Some Hands

Finished bluing the hour hand today.  I also finally have a minute hand that I am happy with.  The bluing first try on it was uneven so I'll retry on Monday.

Dethklok

My life has been a blur for the last couple weeks now that work has seen fit to start scheduling me consistent hours.  This means between school from 7-4 and work from 5-12 I've got a lot to keep me busy.
I have very nearly finished the manufacturing of parts for my clock.  The only part I have yet to create is the minute-hand.  They are Breguet style hands which means there's a round bulb at the end of the hand with a hole though it.  I'm on my fourth attempt because I am having difficulty getting the holes perfectly centered.  As you can see on the hand below, the hole I drilled was imperfect due to the limitations of drilling holes of that size on a fairly crude drillpress.
I have abandoned the drill in favor of cutting the rough shape out of the hand then filing it to it's final shape.  This technique worked on the hour hand so hopefully I can get it to work as well on the minute hand.
I also fired up the mill to form the flats for the pillar nuts, which hold the whole thing together.  With any luck I will finish the minute hand tomorrow then all that remains is the tedious task of finishing all the parts to a high level of quality then assembling the final product.
There was an issue with cutting out the hands I had on Tuesday.  The blade broke during an upstroke and due the positioning of my thumb at the time my finger got impaled to a depth of around a half inch.  The blade couldn't be pulled out due the teeth of the saw so I had to visit the doctor so they could numb it up and pass the blade out the other side of the thumb.  Moral of the story here is to be very careful with that particular tool!
As bad as the wound appears, less than three days later it's almost as good as new.  Still it's a good thing to avoid, obviously.

A surprisingly small amount of pain.

The pillar nuts drying after being washed in solvent

My second attempt, you'll notice the poor quality of the lower hole

Tick Tock

I had to rebuild the anchor pivot again to center the anchor over the escape wheel and get the correct end-shake (how much the wheel moves back and forth between the plates). Hardening and bluing the pivot took a couple hours then I was able to finally assemble the clock. 

Last steps before the function test were to pressure fit the minute wheel post.  The hole I drilled was slightly too large so I was able to crimp it into the plate using the staking set which worked very nicely.

So my clock is now partially operational, but it still needs to be calibrated, hands installed, dial installed, finished, plated, polished etc. Before I accomplish any of this it must run for the estimated power reserve for seven days.  Here's to hoping it's even still running on Monday when I return to class.

 

 Lining up the gear-train

 Function testing

 The working clock

Burnishing Pivots

Today I finished manufacturing the components needed for the click assembly on my clock.  This included a click (the long blue piece) the click post screw, which holds it in place and the two brass posts that hold the click spring in place and keep tension on the click.  In the picture below I have the ratchet held in place by a drill bit.  Once the clock is assembled it will be held in place by the barrel arbor.  Its function will be to keep the mainspring from unwinding.

I also had to burnish (polish and compress the metal) for a couple of the pivots on the wheels I had to modify or extend.  This was accomplished by using a Horia hand lathe and some patience.

I will be able to do a function test of the clock very soon.  I need to remake the pallet arbor that was destroyed when the cutter dug in on it when I was trying to modify the part to fit the new plate.  I will upload a video of the very roughed out clock ticking when I reach that stage.

Dry-fitting the click assembly

Burnishing pivots with the hand cranked lathe

More manufacturing

I continue to complete components for the clock project.  Today I finished with my pivot extension which brought the week wheel into tolerance and I also build, hardened and tempered the click post and nut.

 Forming the flats for the click nut

 The week wheel pivot extension, blued

 The week wheel extension, installed

 The click post screw and nut before heat treatment

The click post screw and nut, finished

Getting to know the lathe

We have started turning out parts on the Vector lathe. This is useful for many reasons as it allows for accurate manufacturing of cylindrical parts such as screws, supports, tools, pivots etc. We started out using free-form hand gravers before starting on the slide rest which allows more accurate cutting. The project I am currently working on is turning out many different parts for my clock. The current part I am working on is an extension to the pivot on the week wheel of the clock that needs to be modified to fit in our clocks. The one pictured blow is my first attempted. The part is turned, hardened then blued in the kiln. I decided to remake the part because the nominal dimension of the stock as outline in the plans didn't match the existing wheel's dimensions. I will upload the piece when I finish it.

 Vector Lathe- Made in Germany

 The staking tool has many uses

My first test pivot extension

The Klok

Our big project has started in class.  We are building a clock, or at least all of the parts minus the wheels and springs.  I am currently working of the front and rear plates but there is an ongoing problem in trying to drill out the holes that the escape wheel pivots will inhabit.

The issue here is that the hole is drilled with a 0.65mm bit, and even when using a precision drill press and a great amount of patience and care the bits have the tendency to break off and lodge themselves in the hole.  This would normally not be a problem but you can't continue drilling until you remove the bit and the only way we have found to do that so far is to boil the plates in a water and alum solution until the lodged drill bit dissolves and that can take a bit of time. 

With any luck I'll be able to finish the drilling early next week and post some pictures of the results.

While my plates are boiling I have been working on several different ETA movements in class, I am able to get the 2824-1 completely apart and back together in under 30 minutes.  Once we start cleaning and lubricating the watches this experience will be invaluable.