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30 November 2019:
Its now 17 years since I built my first English Regulator clock, and I’ve been thinking about building another for a while. My existing one was designed by Peter Heimann, sadly now passed away, and it still runs perfectly and keeps very good time indeed. It needs winding every 7 days (theoretically it’ll go for 8 days, but I do it weekly). The movement is clearly visible from the side, but not the front, and I ‘m now about to set about building one with the movement more clearly visible from the front, and which will need winding only every 28 days. Again, this is one of Peter’s designs, featured in his book “Regulator Clock Construction”
The Brass ordered & delivered, I quickly made the main frame of the clock, pillars nuts & washers and cut out the 4 sections of the front plate to reveal the inner plates , below.
Having done the frame, I stared on the wheels, and used 0.6 and 0.8 mod cutters for the teeth, other than the ratchets and Escape wheel. Although the escape wheel is finished, I’m not convinced that it is accurate enough to be used in the finished clock. Now the long process of crossing out the 4 main wheels begins.
Well, that took some time, as I got very side-tracked over Christmas & the new year making 2 vices, one for France & the other for the USA. I finally got around to crossing out the wheels and making the pinions, picture are below:
January 2020:
Having successfully “depthed” all the wheels other than the Escape Wheel - I think the shape still isn’t right - I have fitted the 2 great wheels, the intermediate & centre wheels to the frame, and tried them for movement. By and large they interface beautifully, but there is a single tooth in the left hand great wheel that doesn’t want to move effortlessly through the centre wheel pinion. This is no doubt a result of Lynne dropping it onto a stone floor when she was looking at it, and I’ve filed back the dent, but its still sticks slightly. I’ve taken it out a couple of times to try to locate the issue, but its stubbornly still there. If I can’t resolve it in the next couple of attempts, I’ll make an eccentric bearing holder to adjust the interface without the need to make another wheel.
23rd February 2020:
Having got this far, the grub screws in the collets on the great wheels look a bit “light” for the job - the whole of the power transfers through them. At present they are 4BA, but I’m going to change them for M6, a much more substantial thread. The ratchet clicks are made from Stainless steel, and tomorrow I’m going to make up the springs and test the interface again. If that still sticks, I’ll make the eccentric bearing housing.