inal task to krolllplctk
? the
escapelncnt will be to trroh;s otlt the
u'hccl,'
svhen thatis colnplettxd. lllot,nt
itolla colletand sccure itto tllt
'
tpiq'
ot.
Itcan then be tdsted.tlsillg a depthing
tool,to check thatthe pallets w iI1do

their job. As tlzkly are Imoved

backwards and forw ards the action
should be suflicient to slowly rotate
the wheel.

C hapter 6 - T he G oing T rain

& M otion W ork
Thegoing train as itis properly called
connects the power unit,whether itis
a drum and weightor a spring and
fusee,to the escapem entvia series of
wheels and pinions. W hen first
looking into a clock itappears to be a

param eters in order to m aintain tim e.

Various com binations of whecls are
used but these m ust be in a logical
sequence. Let us start w ith a
hypotheticalclock,although the train
usedwillbeonethatisquitecom mon.

jungleofwheelsandpinionsanditis The great whcel connected to the

this apparent disorder that freqtlently
putspeople off m aking orrepairing a
clock. W hile these gears and pinions
m ay be in a numberofcom binations,
the form ation isthe sam e forvirtually
every clock and in fact there are
noWhere near as m any aS it Seem s at
srst glance.The great wheel,which
has already been discussed when
dealing with the power,drivesa pinion
which in turn drivesthecentre wheel.
The pinion connected to thatgoesto a
third wheeland the pinion forthatis
in turn connected to the escape wheel.

drum arbor has ninety-six teeth and

w illconnectw ith an eight-leafpinion
on the sam e arborasthe centre wheel.
The centre w heelhas sixty-four teeth
and as itcarriesthe m inute hand must
rotate once.This in ttlrn connectsw ith
an eight-leafpinion on thethird wheel
arbor,the w heelfor which has sixty
teeth.ltconnectsto anothereight-leaf
pinion on the escape wheel. W hen
designing a train itisessentialthatthe
escape wheel shall m ake sixty

revolutions (seconds) for each one

revolution of the centre wheel

We have therefore just fourwheels (minutes). To check this multiply

and three pinions,which is an easy
m anageable num ber,particularly for
anyone versed in engineering m atters.
The wheelcom bination willvary in
Sizedependingonthesizeoftheclock
being m ade and on the whim of the
designerbut m ust conform to certain
58

togetherthe num berofallthe teeth in

the driving wheels and divide the
answerby the numbersofleavesin the
pinions,multiplied together.W ith the
exam plethatisshow n in the appendix
on page 121,this works outas sixty
w hich is what
w ant; any
59

@
com bination can be checked in this
way to ensure thatthe train isgoing to
b: right. In addition lo this it is
possible to work outthc size ofbarrel
and length ofdriving eord thatwillbe
required.
If a shorter pendulum is uscd it will
beatatlessthan a second and from the
table itispossible to work otltatwhat
speed a givc11 Itlngt1
) w'ilI bt
lat.

bLltttA 112ke a llntl%'

ol'
nelltto 1112 (
2ase
thatone particularly wants.Rcferent?e

to thetables(st
)eAppendix pagc 122)
can enable usto tind outthe speed al
Nvhich a pendulum of a given lengtl)
w i11bcatand whatwheelcom bination
is needed to m ake the clock work

accurately. Althotlgh a table o#'

colnmon wheeltrainsisincltlded.(see
Appendix page 124)itdoesnotmean
that they are the only combinations
Suppose thercfore the major factor avai1able; it is quite possible to
behind tbe dcsign ofa clock is notas calculate one foroneself.
usualto fita case round the m ovem ent

1
I

Pallets
E cape wheel -

3rd heel

I
I

Cen re wheel

.
..F.
..

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.'

''

.-

N.
. .'

. .

x.-.
Great heel

.4

(,(.w,'''xJ.. .
- ..

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Brrel

otion

ork

rhe train then setsthe clock so thatit

ticks Off the lminutes btlt m ore than
thatisneeded:evklry clock mtlstshow
the hours and solme even incltlde a
calendar,whileothers have phasesof
the m oon. lt is not intended to deal
with these latter factors or striking
m echanislms but it is necessary to
arrange for the clock to indicate the
Passing hours as wellas lllintltds.
As the m intlte pivot does one
colnplete revolution once every sixty
m inutes,Nvhat is needcd is a twelveto-one rttduction.in (3l'
tIel'to lllark off
thehours.Thisisobtained in thususual
way by using a pinion and u.ht?eland
thereforeany pinion and wheelwith :
1
m ultiplication 01- tw clN'
e w i1l do.
Another factor comes into it as wtlll
and thatisthc sizc thatlhtthourwheel
w ilt be, for exanlple u'ith :
.
t six-leaf
pinion the hour u'
lldel u'ill have
seventy-two teeth, u?hich is klui1e
m anageable.M ake thu pinion twelvc
leaves antl the hour whet?l Ileeds a
hundred and forty-four tceth, a size
which is likely to be nltlch too Iargc
form ostclocks,Probably the targest
size that can be coped w ith in m ost
movcm ents w il1 be an k
lighl leaf
pinion and a nindy-six-tootl) wheel
and even thatis on the large hlizc.lhis
leaves a lil
u it of six or scvb
en-tootl)
pinions as practical propositions as
above thatthings w i11becom c far too
unwieldy.

becolut,s a c'
ase o1-connecting tht
lse
two to the pivotthat wilIoperate the
hourhand.The obviousallswerwoultl
sctll
'
n to bttto puta suitablc piniol
lon
the arbor of the l'
ninute w'heel.
connecting it w ith a wheel thal w i1I
give a twelve to one reductilln on
anotherarborimm ediatdly bclou'orat
the side and putthe hourhand on that.
There is only one snag,if we has'
ea
pinion or a w heel rotating i11a
clockw ise direction and conndet
another directly to that,thc addition
one w ill rotate in an anticlockw ise
direction,Nvhich is nota greatdeal()f
use Thereforc two additional arbors
w ith suitable wheels and pinions arc
ndcdedethe lirstto change rotation to
an antitrlockw ise direction and tht?
sctrond to trllangt
zitback again.111the
llntlitntillatl any llcccssary redtlction
ckt!
'
tbe il'
1t-('
,1
.porf
1tt-(1.
Sonltlold clocks and no doubt solnkl
bdillg l'
na(.
lc atpresentasu'
ellIlaN'
e tllut
I
'
ni1)uttr hal'
l
d ilnluediately bkllou'tllt
p
hourontl.Thesc do nothave tht
lgoing
train arrallged i1'
1a straight Iint),as is
the l'
nore usual arrangclnent.
Atlditionalarbors witl
a pinions and a
reduction wheel are then set at an
angle to enable the hour arbor to be
placcd in the centre ofthe m oN'
em ent.
The fsnished rcstllt is quite attractivc
and worth considering.

Because space is generally linnited

lmostclockshave the hourand m inutc
wheelin the sam e place-tradition also
So far so good; we have no dotlbt probably has a part to play in tlltt
m ade up our m intls of the best arrangelnent.The sam e ndeessity to
oom bination forthe train and itnow change the direclion orrotatiol)is still

eonnecled to a hardened steclpinion.

on a pivot tllal is generally m ade 01*
brass.The systkllu sklen'
lsto has'
d stood
t
he
t
e
s
t
of
t
i
np
e,
bt
l
t
c
oul
d
be
i
l
l
l
proN'u'
ti
arrangeanidenticalwheeladjacentto
itwith a pinion attached to itso itwill nrith the use ofm odern naaterials.bLlt
rotate atthe sam e time.As the w heel then clock m aking is a traditional
m ates directly w ith one fixed to the industry which is one reason tbr its
m inute pivot it will rotate in the fascination.
reverse direction.There isno arborfor
W ith the pinion in plaee it is now a
this pairto run ()n and so a shortone '
isprovided and they areallowed to run case of connecting it to thc hour
free on it.It has a lhreaded cnd and whecl. which is donc by sinnply
screws into the frontplate,tiequently allowing the wheelto run loosely ()11
the other etld stlpported by a bracket an extended collethtted to tlle lninuttl
with a hole to actasa bearing surface. wheel.The hourwheelin turn istitted
In otherinstancestheremay be justa to a collet that is also a bearing of
!d length to ensure itruns true
hole in the end ofthe pivot.through extendt'
a
nt
l
t
ha
t there is sutsicient surfacc 1t'
which passesa splitpin to preventthe
al
l
ow
f
or wear. The collet on thc
wheel and pivot from conning off.
m
i
nu
t
e
whc
elhas a square on the entl
Bearing surfaces of course should
a
nd
t
he
ha
nd
w'illbtla push-titon this.
always be of differenl metals and in
Thu
t
hot
l
r
ha
nd can then bc '
l
ittcd
this case w'
e have a sligh!allom aly as
di
r
e
ct
l
y
t
o
t
he
e
ol
l
et
t
ha
t
s
t
l
ppor
t
sthc
the revt
zrse whttt
alisgenerally lnade of
h
our
wheel
.
Bot
h
hands
ar
e
now'
brass and w illbe running w ith a brass
r
t
l
nni
n
g
f
r
om
a
ce
nt
r
al
poi
nt
.
wheel while at the sam e tim e being
presentand lhe u'
ay lhis is done is to
fit a w hcelwith a suitable num ber of
teeth ol1 the nlinute pivot and to

63

@
Thisend ofminute
wheelcolletmade
Square to accept '
--'-..
minute hand.

Minute Hand fitshere

-

.w '

'.
. ..

w ..-

HourHand fitshere --<

ccl''.v

HourW hbel

...<

Minute W heel

IX ..
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SupportBracket
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6 1eafcannon pinion
..'
- , Reverse Minute
y
,e'
W heel

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.,..

....

'
.-.

.--'
''.

- -.

FrontPlate
Stud screwed to plate
w.

Hcurw heelCollet
Rotates on minute
'
Wjjeejcojjat'
x
'
'
'o
X
. '
.
..x -- . --x.-..
-- ''
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Studiforreverse
minute wheel

v'w.
A'.... .N'x..
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fits here
HourW heei

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Minute-W--.heel ,
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' '.

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,',

'

x.

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.-

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ujrjute w heejColet,
fixed to spindle
.

Minute W heelSpindle

&,t
.
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t)
,
y--

T
i
n
h
a
s
e
p
n
d
c
i
e
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l
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h
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e
r
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c
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k
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t
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orhas a hole asshcwn
into which isfitted
asplitpin to-rqtain pinion
'

. ..

' Thread to secure

I stud to frontplate

! .f

64

65

C hapter 7 - D ividing
Accurate dividing is a prim c
requirem entwllen cutting u'
heels and
there are a number of ways of tloing
this.Any reader who owns a dividing
head w illhavt?no necd of any adq'ice

onthesubjectandcanpttssontothe
section on cutting the teeth.
Experience show's tllat i1
2 genera1
dividing heads are not usually found
in the hom e workshop.they tend to be
one ofthe lastpieces ofeqtlipm entto

be bought,and where they are tbunct

divisionsthatcan be oblained.Few,if
any lathes will have change wheels
w ith m ore than seventy teeth. which
m eans that seventy js the highest
nunber of divisions that can be
obtainetland the tlivisions obtainable
on the slnaller wheels are extrcm ely
linlited.In his book -Gears and Gear
Cuttingq, lvan Law describes an
excellentset-up f'
br com pounding tl'
)t
l
dividing gcars. thus giving a m uch
wider rallgc (.
Afdivisions.as welIas a
m ass of inform ation on gear-cutting
m ethods.

in generalthey w illbe hom e-made.It

isnotwithin the scope ofthis book to
gointohow tomakesuch adeviceand
in facta fulldividing head isnotreally W e m tlst a1so consider thc 1arge
ntlm ber of lathe owncrs who do not
necessary forclock m aking.
have chang: whecls. For examplc
M any readers will be quite fam iliar m any of the sm aller lathes that are
with the use of lathe change wheels quite popular forclock m aking do not
fordividing and in som e instancesthe have any, neither do those that are
idea w illbe quite good enough forotlr stted with gearboxes. M ost have a
purposes. Consisting of sim ply a hollow m andrelthat could be uscd to
m eans of holding a lathe changc hold the wheelin position btlt it will
wheel firm ly in the m andrel of the involve purchasing special gear
lathe a detent or pointer that will'
l
it whcelsin orderto use the system .
exactly in thc teeth of a change wheel
and secured to a perm anentpoint on The alternative is to use dividjng
the lathe;the idea has serx'
ed m odel plates which are m orc acctlrate than
engineers well over the years.The gearsantlcan beeasierto use.W etend
m ain problem isthe lim itcd ntlm ber(
.
7)- to think of dividing platcs as partofa
67

4 1u..
1L

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1
1ot nlaterials f
kl1-clock'lllaking.Generally

dih.
zJil1g head but 11)is
necessarily so: tht
?y can be sccured
directly to the Iathe nlandrel in the
Sam e Nvay aSa gear.In 133a1y V'aySt1is
is bettcr than using a dividing head
where there is always the problem (af
backlash in the worm gear to worry
about. M ost divitling plates have a
range of divisions on each platc,
giving tlexibility as wellas accuracy.
They can be pttrchased from m odcl
cllgineering suppliers or suppliers of

speaking itwould be betterto go to tlle

latter. as tlle plates sold tbr gelleral
l
motlel engineering purposes are lutss
likcly to have the required nulnber ()t'
divisions. P1ates bought from
clockmaking sourccs w ill often havc
exactly the rightnunlber of divisions
for a col
nplete clocklmak'ing trainm usaning tllat only one plate is
requircd forthttvvhole movtln-ltrnt.

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Itis nota11thatdit'
lit
ztlltto lllak'e one'
s
own division plates,providing care is
taken to cnsur: they are accurate.For
best results the plate m ust be of as
large a diam eter as possible and a
series of circular Iinkls should bt
l
scribed round itatk'nown distances.It
is ofthe utm ostilzzportance thatthese
circles are accurate, if not, the
divisionsthem selveswillnotbe right.
lt is possible to scribe the circles
accurately on the disk by using the
cross slide graduations, Use a sharp
pointed knife tool set al a suitable

r
Having seribed lllc circle it is
necessary to refer to 1
, chord chart.It

sounds obviousto justmeasure thc

circum fkrcnce and then divide by the
required ntlmber but this does not
works as the distance lneasured
between two points on the scribed
circle,when using dividers,w illbtla
straight line across the two points
ratherthan round them .A chord table

(see Appendix page 123) gives the

figure for num bers of divisions,

assum ing the circle diam eter to bc
one. To obtain the required figure
angle and allow ittojusttotlch the silzzply m ultiply thelength ofchord by
disk while rotating the Iathe by hand. the diam eter of the scribed circle.
A handl: that can be secured in the Having
. established the length of the
mandrelis usefulforthissortofwork required division, take a pair of
aswellasa num berofothertasksthat dividers that have nice tine points on
we come acrosswhen m aking clocks. them and setthedistance by reference

@
to a m icrometer or vernier gauge. by tle tim e the 1:1st one is rcached a
M ake a 1ight centres punch mark wholem illilntltre hasbeengainedand
somewl
lere on tle scribcd ttircle and this is now here near accurate enough
m ark Off the divisions, starting and so some m eans of cllecking tllerefore
tinishing at the centre-punch mark, is required.Supposd we are to divide
Lightly centre punch each the plate into sixty divisions, Hav'ing
intersection.It is advisable to use a set the dividers as suggested with a
magnifying glass to setthe dividers m ierom eter or vernier gauge and
andto makethepunchmarks,inordcr madethehrstindcnton thcline,mark
off but don't spot thrt
ztl divisions.
to gettheaccuracythatisrequired.
Preferably using another pair of
NonmalImarking-outluethodson a tlat dividersso thatthe originalsetting can
plane dem and thata11l'
neasurem ents be m aintained, check the distance
are taken from a single datunn, across the three m arks.lt should bc
som ething that is not practical when cxactly the chord hgure for twenty
dividing u circle. Tllcrefore the divisiolls.N extm ark offanothcrlhree
possibilitikls of l'
nultiple errors arise. divisions and cheek again thd w'
holc
For exam ple if the tlividers are one distance- using the clnord figLll-tl for
hundredth ofa ntillil
-netre ovcrsi/tlalld tkln.Any error in the originaldix'ider
there are ahundred divisionsrequirdds sctting n'illntns show up and suitablc

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adjustnRentsnzadeifneed be.W'hen it plate shouI(1 be sprung loaded if
is rightand l1kltbeforesImakc the spot
lnarks w ith the punch.Rem elllberthe
larger the plate and circle tlsed the
greaterthe aceuracy w illalw aysbe.

possible-Iargely as a mcans ofsaq'illg

tim e,ratherthan tbratrtruracy whieh
can stillbeachieved ifitisa ptlsh-fitaslong asitcan bc locked in position.
To keep unscrewing and then
Once the m arksare m ade itis sim ply screwing up the devicc isvery tedious
,
a case of drilling though the plate, particularly if the division is for a
using a drill of the same size as the large num ber of teeth rem em bering
detantthatitis proposed to use. lt is that we are talking in many cases of
essentiatto cnstlre the plate istlatand wheels with 21tooth countnearing tllc
atcxactly nindy degrees to the drill hundrcd.
when itisbeing drilled and in orderto
ensure this it m ight be necessary to
deburreach hole asitism ade.so that
the burrsdo nottiltthe platew hen the Securing the D ividing
nextholt!ism ade.
Plate

Nlake a series ofsuch k

2ircIes in the
1)late,pret
krably ofthe nulnbers that
w illbd ttsed in the clock train. Do bt
'
t
careful to ensure accuracy and
l'
neasurc at least twice, prefkrably
three times,before l'
naking any luark
and then proceed as abovc. A1I the
holcs shotlld notonly btpdeburrcd on
the sidkl they brklak through btltalso
slightly counterstlnk on the face, to
facilitate the drilIentering u'
llen they
aretlsdd.Thcdetantshould beagood
fit in thc holessbut not so tight that
force is required. 1f it is tapered
slightly thtt good f
st willbe ensured
bu1thc laper mustbe stcep enough lo
prcventthe detantfrolllbinding in thk!
hotes.

The sct-tlp fbr sectlring the div'iding

platc is quite easy to m ake. A piece of
thin-walled tube ofa diam etersuitable
to be a good ptlsh-fit in the hollou'
m andrelis needed and thisshould be
about four inches or a htlndred
m illim etres in length. If tube is not
availableitw i1Ibenecessarytodri11or
bore a lcngth ofsolid bar. In one tpnd
litathreaded pieceofbar, aboutthree
quarters of an ineh or twenty
m illim etres i11Icngth. The diameterof
thc thread w illdepcnd on thc diam der
ofthetube,butaboutthrecquartersof
the bore isideal.

A tapcrcd plug isfitted to a lcngth of

threaddd rod.orstudding and a hom em ade nut. solllewhat larger than
Itis essentialthatthe detantset-up is norm al pulls the tapered scetion up
securkld to :
1position on thc Iathe in tight.The nut docs not have to be
such a way thatitwillnotl'
novt)outof hexagon itcan be round and knurled
position.The actual dd ant that will and for extra security a num ber of
locat: witl the holcs in the divr
iding holcs ca1
'
1 be driI1ed round the

.,uluzk.=
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Periphery to atrtlept a slla1l tol
mnl
y'
bar.The dividing plate or gear whct?l
is hcld in plai;k
l w ith another sillliIar
but slightly snlaller nut and w ith tht!
addition t
lfa specialwasherpullsthe
Plate tight,ltisessentialthatthcre is
no play on the chuck-rdaining sct-up
which
m ight cause
som e
misalignm ent.

The device can also be tlsed on :

1
sim plesdt-upon them illing m achine,
whichrequireslittlenaorethan ahefty
angle plate w itb a hole, to accept a
m andrelto hold the lathe chtlck.Thk)
otherend Isthrtladed so thata nlltcalk
be used to tighten tht
lgearwheelor

dividing 17lllle lhat is i!'

l ustt 8111(.
1a
detant can be l
-itted il'
l :1 bl-acket
strrew'ed to tl'
!kp sitlc of thc unit. .
4
sere'
wz is incorporatcd to lock the
fnandrelin position once the division
hasbeen set.

Dividing can also becarried outw ith

a rotary table htted w ith a m eansof
holding a m andrel centraIIy.Ustlally
this m eans making a device on to
whicha lathdchtlckcan befitted.Itis
ditlicultto setupthesystem aceuratcly
anditisbetterthereforetoonlyusk,the
rotarytablutfbrmaking djvisionplates
or,ifno othersystcm isavailable,w ith
which todotheacttlaldividing.

28A screw allows

adjustmentofl
ength.

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detant body

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C hapter 8 - W heels & P inions

In norm al cngineering practice,what
is known as a whecl by the
clockm aker,would be ret
krred to asa
gear,som ething with which weareall
fam iliar, although the- whecls in a
clock diff
kr in shape and forl'
flfrom
thegearsin a m otorcar.Therc arctwo
types ofteeth:involutc and cycloidalthe form er tlsed in dnginccring Nsb
llel
v
itism ore tlsualforthc sm allcrgcarto
drivc the larger one and the involutc
form gives:
1bdtterbearilpg stlrface tbr
this purpose. I11 clock m aking the
cycloidal type is used becausc in
generallargerwheclsare used to drivtl

thc snaaller oncs.w hich are known as

pinions and the tooth pattern ereates
less friction.ln 1111 things to do with
clock m aking there isa constantbattIe
to reduce both friction and weightof
conlponents in the search 1br
efficiency,Engineering-typc gears arc
describcd in Britain, Alneritra and
I
uany other cotlntries under the ttrl
-l'
l
dialnetraI pitch or DP for short.
N'
leastlrclncntis#bund by dividing thc
ntllllber of tetltll into the pitch cirele
dialuettlr. '
w hitlh is a positi(311 Nvllere
the tecth nAeet. The position is llot
visbleu'htln looking ata gear,o41ly by

@ M ost of the m casurem tlnts that al-e

taking various m easurem ents of the

gearteethaetc.can the actualposition
can be found.The m odule system uses
thereverse ofthisand isthe nuluberof
teeth divided by the pitch diam eter;it
is entirely a m etric systenR, whereas
thcD P system can be applied to either
im perialormetrie.

W e are only going to deal with the

module system asin clock making itis
all that is necessary, although the
clock repairerm igbtwellnecd to usd
170th w hen repairing a very o1d clock.

needed are a m ultiplication of thtm odule number.Allnecessary details

for working out the wheel from the
m oduleaswelIasthe m odule from tle
the wheel sizes are ineluded in the
charts.The system is quite Iogicalantl
the larger the m odule num ber, thc
largerthe teeth willbe.U sing alarge
num berhastheadvantagethatwhcels
are less easily interrupted in their
operation by dirt but large m odules
nattlrally are not suitable for sm all
clocks,such ascarriageclocks.

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Terminol
ogy forobtaining
measurements and module
numberofwheels
W heeland Pijlion Proportions
W heel
s
Modules = Pitch diameterin mm divided by the numberofteeth.
DiametralPitcb= numberofteeth in a wheelperinch ofdiameter
Addendum = distance from pcd to tip ofteeth (1.35 x'module)
Dedendum =distance from pcd to base ofteeth (= 1.57 x = module 0.45 and 1.1to 1.5
and 2 x modulefrom O.5 -1 J(Shortform = /.07 x module)
Pitch Circle Diameter = numberofteeth x m odule
Outside DiameterofBlank = Numberofteeth+ 2.76 x module
RootDiameter= Numberofteeth minus 3.14 x module formodules 0.45 and 1.1to 1ab
Num berofteeth m inus 4 x m odule form odulesO.5 lo 1y0
7-00th Thickness= 1.57 x module
Addendum Radius= 1.93 x moduleformodules 0.45 to 1.1lo 1.5
Includes N/Y Z'/'form
Full7-00th Depth = 2.95 x moduleformodules 0.45 and 1.1 to 1.5 -3.38 x module for
module 0.6 to 1.0
Pinions

Alldimensionsare ratiosofthe module.

Pitch Circle diameter = numberofIeaves
Outsidetipdiameters 6 = 7.71.7 = 8.71,8 = 9.71,10 = 11-61,12 = 13.61

Kppl-dl.
p.
n.
Jp.
!.
tr
m 6 = 2.5,7 = 3.38 = 4.2,10 =5.9,12 = 4.8
.

Lea-fThickness 6 -8 = 1.05,IQ - 12 = 1.25

Addendum Radius 6-8 = 1.05,10 - 12 = 0.82
7-00th Pitch Ratio 2-8 = 1/3,10-12 = 1/5
A- ddendum 6-8 =0.855,10 - 12 = 0.805

gvdendum 6= 1.75,7 = 1.85,8 = 1.9,10=2.05,12 =2.10

. .. bz
ailkzL

@ of the lattcr i11 stlch a way thatthe

heels

Exeept in exceptional eircunRstanees

wheelsare l'
nadtnofbrassand 1'
01-m ost
norl
-nal clockl
making purposes and
ccrtainly when conlpared w ith norlual
engineering practice. thc lnaterial
used is of a very thin section. This
creatcs its own probleln wht?n cutting
teethasthereistendency t
brthemetal
to bend away frolm the cutter if any
attem pt is l
'
nade to advance it too
rapidIy, or if the materia1 is not
properly supported. Beeause of the
thin l'
naterial uscd tht? wlletll 11711st
alwaysbe supportcdonacolletwhen
assenlbled on the arbor in order to
give a greater supportstlrface. lf one
rcads any of the exeelIellt books on
clock l
making and repairillg thatwere
w ritten m any years ago itwillbe seen
thatthe usualmethod of holding the
wheelon thecolletwasto rivettheend
.

l
netal expanded and held the urheel
firlmly in position. N tnvadays a far
better idca is to use a retai1
-ting
colmpotllldo
'not only docs this give a
secure bolld btltvith a smalIam ount
of heat the bond can be broken if
required. The sam e applies w hen
litting the collet to the arbor, rather
than use a force fst,a tiny drop of
com pound on a unit that is a good
'

'

slidinglitwilldothejobfarbctter.
The bcst brass to use is knosvn as
eolmpo ()r engravi11g brass and is
stocked by both clocklnakers'
suppliers and many modeI
cngineering stlppliers as w el1.
Suppliers of clocklmaking lmaterials
often willbe abld to supply itas round
blanks of the outside dialntlter
required.Failing thatwe art
'
tleftwith
two choices,
'itcan eithcrbe cutfrom

@
rotlnd bar. nnachined to size and contrentricily.It

sheet or sliced from

Although engraving brass is not
available as bar stockethe m dtalw'ilI
generally be fonnd to b: quilc
suitable.It is shedt l'
naterial that is
unlikely to be ofthe required quality.
'
Ib cut from a sheet of suitable
m aterial it w ill be necessary to first
make a centre and then l
nark off a
circle a little largerthan the outside
diameterofthe blank,which can be
cutout,using a piercing saw or better
still a m ecbanical scrol1 saw. Thc
centralholeisdrilled-tothesizeofthe
collet on n,hich the whecl w i1I
ultimatcly bc mountett ensuring itis
at ninety dcgrees to the facd and the
disk and m ounted on a stlitable
m andrel to be put on the lathe and

u'
i11bcnecessary eitherto lnakk
ldisks
thatu'il1'
hton theoutside of-the blank
to hold il '
lirm ly in positionsbecause
the dialneter of the hole for the
l
'
nandrelwillbe sm allitisessentialto
avoid too m uch torque being applied
by the toolwhen trying to m achille the
blank and thcwashersw illcounteract
this.lfonly the m andrelin the smal1
hole is used there w ill be tw o
tlnwantcd effccts, the first and m ost
obvious isthatthe blank w illtend to
bend as pressure is applied. Thc
secolld less obviotls one is that no
m atter how carefblone is when doing
the m achining it w il1 be alm ost
ilupossible to stop the blank from
catching while thc lathe contillucs to

81

. ...q
wal1:kk

&

@
r
ot
at
ewhi
chwi
1i
ne
N
'
i
t
abl
yl
ea
dt
o

havc the atlvantage of being sm al1.

which l
n akt
)s thel'
n particuIarl).
'
suitable for use on a slnall lath:.
A lthough they are very expensivethey
arem adeofhigh-speed steeland w ill
lasta lifetilne.Cheaper cutterscan be
obtained'
.these are dcsigned to l
iton
large horizontalm illing m achinesand
C utters
although fitm ents can be m ade t()
cutters are available enable them to be uscd 011 lathes and
conlnlercialIy and specialist clock verticalm illing m achincs, the set-tlp
suppliers should be able to supply a is rather btllky. Frequently too thesc
suitable cutter for any l'
nodule that cutters are for illvolute gears rathtlr
n'
lightbeneeded.These specialcutters thancycloidial,so checkbeforebuying.
som e distortion of the holc and no
luatterhow slightthislnightbe itwi11
lead to lossofaccuracy.lfthe work is
supported and gripped by suitable
washersthisshotlldnotoccur.

Toolm ade from silversteel,

hardened and tem pered.Obtain
radius with drillormilling
cutterforaccuracy.

Body from mild steel,

cross drilled fortool,
drilled and tapped at
base forscrew to hold
toolsecure

H om em ade C utters
ln chapter5detailsform akingcuttcrs
forescape wheelsweregiNtn;itisalso
quite possible to m ake ones ow n
euttersforwheels,using silversteelor
gauge plate, w hich w ill be quitc
suitable for making the num ber of
Wheels required for a norm al clock.
W hen m aking cutters rcmemberthat
We are notgoing to m ake a t00th but

tom achinethegapbetwcen tw'

o teeth.
shaping half of each in doing so.
Com m ercial ctltters are of the rotary
type w ith the shape tln the periphery,
which isthen divided into num erous
cutting edges. Em ulating this in the
norm al hom e workshop w i11 be
im possible and so itis bestto aim at
six or eight cutting edges, or a tly
cutterwith a single bladc.To m ake a
1'
rl1.
l1t1-t00th cuttercalls forsom c form

@
;ize forNvilit1)
of fon'
n tool in order to obtain thc notNvork outto an cxacth
.

actltlrat)y neededs det1

)i1s of the
required radius which is as shown in
the tables on page 79, 1.57 x the
m odtlle. Therefore beforc any
calculationsfbrteeth orcutters can be
m adc it is necessary to Grst Gnd the
m odtlle that is to be used.Gcnerally
this wi11 be show n 011 the draw ings,
butthere are instanceswhere thism ay
not bt
l the case. For dxam plc the
author u'
as intcrested in making a
regulator some dctails ofwllich wert
show 1'
1 i11 an old book. OnIy the
otltside diam ctcrs of the whecls and
the num bersofteeth weregiven and it
wasnecessary to work outthe m odule

a dril1is obtainablc.forexalnple a ().5

l'
nodultlhasa radiusof0.965111114so t('
be exact wc nced a drill 1.931
1317)
dial
-neter,A standard size is 1.95l
ntll
and that w illbe nearenough f
br otll'
Purpose, if necessary IAfJ great harn)
would com e from uging a 1.9111111
dialneter driI1- which is easier t()
obtain.Forthose who like to work in
Inlperial lmeasurdm cnts 5 64ins.
wotlltlbe a suitable sizc.

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'
W hether or not to l'
nake single o1
'
nlulti-point cuttcrs is a nlattt)r t)1'
individual choicc' m any people alv
qtlite successful w ith '
lly cutters antl
s
et
?
no
nee
d
t
o
got
t
o
the bothcr ot'
inorddrtotaketheprojectfurther.
1naki11g nnuIti poi1
'
1t O1'
1es, '
W ith kl
The gap between tlc teeth ofa wheel single-point cutter cutting the blallk
isthe sal
me astht)thickness ofa tooth mustbe done l
m ucllmore slowly tlall
and is one ofthe hgures reqtlired;the w ith a l'
nuIti-point one aIthougl)
second is the overalldepth and thirdly rotational speeds can be as hig1,
1 t)I'
thc a11-im portant radius. Tw o eNzen higher.Thereartlntllnerotlsidtttls
expressions crop tlp hcre. addendul
'
n on Ilow to cutthe blankss
'generalIy il
and dcdcnduln. They acttlally speak willbe a lnatter ofwhatcquipm entih
;
fortllcl
mselves'
,addendum is 81figurc availablc to the individual.The blal
lk
added to thc point of the pitch tran be held in a sel-up on the verticaI
dianneter and dcdendum is figure of slide of tht
'
l lathe. with the cuttcr
the distance below it.The radius on a rotating in the chuck.orthc blank cal
)
wlleel is the shape of the addcndulm behdldandindexed i11theIathechtlck
and is the only dif-hcult part we arc oracollctand thtlcutterrotated on tht?
likel
y to come aeross w'
hen nlaking a Ialhe saddle.To tlo 1lisa device hast()
cutter. thtl other ligtlres bcing qtlite be l
made in w hich to rotate tht?cutter.
straighttbrward.It is not going to be Yearsago nnodelengineers uscd to usc
easy to getthis raditls with a file and a drivc frol'
n an overhead beIt.
'
absolutely il
mpossiblc w itl)a grinding nowudays w ith the ready availability
whektl unless one can be purchasetl of cheap small elcctric nAotors it is
that has been specially shaped.The l'
nuch easier to l'
nakc thc arrangem ent
bestway ofgetting itacetlrate w i11be sclfpowered.An easy way isto l'naktr
to drill a suitablc sized hole and use a bracket for a small nlodel l'naker-s
that.Theradiiasshown il1thechartdo drilland to l'
nountthaton the vertical
85

84

ILadakkkz:k '

@u
c
o
s
u
e
d
r
s
.
e
a
d
s
i
c
w
t
a
e
t
e
h
s
a
l
v
h
ea
n
l
u
r
c
m
a
b
d
e
y
rs
o
e
fn
l
e
a
t
v
h
e
a
s
t

lathe. ln the ease of the lnilling

m achine a vernierheightgauge can be
used to setthecutterin relation tothe
blank.ltisalso essentialto ensure that
there is no shake or backlash on the
mounting used for the blank as this
too willleadto lossofacctlracy,

Pl
@nl
@ons

slide tbrheightadjustlnent.There is m illing attachm ents tbr a sm alIlatlle

little involved in doing so;any silnple
bracketw ilIdo as Iong as itwillhold
the drill'
l
irm ly in place.M any small
lathes are now available w ith m illing
attachm ents and these are idcal,as it
m eans the blank can be held in the
chuck and the cutter rotated on the
m illing attachm ent. Generally thcse
m illing attachm ents are fixed to the
lathe bed w ith :1 bracket and :
111
adapterwillberequired to 5x ittothe
saddlc so thatitcan be traversed as it
willbe ofno use in a lixed position.
Owners of larger Iathes l'
nightfind it
worthwhile to invest in one of these
86

and fitting it to the cross slidc with lt

bracket. Those w ho havc m i1Iing
machines can use a sim ple indexing
arrangem enton the table,asdeseribdd
in chapter 7,with the cutterm ounted
in the m andrcl and w ith a1l thcsc

alternativesajob thatwasoncequitc
difticulthasnow becom em uch easier.
It is essential that the cutter is set at
the exact centre height of the blank.
Norm al methods of obtaining centr:
height are generally not accuratc
enough and itis bestto use a scribcr
mounted in the chuck or colld of the

,..',1
u

m ust work out right if the clock is

going to work properly. Enginedring
practice tells us that the m ore leaves
the pinion has the slnoother it w ill
m esh and rtln with a gearand there is
no doubtthatthis is equally tru:w hen
clock m aking. Therefore ideally it
would be nice if twelve-leaf pinions
were tlsed al1 the tim e as it would
m ake our clock run smoother,Sadly
because this would m ean very Iargu
wheels this cannotbe and we are far
m ore Iikely to be m aking six oreightleafpinions-in factthe m ore effieitlllt
twelvc-leaf type is rarely scen atall.
Therc are also three differcntprolilcs
and althotlgl
l in general01
115/tu'
o are
used itishighly probable that:1design
nAighti2alIforadit'
ferenttype.Pinions
Nvith a greatklrnulnber ofleaves use a
diftkrentprofilc to those w ith :1lcsser
num bel-- thkl 1caves being m ore
roundcd o1lthtrhighernul
mbers.

The pinion or sm allgearsofa clock

set the builder differellt problelns to
that of making whecls. lnstead of
easy-to-machine brass, silver stcel is
now the m aterialto use and ratherthan
cutting throtlgh 1/
'16ins or i.51'
nm
thick materialthe teeth,or leavt?s as
the clockm akercalls them-w i11bklat
abouthalfaninch orl2m m Iong.The
shape ofthe leaves also diftkr slightly
from thcteeth ofthe whccl,with thc
resultthatthe cutterused forwheelsis
notgoing to be suitable forthe pinion.
There are considerably fewerleavesor
teeth than on a pinion,w ith ntlm bers
varying as a rule from six to tw elve In the past the k
rlock-lmakcr NvouId
.
and just occasiollally for special l'nakd pinionsfrol-f'lpiniol)w'i1-:-w-llic1)
purposes there are instances of four was a Iong length of m etal u'ith the
leaf-pinions,although there isno need leaves already shaped.lf there were
to worry about those. Thc train of too m any leaves they would simply

c
t
l
e
to
c
n
o
e
ro
e
t
c
la
p
n
o
d
s
i
h
t
i
a
o
n
l
.
'
mt
c
h
r
t
l
h
l
e
n
o
g
t
h
e
r
s
t
h
t
a
o
@

Inaking :1 suitable cutter a '

vt)l.
y.
dif'
f
icultproposition,w hilc theteeth t)j'
11a(1bt
lt)n suitablydoctoredwotlldthen asvheelare straightthose ofthe pinio)l
becutoff,polished and taken into use. tapor inwards. Because of the snlall
lt was a highly-skilled process and num ber 0f teeth and the
m ostm odelengineers willfeelm tlch diameter- thistaperdoes notm ean a1)
more at hom e if they l
nake their increase il) area at the root- insteatl
pinions by m ore conventional there is a decrease which actually
m ethods.
makes the cuttereasierto m ake rathcr
than harder. The sam e methods arc
A sim ilar system of nleasurem ent
uskcdtomakethectlttersaswerctlsk
zd
used in the sam e w ay as for the fbrtj
j:w heels.Ifa flv cutter is used
w heels- but the lcaves are much m ore care m ust be ta'
ken because ot'
thillner than are the teeth ofa wheel. tl
ak, leneth that has to be tnur
ellk
ld.
This is to allow sufficiellt moqrem ent vjycrut-or
'
-/k
c a good supply of euttillj
z
i
l110 Ploarance ft
nrtlle pinion to rotate jjt
jjk!isussentialtonreventthecutttl).
w ith thc whecl-w itllout creating too V ,jljqyja m ustbc tkd '
vcry slow ly,froll)
luuch fkiction,so while thc width ofa ovel.j
at
cating. '
f'he pinioj) m tlst but00th On ' W'
hcel a''d tl'o Space in
,rted ateach end during cutting
between is equal in the casc of a suppkions,othulavise itw illflex aw ay.
operat
Piflion th0 leaf takes ond-third of thc tyom the cutter,resulting at tlltl very'
area adpd the space the reluaining two. Icast in a bad profilc if not acttlally
'
This applics to pinions with six to ten tnkzj,kjing thc work.
leavcs. above that thc Iea.
f occupies
tuo-t-itths and the space the other
ordcr
get a good snaooth
threc.
opcration itiscssentialthatthc leavcs
Of Pinions arc givcn a good polish..
Cutttu's fbr pinions can be purchased otjaumvisu they wi1lbe dragging on the
but again are vcry expensive and u cth of-thc wheels. No luattcr hou
hollltl-llladc ones wilI bd quite carejulone is when ctltting.the end
satisfaclory fornlaking a singlc clock. resujt wi1l always result in a ragged
At firgt glance itwotlld appear that finisj-l of varying degrees
. Thi
s m ay

notbe obviotls lo thtlnaked eye.but

look at itthrough a magnifying glass
and itcanbeqtlitehorrifying.Possibly
the best m ethod of polishing is to
m ake a sm all profiled wheel from
brass,using the sam d cutterthatwas
used to cutthe pinion,coatthisw ith a
m ild abrasive com pound and rtln it
along the leaves tlntila suitablcfsnish
hasbeen obtained.

anyq
way the end rcstlltdoesnotlook as
gtltlJ as using the nlachine cut
vcrsions 1:ow evcr It 1acks IittIt
7 if
anything in c'
tliciency and so can be
recolnl
mended forthebeginnerorfor
anyone who fdels they do notyethave
tlle ability to cuta norm alpinion.

W hile I
MOM people are quitc capablc
0f Carrying out thkt work required to
m zke a Pinion- thore artl som e who
m ay feelthe task solllew hatdaunting.

thetubeisdesignedto fit013thearbor
of the w heel w ith which it
associated, and instead of teeth a
series of rods connect thd disks to

Th0 pinion consistsoftwobrassdisks

with a tube in the centrc thatjoins

them'
'V01CVt1$ kllo5&n aSa bobbin.

lnthatcaseitisworthuq
hiletryingtt) cach other, the drawing and
m ake a lantcrn pinlon-which as the
name suggests- looks like a lantern
when f
'
inished.'
Exccpt on replicas of
Old clocks,where thc originalswould
qtlite possibl
y havc llad such a pinion

oO o
D
oO

Lantern Pinion

photograph w illexplain thesystem far

bdter than any words possibly can.
Although thc cnds technically are
disks,ifnnaking a lalltern pinion itis
as wt
tll tt) Llst
l only ()l
1e disk and to

'
TypicalEight LeefPinion

s ... u; z;).p4>y;w.,.

II
t,/?/7??
'
r???tt(2(,
;.y/t
f/.
/jg?tr()(f
'.
'
89

uL.I.<.I
.

@
anleter. w'
hich in thc stated
root di
instance is4.2m n'
1.Itcan btlslightly
l
l
er
f
or
t
hc
s
a
ke
ofconvenience if
sm a
i
s
he
s
.
Beca
us
e
of the Iength of
onC W

m achine a 1cngth of so1id brass, through square.ltcan be very ditlicull

lcaving onc end to just over the to see whcn a dri11 is wanderingdiameter required and putting a step particularly a slmall dril1,w hich w ill
on the other.Do notpart (t off from bend. N'
Vhen all the holes are
the bar at this stage. M ake a disk, completed passthrough eitherlengtlls
again oversize,withaholethatwillbe of hardened silver steel or special
a good fit for the step on the first blued pivot steelthat is available 1()1'
piecc. Solder the disk to the first clock m aterialsuppliers.Betbre doing
pieces
'soh solderw illdo tine for this thigputa spotofretaining com potllld
sortofwork,butm ake surethe disk is on each.Finally the ends of the pins
sqtlare.Replace the bar in the chuck, w illneed to be ground off and thkl
and machine the otltside diameter of picce thathasbeen used forchucking
the ends of the pinion to size and at ptlrposesalso rem oved,
the same setting drillthe centralhole.
tisnotpossibletojustpick'
This w'illneed to be a good fi
ton the Ofcoursei
arborand so ensure thatthk)drilltlsed any o1d size of pi11 or an)'
isaceuratelygrotlnd,thenjtlslrubthe circum ftlrence that takes onefs falltly
cutting edges on a piece 01- em cry and tinish u'ith a pinion thatis going
c10th to take the very sharp edge off. to run with the rest of the train,Thu'
A lternatively drillthe hole undersize cllartshow s how to find both the Icaithiekness-which equals the diam etcr
and tlse a ream erto getitright.
of the pin and the pitch circlkl
Beforepartingotf,indextheholesand diam eter,whichisneededtoplaeethe
either spot thenlor if facilities are pils.Therefore ifwe wantan eightavailable drill then). If drillings the pin pinion for a ntlmber one m odtlle
holes can be passed rightthrough to the pitch diam eter circle of the pins
w hatwillbeconAe the bottom plate. lf will be 8mm and the pin diam etcr
'
not,part ofT and take thc work to the 1.1nzm .Tooth depth has also to btp
drilling l'
nachine and drill through. considcred and the bobbin thatholds
making sure the work is perfectly thepinsm usthavetheslmalldiametec
square and that the drill also passes the same as thatshown in the chartas

lantern orany otberpinion forthat

m attertherc is no need to use a colld
ting iton the arbor.
when m oun
As we know,whecls and pinions are
mounted on arbors and the pivots are
machined on the ends ofthese.Care
hasbetakento getasquareedgewhcn
machining a pivotas any taperm eans

the

there cotlld be a chant?kzof it binding

inlheholeinthe fralne.Arborscanbe
l
made fron) silver steel, or special
pivotsteelin an attractivc bltle colour
that is already hardened can be
bought. This is difiettlt to m achine
and the only way to use it w ithout
m achining would be to keep itatits
original diam cter. '
J'
o prevent it
m tw ing throtlgh the holes in the
plates,collarswould have tobefitted.
ltw illthereforebeaswell,tlnlessone
isvcry experieneedsto use silverstcel.

91

' . 1.. .
1

.1LI...;.
k1ikki

..
'

C hapter 9 - F inishing
A wcll-tinished clock m ovement is
solnething that can be admired over
and over again. Although in gent
lral
wetend to think'ofpolished brasswork
there is :
1grcattlealm()rc to '
linisllillg
than thatalond.N o m atterhow nicely
polished the wheels and plates m ay
be,thtleffectcan be completely ruined
by untidy work dlscwherc. A Il
polishing work should be carried out
with 1 series of progrcssively iner
polishing meditlms,the typc ofwhicll
willdepend on the originalsurface of
the m aterial being workcd on. If thc
original surface is badl
y pitted thell
work willhave to startwith various
grades of abrasive papers or cloths'
,
theiruse should be keptto an absolute
m inim um as they can creat: m ore
problem sthan they solve.N evcruse a
piece of abrasive m aterial that has
previously been tlsed on steel) on
brass, minute particles of steel can
becom e em bcdded and cause
scratching ofthe surface.

Throughout this book thc need to

reduce friction and weight has bettl)
stressed alld first thotlghts 01
1
polishi13g m tlst bc ail'
nt
ltl at this.
M achine-cutting lmcthods invariably
Ieavk)l
uetalragged alld uneven and no
l
matter ho'
w careful one is or how
sharp the tools.to gcttlle bestfrolu a
clock.extra wkll'k is nt
ledk
ld to rtln-tove
these blcm ishcs.Thislneanstrying to
s11-100th the etlgkls of the teeth on al1
wheels inclLlding the escapelnentalld
p()lishing other w'
orking surfaces.
Obviously'when itcolnes to the ted h
of u'
heel$
1 a lot of care needg to be
takcn to ensurc they do notloosd their
profile and so a piece of suitably
shapcd wootl can be used i13

conjunctionwithapolishingl'
neditlnR,
taking careto keep thewoodatnindty
degrees to the sides of the wheclse
escapem ent wheels in partictllarnced
attention and it m ay again be
nceessary to make a suitably shaped
piece ofwood to getthc bestrcsults.

Before work starts on polishing for

appearance itisnecessary to carry out
polishing to im prove the working of Pivots
the m ovem ent and only then can the Pivotsand the holes in whiclzthtty are
question ofappearancebcconsidered. to run need attentions although the
92

93

@
holes reall
y should have been dealt el-nery cloth or paper to give it :1
w ith when they were madc,to ensure
thcre was a good running fit witllthe
pivot. Special finishing broaches are
available for the purpose but anyone
not w anting to invest in these can
easily m ake a suitabletoolfrom siIver
steel. M achine a short length to thc
same taperasthebroach thatwasused
to m ake the hole and file the taper to
halfthediam eterinthesam eway that
one m akes a d-bit.Rem ove any burrs
from the edges,harden and tem perto

a dark straw colourand then justrun

the llatsurface on a picce ofvery line

suitable edgc.This willprovide a nik

?e
polish to thc holcs,butdo rul
melubel.
to keep itsquare when itis used.
The actualbearing surfaceofthepivtlt
should be polished to as high :
1linisll
as possible. Special files can be
boughtfor so doing,w ith an edge at
an angle which prevents destroying
the square edge.As usualthere is l
1k)
need to investin such a toolasourold
friend a piece of hardwood dan be
presscd into service. lf the hnish on
the pivot is very bad stick on somc

?<
07

very fine em tlry papt

)r as a start and
use that, hnislling as usual with a
polishing lucdium , The biggest
problem when polishing pivots is
supporting thena and the best device

for the purpose is ajaeottool. (See

Nvoodcn dtnvelin the tailstock chucks

fronl lhe headstock, drill a hole thc
diam etcr of the pis'
ot to be polishedcutthe dowelso thatonly halftht
lhole
dianleter is leftand the piqotq'iIlrest
in thatwhile itis being polishdd.

photos on pages 94-99 alld draw ings

on pages l()2 & l03)Consisting ofa

tailstock supportofsom esort,eithera
taper or bar that can be held in a
chuek, a bloek is m ade that drops
below centreheightandfittcdto thatis
a drum madc of brass or plastic that
has a series of grooves in the cdge.
These start life as holes and then are
m achined to halfthpirdiameterso thal
when theblock isrotated a groove can
be setin a position to stlpporta pivot.
lt is an easy toolto make and well
worth the eflbrt.Howeverthere isan
alternative and thatisto puta piece of
98

C rossing O ut
This is the horologist's term for
reducing thd weight of w'
heels by
removing areas frolu the centrelcaving a spoked effccts which can
also Iook attractive.Tht?shapd oftlle
spokcs is a m atter of pergonalchoicc
butthey should becrossedoutinstlch
11Nvay thatnice square edges are lt
lh
and when polislzing is carried out
those edges are m aintained. M ost 01the work can be done q'ith good
quality ncedlc files,stressing the need
99

..

@
#-.ep

*$W* #

1O0

*%*m-

exe' 'R'
;.
* bew
*'
.%P*4%
-'4'''# >''>'
.'F'?e''
-4'
/'aw
I '?''''e- &''
7 ! ' ==xu
Am
'M.
''

to buy quality fi1es rather thall cheap

ones. It is far better to buy threc o1
'
four good ones, rather thal)a '
wallet
containing num erous cheap ones,the
shapes of nlany of which woultlbc
unsuitable ltnyway. It is possible to
buy escapel
n ent files w hich are
specially naatle ft
ar this sort tlf '
Iine
work and inclttde specialshapds.The

atlthor has naade a h111alI fi1ing

m achinc thatis particulal
y usefulfor
crossing outas its usc tllhsures thattlle
edgcs rel
-nain square wi
lh the work
supported atninety degrtcsto the '
hle.
Detailsofconstruction ofthe l'
nachine
al
v given in the Nvorkhllop Practice
Series Book 11um bcr 3 1 :Useftl1
W tlrksllop Tools'.

.. .

j'
j
l
'

@
Pallets
Obviotlsly it ig nict
? to polish tlle
visible surfaee of the pallets to l
'
nake
thel
m lookgoottbutl'
nostilmportantof
a11isthc necdto im partagood finish
to the working stlrfaces so they w ill
l
m ate snlootllly w ith the teeth of the
tscape whkltll. lt is gcner
tIly
recolnlnended thatthisbedonewitha
whcelrotating in the Iathe, w'lile thc
palIets are stlpported on a hand tool
rest.The polishing wheel is lmadc of
wood and by supporting thc palIet011
the rest the working stlrfaces capl be
contoured w'
hile rem aining square to
thcsides.

Lay tl'
lc plates on a llat stlrface t'
ol'
polishing the sidt
ls antl tlse 11 blotzk'
with 1$ Iarge surface area to do the
work. Det'p m arks can btt rennoved
w ith an abrasivc paper, Thc type
known as wet-and-dry is very good.
Use the fillest grade and B'
dt it
thoroughly washing the residue off
underarunlping tap. On finescratches,
usc a pit
lee of card stuck to thtl
polishing btock and soaked in 81
polishing m ediunlsuch as Brasso ora
silmilar col
nlnercial product. Ensure
when the plate is turned overthatthe
supporting surface is thorotlghiy cical)
and degreased before starting on thd
second side. It is very easy, when
polishing thc flatstlrfacesofthe platcs

to allow thtlabrasiN'
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ktustp
a rotlnding off of thc edgds. Tllis
should be asr
oidcd ata11costs'
,ifspacc
Perl
m its use a large piece of trard
soaked in the polishing m tdiunn and
lajd on a llat surface and work the
plateon that,ratlerthan theotherukty
round. U se a figtlre-of-k?jght
m oveluent'
-1he '
finishcd restlltshould

1:
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they t'
y:llldo tlsthpup1
-k
7job.pklrtit-t!larly
asin luostcasesthe lastthing thatNvill
be w anted '
w illbe sharp edges.

rbors

The nlalerials to be used l

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notbe grained in any way buljusl arbors has already been covtlretland
have a highly polished surfaee. for l
nost pcop1t, this l
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Polishing mops have their purposes stcel.w'
llic11 generally colues w'itl) an
but generaIly their usk
l results in already lint
lly ground surfacc. Tllis
rounded edges- w hich m tlst be fi1ish call often be danntgk
ld i1) :1
avoided.
variety of Nvays: tbr exal
nplt? 11)ttrks
W ral) thklplates in clean c(oth svhiIc
a'
wr
aiting rc-asscl
ubly.

Plates
Firstthoughtsarethathnishillg plates
is col
uparativel
y sinlple task hut
therearecertainthingsthat'
w'
cnecdto
look outfor.Al1too often a clock is
spoilt by filklm arks along the plate
edg.esandcareshouldbetaken tllatalI
these are rtlllloved by draw filillg,
while atthd sallle tinae ensuring thktt
the tldgt
?sare atninety degrcesand are
keptsquartl,Clam p theplatesbetween
lcngthsofangle to work on the edges,
keeping theangleascloseto theplate
edgesaspossible,protcctingthe sides
ofthe platesby ptttting paperbetw'
dell
them and thc angle beforc tighlcning
tlp. Finish lhut edges with a very Gnu'
abrasivc c10th wrapped tightly rotlnd a
filesfollowtd by a rub w ith apittceof
sqtlare-cdged hardwood with a Iiberal
am otlntofablusspoIishersprcad on it.

polishi1'
1g 11'
tf
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1flatareasisl'
lk'ttk)be
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nclltltltli11ti'
le case ()ftl
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Pillars
PiIlal-sandl'
hesclevs-ifany.llnathol(1
theln necd partieular attention.lf the
pillars ar: plain tlere u'ikl be no
probldm as they can be initially
polished while rotating in the Iathe.
Finighing work shouldalwaysbeklolle
along thcir Iength; no matter how
carefully lhe work is done. wilness
m arks invariably w i1lrem ain on work
done in the lathe.Ifthe pillars have
been shaped we are faced w ith
different problcm s as m achining
m arksareinevitableandthcsemustbe
rem oved. Frequently tiny chatter
m arks are Iikely to be lcfl in any
recesses thal have been made and
initially thesew illhaveto beremoved
with an abrasive paper while thcy are
in the Iathe.A lthough the tlsu of a

frol
'
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s are a k-oI2)Int'n
problelm and are oten eatlsetlby thkl
w ork catching and rel'
naining
stationary Brhilc the lathklcontintlesto
rcvolve.restllting in eithcrscorillg or
distloltltlratl
'ollofthc l'
netal.11iseasy
to say.''Nlak'e stlreitdoesnotcatch in
that fashiol7'-butitis l
-nuch harcler tk)
acttlally preventitfrom so doing.lfit
docshappcn the l'
narkswillhavc to be
erased by polishing and therd are
severalschoolsofthoughton htlh'this
should be done. Thc most poptllal'
m ethod is to use em ory cloth or 2,
sil
-niIar abrasive while the work is
revolvillg'
.asw ith the pillars itisvcry
hard to disguise the polishing
operation donein thisway and a '
finc
finish can be obtaincd by working
lengthways. O ncc m ores a range of
polislling m aterial should bc tltttt
becom ing progressively tiner as he

fsnish improves. Here too is a job

where :1polishing m op can do a f
irst-

classjob.Tllestepthatismachilledto
105

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extra care.Firstly the step mustbe at
ninety degrecs as,if it is atan angle,
there is always a slight chance of it
m oving into the pivot holes and
creating unwantcd triction.ltfollow s
therefore thatwe do notreally wantto

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polishing and one way to avoid thisit in abrightlightandparticularlyifthat

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alongthelcngth.

d
aylight,whichisfarsuperiortoany
artificiallightthatisavailable.

s'Iaterials
Itcannotbe stressed too much that
coarseabrasivec10th orpapershould
never be used and we should think

Som e peoplc like to see blue arbors

only in tel
-ms of l
ine and extra sne
m aterials.W here there are deep m arks
it is better to rem ove them with a
a
Sw iss precision tiIe'
, these are
.
available in a num ber ot grades and
generally speaking Grade () will be

suppliersofclock parts can supply the

nccessary chem icalsto blue the steel.
ltis a simple process and the finished
resultcan look very good btltin order
to getthe rightresultthe steelm ustbe
highly polished in the first place.

cause nlore PrOblems than they Nvi1l ratherthan aquickfix to savea 1otof
rem ove. ln the long run it w ill be polishing work.

found cheaperto buy one good lile

tlasthalf a dozen cheap
that willotl

Nyrjyrrj,

There are m any proprietary m aterials

available txor imparting a very high
finish and they can be botlghtthrough
ood suppliers of horological
#
m aterials.m ost willdo a farsuperior

A normal engineering m ethod of

holdingwheelsforworkingon thetlat
surf.acewould be to putpinsin a piece
of wood, adiacent to the edges, to
prevcnt the .
work m oving w ith the

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ability to kt
lep tim e and its overall
appearance,that latter only achievcd
byhardworkanddedicationbutinthe
long run is wellworthwhile.

G
rade4asthemarksredtlceindepth. blemishesandmustberegardedasa
Never use cheap files as they w ill m eans of enhancing appearances

ones.

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s
and apart om using special blue
pivotsteel, there are other ways to
achievethis.Mostmodclengineering
suppliers. all gunsmiths and somc

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cndsothatemerypaper.etcwillnot o
nceseemedtobeperfectcanlook
badly scored

tendtotipovertheedgcasitismoved

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light is angled to the surface, what

position, nlaterial ean be saved by

using the sal'
ne piece ofwood for all
the w heels and l'
naking the recess
gradually largerasthewheclsincrease
in size.

needed for deep marks,moving to Chemical blueing will not rcmove

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out thoroughly it w ill never be to a

high standard.Don'tbeafraidto tlsea
magnifying glass to exam ine the
linish.Frequentl
y looking ata partin
an indifferentlightw illm ake itappear

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are used a pcrfectfinish requires a 1ot

ofhard work and unless itis carried

purposes-as the edges ofthe wheels

are likely atleastto be m arked vcry
badly and at the worst irreparably
dam aged.Attempting to remove such
m arks would change entirely the
shape ofthe wheeland so under no
circumstances should the mdhod be
resorted to.It is far better to cut a
sm allrecess in a piece ofwoodsin
which the wheel w i1l fit w ithout
m oving around and w ith the edges
proud of the lip. This allows tbe
polishing m edium to be kept tlat,

n ofthcpolishing
j
toan
ythNo
ingmthaatt
n
betpmuracth
aisal
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cetio
ucochkm
met
hong
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eo
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tec
ra
wha
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rather too drastic fors
cl
aki
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C hapter 10 F aces, H ands and C ases

Having goneto a grcatdealoftrouble
to l'
naktpa c1oek 1hcn i1isbeholden 01
1
thebuilderto titan attractive face to it
and there ark
?nllmerotls ideas thalcktn
be used for s0 dolng. Befoi
'kl
discussing tllesd wtl should Iook at
how tlle fat
le wilI bd fitted to thc
l'
novclnent. In its bttsic form atker
having been collnpletcd the frontface

of the movenlent w ill consist of a

plate.with four screvvs orbolts atthtl
cornersand a nulmberofholesthrotlgh
Nvhich are sticking pieces ofstcel(l11c
pivots)thatgo rotlndwhen tlklkrlotzk is
w orking.Itisnotatthisstage thklnlost
'
attractive thing to Iook at.Anyuuy it
Nvould notbepossibleto tita factl01)it
as itstandsand so allotherplate (
2a1Ied

109

Thcre are hundreds of com m ercially

m ade faccs in al1 sizes available for
thosc who do notw ish to attem ptto
m ake their ow n; they range from
being very cheap to highly expensive.
The expensive onesare worksofartin
their Ow n rightand are in m ost Cases
quitc intricate in theirdesign.They are
m adeofmetaland engraved oretchede
not only with the num erals but also
w ith various patterns.This is not to
say that som e of thk
l cheapcr
com m ercially-m ade dials arc not
attractive and a book like this cannol
.
possibly offer a description of th:
whole wide range.

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Clock FrontPlate

W e are anyway concerned w ith

m aking a clock and for m any,if not
m ostpeople.thiswillinclude theface.
W c should start by separating faces
into two parts, the full face antl the
chapter ring.The latter consists of a
m etalring ofsuitable diam eterprinted
w ith hours and probably sub-divided
into m inutes.This is hxed to a basc,
attractiveparticularly on largerclocks.
Thc fullface isexactly whatthcnam c
suggests:a com plete printed face as
a false plate is puton the front.This one unit.
has a large hole in the centre that
allows plcnty of clearance for the W hichevertype is chosen the biggest
hand colletsand forthe square on the problem w ill be the num erals. W ith
end ofthe drum ,w hich is to be used care itispossibl
eto engrave Roman
for winding. Four pillars keep the numerals with the aid of a milling
platc ata suitable distance and short m achine.Itw i11be aswellto firstdraw
extensions to these support a further them fu11size on a piece ofpaperand
plate, the screw s into this are then decide the bestway to setabout
countersunk so they are not it. To form a figure l it w ill be
noticeable, it is know n as the front necessary to use a straight line with
plate and the face willbe l
ixed to it.
short cross pieces and in orderto get
11O

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plastic numcralsw ith various'
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that can be stuck on to alm ost any
surface.Transfcrs,which are specially
designed for clock faces, are also

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tellthem from cngraving.W e are al1

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aware of the wide range of rub-on

transfers non'aka
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considerably larger range than the

average stationer.These do not look
al1 that attractive '
w hen used for
nlaking clock faces but if they art?
caret'
tllIy appliedto brassandthen left

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to soak for twenty-four hours in an

ctching solution as purchased at
dealers in radio eqtliplnentsthe brass
t.ound them w illetch away lea:,ing tlltp
figures standing proud. '
W -ithout
rem oving the transtkrs,wash the factl
these accuratc the graduations on the orring in waterand allow itto dry but
table 1111
.
1stbttuorked to.Figtlres X or do not rub it to get it dry. Apply a
V wilIneed to be a pairoflines.again chem ical blacking solution to thkl
w ith short cross pieces top and met
alandwhenithasdoneitsjobarub
bottoln'
-two sizcs of cutter should be off the transtkrs.The result is black
used on thesc figtlres to give an face or ring w ith bright brass
inlproved appcarance.On slnallclock numbers.Be careftllhow the transfers
facesnormall'
nilIing cuttersare Iikely are rubbed off as the etclling is not
to be too Iarge and dentalburrscan be N'ery deep and ifthey are attacked with
used instead.A pointofinterestisthat emery paptlr thtl num bers wi11 bc
a clock nevershowsthe tigure lV:four rubbed rightaway.
is alw ays shown as IIII.The '
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num berscan I
nkrfilled w ith black wax- Readers who havc com puters cal'
which show s up weI1 on brass or produce their own designs for cIock
altlm inium ,whichever is used forthe faces, which can be printed on thin
card and stuck in place.A lternatively
face orchapterring.
they can be printed on a transf-ersheet
It is possible to buy thi11 brass and this can be used directly on lllost
nulnbers thatcan be stuck on to any m aterials. As far as design is
nlatcrialand if one w ishes cotlld tirst eoncerned a wide range of options is

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Top Fittings forcase available

in a variety ofstyles and si
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Tjjecase
Made from hardwood strip
rebated to QCCOM Veneered
pI9wood sides.Doorfrom
hardw ood strip,rebate and
glaze. Shape ofdoortop i
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yareto C ases
jot
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xhe

Ue m aue. they arc then fretted otlt

using a piercing saw antlnt
zedle filt
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The lixing Willdepend on the design
ojxa jjarticular clock and it m ay, Or

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ISC Calls generally
dj
jkwjat sut oj-skil1s as in the
tor a jj
main tjC WOrk w jjj be w ith wood.
There are exceptjons,skejeton clocks

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and it iS dotlbtftll Whether m any
jxjyjjyjjjyjj jjom (;aj.
y $1 tyjyt;m j;ajjy ()COj3jo woujjj w jyjj jo jut;kjjy yuq
yjj a
1)12tCkCd, OF blLled if One nriSh(ts; task. som etim es a clock w il1 be
alternatively itcould be painted.Once djspjaycd n aglasscasc them aking of

sjges avai)ablt
7I:OY Y CFCIf
11ly althotlgh
.
tjju j
ugtjj()U t)t JIXi!)g m ay jjgty'
d to $0

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Anyone w ho has com plcted a

m ovcm ent would bc advised to take
their tillle when considering the face

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Hands can be cutfrom thin brass or

steel,onceagainthe lessweightthey

have the better.There is a w ide rans

ze
and in fat
ytitisagood ideato draw ofm ore or less standard designs and
one ()n paper,w ith or withoutthe aid i
n addition there is no reason why
ofa com ptlterand stltittem porariIy in
p
placo.A day or1wo iatklrdraw another ersonal ideas cannot bc used. For
exannple they could renccta hobby or
one and sec ho'
w that Iooks, keep otherinterestorpcrhapssom ethingdo
tlxperirnenting untiI a good idea of 'svith the f.
fniIy,/$11thesd things give
how the tinished articltt w'ill look is individuala
ity to a clock and m akt
l it
obtained.
personal. It is as well to draw them
hrstofa1lon paper,which isstuck on
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be polished.TI1istlan be I
1eld togttther
using a tIcarsi1icone and uotlzing else
and looks attractive as there is 110
wooden beading to obscure the vic'
w
of the clock.The base on which the
case stands should be of hardwood
and havtt a groove cut in it for the
glasscase to slip into.
The l
'
nore traditional glass case
consists of thin wooden beading with
the glass Iet into it. Again hardwood
should bk
ltlsed and the gl
-ooN'
tlforthc
glass can be made with a nlilling
eutter if a router is notaxqailable.The

corncrjointscanbenaitrcdtoinaprove yl
vnchpolished.(lnceagain thcbcst
appearancc, oncc agai1 it is w,ol-th advice is to contact advcrtiscrs in

1
.

haN'ing thc t
ldgt?softhk
lglasspolished
betore t'
nak'illg the case.

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(leneraIly speaking '

we think i1 l
more
traditiona1 terlms Nvhcn considering
c
iascsandthtlchoiceofsvoodbeconles
nlportant.ldealIy the case should be
lmade of hardvvood planks btlt these
are gettil1g lnord and l
uore dit-ficultto
obtaill. For long castl clockh
i sol
nkl
scctions ctluld bt
'
tl'
nade ot- veneerkld
blockboard but the problclm ojobtaining suitable m aterials is
beconning N'klry diflicult indced. ()11kl
ansurer is to tlse hartlwood strips and
fit a good qtlality vtpllccred p1y in
nlachinedgrooves;itishard tt)teI1the
finishkld result frolm solid wood. It

.
.

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should btp possiblkl to get stlitable

lnalel-ialsto t'
nake sl-nal1ercIock cases
from ()nt7ofthe tilnbcrlmerchants that
dcal in hardwoods although it l'
nay
nlcau dealing w ith a colnpany solme
distancdfroln '
whereouelivesasthere
arc not lllany ofthzm Ieftthese days.
Infoj-nlation on wllere to (lbtain wood
ca11 be obtained frol'
n the
advertiselnents in l'
nagazines dealing
with woodworking orclocks.
'
ases cal)bc '
hnishkld vvitl)one ofthe
nlodern
varnishes
althotlgl
l
traditionally they llaN'
e alvvays btpen

spccia1ist llaagazines for help and

infonnation before deciding thc best
svav to $
.
:t)abotlt it.It is bestto avoitl
'ores w,j
D I5- s'
t
aeI1 tj)nking ojnaaterjajs. thcir stock' is ailmcd at a
Inass l
markut ant.
t tor a differcnt
pul.pose an(jis unlikcly to bc stlitable
jbrthissortofwork.
.

slany cloek cascs arc tinished with

f-ancy. shaped beading and ornalments
Nvhich can be obtaincd frol
m supplicrs
Of clocklnaking equiplllent,althotlgh
l
'
nostly wood som e of thcse
Cnlbellishl
'
nents are brass and either
B'
l)'tldy do add tlle tinishing totlches
to 11tlltok case.

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Goil1g Trai11fornlula for trhtrcking correct'
vvhklk
llarrangelnu'ntand forfinding
lellgtllofposverchol'
ttrequircd.
N ().oftccth in centrk
lw'
ht
lelx N o.t3ftoeth i113rd U llt
?e1
64 x 6()
oj= ($()
N o. 0ftceth in 3rd pinion x No.ofteeth il'
lestlaptlNvhkltllpinion
8x 8
A Sthe celltle 411001pinion has eighttkltlth and the groat&N'
1
l001ninoty-six,the
NN'I'CCIrotates: 96
8 = 12 hours

JXl'
1CIiftho dialmctklrOfthebarl-elis2 inohkrs,th0col
o h'i11beunnmund.
7:x 2 = 6.ajykj
ak
yjaj
;sij
atht
?sam cpcriod.Asthecord isdotlble.the wvightfalls
tlll.t'ugja011jy yjajj-tjak?distance thatitunNvindsfrom the barrele
'ic,3.14 inchds
in tNs,e!N,
k2jaoursorj
'ustover6andaquartdrinchesevdry fulIday oftwentyThatis-thecquivalcntoffourfeetantlt'
wo inchdsineightdays'
.
tourjjouys,'
j
u'hich is abotltt'
lk
ll
maxinaunathatnlostpeople are likcly t()w'antitto un'
w ind.
jtal
m ountsto abouth
;ixtcen turnsround t)'
le Nvj)k)t?Iand so therc should be abotlt
scvunteen coiIson the drtllm.
.

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12O

121

C hord Tables
To dikide a cirt
zlt
linto even sections.tlse thctable below.The figurcsgiqren are
fora dialmeterofone.To fintlrequilvd figtlre-l
uultiply Iength 01-k2Ilord forthe
numberofspaceswanted by diam etcrofcircleto bedivided.
Num ber
ofSpaces

Length
ofChord

Num ber
ofSpaces

Length
ofC hord

3
4

0.8860
0.7071

36
37

0.0872
0.0848

69
70

0.0455
0.0449

Pendulum s

0.5878

38

0.
0826

71

0.0442

The mathem aticalcalculation fortim ing a com plete oscillation ofa sim ple
pendulum is:

6
y
8

0.5000
(
.
).4339
0.3827

39
4:
4l

0.0805
().
()'
yj
yj
0.0765

72
yj
j
7y

0.
0436
:.4
.
)4.3:
().(
.
)4,4

0
.3429--()

42

0.0747

75

().0419

:.
1
I

length
Tim e - 7: gr
avity in feet
.

or t= ! whcre7:=3 14 l59 gravity = 32.l9

.

f
c
s

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Tocalctllate thktlcngth of:1pcndulum required for:

1given trainofwheelstlltl
totalnumberofteeth in the centre,third and cscap: wheels,are multiplicd
together and then multiplicd by two.They are then divided by the numberof
leavesin thepinionsotthird and escape.m tlltiplicdtogcther
.
Forexalzzple,Centre Svheel= 64t-Third W heel= 60t-Escape W heel= 30t

Pinionsare1
70th8 leaf.

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I0
lI

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i

12

0.2588

45

0.()698

78

0.0403

l3
l4
jj
16
17
18
19

0.2393
0.2225
()a()y(
)
()'jgjj
.
0.1838
0.1736
0.l646

46
47
4:
49
50
51
52

0.0682
().0668
(),()(jj4
(
,.:6,
.
4.)
aj
j
0.()6
().
t)61(
3
().()6()4

79
80
h
yj
jya
j
y?
84
85

0.0398
().0393
(.
).e?j
yj
y
().()?j
y?
()
.(
)?,
yj
y
().().
y,
yz)
0.0370

2
0
20

0
.1564
0

3090
().2817
.

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I
.

() = 60 beats perm inute

6

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3604)beats per hour

36():

1g I

122

43
44

:.073()
0.0713

76
77

0.04I.
7
0.0408

53

0.0592

86

0.0365

J,Z
g..,.J

1590
().ju
:
):3
().j?()a

54
.
'
F.
5
j(j

0.058l
(.
),4).
,
57j
().4)56j

87
:8
j.
49

0.036l
(
.
).().
357
().()?j?

24

0.l305

57

0.055l

90

0.0349

25
26
27
28
29
30
3I
32
33

0.l253
0.l205
0.116l
0.l120
().l081
0.1081
0.l012
0.0980
0.0951

58
59
60
6I
62
62
64
65
66

0.0541
().()532
().0523
0.05 15
0.0507
0.()507
().0491
0.0483
0.0476

91
C)2
93
94
95
96
97
98
99

0.0345
0.034 I
0.0338
0.0334
0.0331
0.033l
0.0324
0.0321
0.0317

34
5

0
.
0
923
0.
0896

6
7
68

0
.
0
469 100 0.
0314
0.
0462

64 x 60 x 3()x 2
8x 8

N um ber
Length
ofSpaces ofC hord

123

k.

'j'.
.. c . , .'..).
..
t

k ; ...
Ltt.
j$
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k..
jjj$y

C om m on C lock Trains
1:

C-entrc
31-(
1
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q/heel Pinioll

3rd
Nvheel

Scapt
y tscape Vibralions
Pinion N'
Vhtrtll pt
lr nlintlte

Length of
Pendulul
'
n

l12
t
?6

14
12

1()5
9()

14
I2

60
3()

6()
6()

39.l4''
3t?.I4''

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80
64
75

l0
8
h4

75
6()
6()

10
8
8

30
3t)
32

60
6(
)
75

39.14''
39 14''
25.53''

''

80
1()8

8
12

72
1()()

8
1()

3()
32

t
?()
96

17.39
!5.28

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