Barrel Closers

I can't finish my clock until we mail all of the plates off to be electroplated so I'm having to do random projects in the meantime to keep myself busy.  The last two days was spent turning out 2 different styles of barrel closers on the lathe.  They are both made of black polycarbonate plastic.  In a watch, the barrel holds the mainspring and its arbor and allows the spring to be coiled and power to be transmitted.  The barrel closer allows a watchmaker to snap the watch barrel enclosure and top plate into position using even pressure.
Otherwise I have been practicing my oiling and dis/reassembly skills on an ETA 2878 movement.  I have provided some pictures of my progress below.

 One of the barrel closers and its blueprints

Incabloc shock protection bearing and cap jewel

 The movement side of the 2878 without regulator or pallet bridge

Assembled 2878 on the timing machine

Home plate

It's been a long and labor intensive week at school.  All of my time has been dedicated to finishing my clock plates in preparation for final plating and assembly.  After over 20 hours with the sandpaper I finally have results.  The clock plans called for windows to be cut in the plate to showcase the mechanism.  This looks nice, but I liked the heartier and more industrial look of the solid plate and opted to keep it.  To add a nice flare I applied perlage to both sides of each plate which adds a nice three dimensional visual interest to the piece.  The perlage was achieved by chucking an abrasive stick into the drill press and then kissing the material with it in a straight pattern.  It turned out better than I expected and should look very good when plated.

A finished plate. All that is left to do now is apply the nickel electroplating, though maybe I'll price out a gold plating.