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CONSTRUCTING A YEAR CLOCI(

bv c. B. Reeve
P
ASSING one day with a friend through the
medieval section of the Briti sh Museum, the
writer's attention was called to the fine example
of Tompion's very tall one-year clock with its
handsome dial and beautifully shaped and chased
hands. A closer inspection through the sides of
the case revealed that the great or first wheel
of the movement was of enormous size, probably
about seven or eight inches in diameter. This
gave the writer the urge to construct a year
clock, but he considered it would have to be on
somewhat different lines, as his domain, having
102
low-pitched ceilings, no clock of more than
five or six feet would fit in comfortably. It is
proposed in this article to state briefly how this
clock was made and to give some details to enable
interested readers to construct a similar clock.
It is generally thought that horological tools
are essential for a job of this description; this is
not so, really. Such tools, of course, are con-
venient, but ways and means will be shown how
the ordinary run of tools of the average model
engineer's workshop will accomplish the job. A
start on the movement was made during the
THE MODEL ENGINEER JULY 26, 1951
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opening week of the Model Engineer Exhibition
of August 17th, 1949.
The two dri ving barr els were built up in the
following way : a 12 in. length of in. diameter
silver-steel was cut in hal f to form the arbors
of the barrels and were turned to the shape and
size as indicated in the data table and shown in
the drawings, which are to scale. It will be seen
from the drawingthat part of the arbor is rough
filed eight-si ded with a slight tap er; next, a
circular brass blank t in. in thi ckness by 21 in.
diameter was centrally drilled of such a size
hole tha t it could be filed eight-sided and made a
driv e-on fit on this arbor; it was driven well
home and formed a nice snug fit on the arbor.
The latter was then placed between centres in
103
THE MODEL ENGINEER
JULY 26,
Front view of movement
the lathe and a step turned on the flange slightly
less than k in. in width and the diameter in size
to fit closely a piece of previously prepared bra ss
tube 3/32 in. thick and to the dimensions shown
in the drawings. The back flange on which the
ratchet teeth were cut later was turned on a
separate mandrel. The arbor, with the already
mounted front flange, was then turned parallel,
as shown in the drawing, for the reception of the
back flange which was a good pres s-on fit. With
all three parts finally fitted together, three locking
104
pins were put through the tube at either end into
the steps of the flanges as shown. Finally, a
slight turning all over of both flanges and tube
produced a perfectly true barrel and arbor. The
barrel was next screw cut for the reception of the
driving line. It is worth mentioning that the
barrels will work quite satisfactorily if they are
not screw cut for the driving line. Many of the
old clock-makers did not trouble to do this .
Ratchet teeth were then cut on the back flange
of the barrel with the aid of a home-made cutter,
THE MODEL ENGINEER
JULY 26 1951
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the barr el being placed between centres with th e
division plate on th e end of the mandrel and the
cutter frame on the slide-res t .
Maintaining Ratchet
This was rna'de as shown in the dr awing, th e
same home-made cutter being used as that with
which the barrel teeth were cut.
CliCA and Spring
T he components were qui te a straight-
forwa rd job, bei ng a pure handwor k operation, the
click being made of steel and t he spring cut from
br ass shee t with a pier cing saw and afterwards
bent to the required circular shape.
The wheel s were next taken in hand ; circular
milling-cutte rs were used for cutt ing the teeth.
105
THE MODEL ENGINEER
JULY 26, 1951
Details of the pitches and diameter s are shown
in the data table. The following method was
adopted for producing the larger wheels : A
circular brass blank for the great wheel of the
appropriate thickness and ! in. in diameter
larger than the required wheel was to be
drilled and bored, a good revolving fit on the
barrel arbor, the blank being held in the self-
was now screwed home, taking care not to for ce
the latter too much. The blank wheel held thus
was th en turned down to size. The divi sion
plate was then fitted on the tail-end of the mandrel
and the cutter frame fitted to the slide-rest, the
cutter being driven from th e countershaft.
Wheels produced thi s way came out with the
teeth and bores dead true with one another. The
Data Table to Drawings
Reference
Description of items
Number
of
teeth
Full
Di amet er Width
(in.) (in.)
Diame-
trical
pit ch
Quantity
required

Front flange of driving barrel
or slip .. . .
Locking screw to sli p washer . .
Back flange of dri ving barrel ..
: : : :
Partly machined arbor of barrel
Cock for back pivot of centre
arbor . . . . . .
Fixing screw for above ..
Plan view of cock for back pivot
of centre arbor . . . .
Maintaining click . . . .
Gre;; or of : :
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
4
I
I
I
I
12
I
2
34
4
1/16
31
II2
"
roo
II2
12
108
12
" " "" " "
Maintaining ratchet
Set for 'holding'
ment to seat board ..
Hook ' for holding ends of
dri ving line of barrel ..
Maintaining spring . . . .
Click for barrel teeth . . . .
Spring for click . . . .
Back plate of movement . .
Cock for escapement pivot and
pendulum s us p e ns i o n
bracket . . .. . .
Bearing for great wheel pivot . .
Second wheel of train . . . .
Pini on on zn d wheel of arbor . .
Third wheel of train .. . .
Pinion on 3rd wheel of arbor . .
Ring nut for pill ar . . . .
Crutch of escapement . .
Winding arbor of movement ..
1.
2.
3
4
5
6.
7
8.
9
10.
II.
21.
12.
13
14
15
16.
17
18.
19
20.
22.
23
24
25
26.
27
28.
32.
29
33
30.
31.
34
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
Fig.A.
centring chuck for this purpose. Next, a short
piece of round brass or steel rod was chucked in
the self-centring chuck with the lathe jaws in
position, so arranged as to leave about three-
quarters of an inch protruding beyond the
longest steps of the chuck jaws. This was now
turned down to fit the previously prepared hole
in the blank wheel. Afterwards, the end of the
rod was threaded with a die and a nut made and
fitted. The blank wheel was now pushed on \
to the short end of the truly running rod and
resting firmly against the chuck jaws, th e nut
106
smaller wheels were produced the same way
except that these were fitted to some small home-
made chucks made to fit the mandrel bore of the
lathe. The wheels were next crossed out, a
piercing saw being used for thi s purpose, followed
by files and emery sticks for fine finishing. A
piercing saw is an extremely useful tool for any
form of model engineering or instrument work;
steel up to a quarter of an inch can be cut with .
it, the finishing required afterwards being far
less than when other tools 'have been used.
( To be cont in ued)
*CONSTRUCTING A YEAR CLOCI{
by C. B. Reeve
T
HE pinions were next taken in hand. T hese
were mad e from standard pini on wi re, but not
in the ort hodox way of solid pi nions. A short
length of the pinion wire, just sufficient to form
the head , was cut off th e lengt h with th e piercing
saw. Next , a short length of brass rod somewhat
larger in diame ter th an th e piece of pinion wire
was chucked in th e three-jaw chuck, drilled and
bor ed of such a size that the piece of pi nion wire
was a drive-in fit, car e being taken to leave the
wire just pr oud of the brass bu sh thus formed.
The pr otruding end of the pinion wire was th en
faced off and turned as smoothly as possibl e.
Aft erwar ds it was centred with th e Slocombe
centring drill and then drilled through and bored
a s low taper. Next , it was tapped out of the
brass bush with a piece of rod passing through
the mandrel and then replaced in the brass bush
and th e other end faced off. Afterwards, the
leaves of th e pinion head were well shaped with
the aid of a knife- edge file fini shing with
carborundum grit No. 120 and oil , th e grit and
oil mixture being worked be tween the leaves with
a small piece of .end-grain wood. At this stage
the pini on head was now hardened by heating
to cherry red and plunging into cold water.
Afterwards, it was let down to a purple blue and
*Continued from page 106, " M.E.," J uly 26,
951. .
finall y poli shed with rouge and oil. The pini on
arbor s were made from temper ed steel rod (blued
steel) which is now obtainable in lengths of ab out
6 in. A piece suffici ent for one arbor was cut
off from the rod, cone centred at each end, aft er
whi ch one end was taper turned to match the
tapered hole in the pini on head. If this is well
done the pinion head literally screws on to the
arbor and will never move.
A short length of brass rod to form the collet
for mounting the wheel on was pressed on to the
other end of th e arbo r and a seating was then
turned to such a size to sui t the previously
prepared hole in the wheel. The wheel was
th en riveted on to the collet . The latter was
then finally turned to shape and fini shed off with
buff sti cks. All the wheels and pinions were
treated this way, but the pi voting was left to be
done later.
While in London on holiday I obtained th e
brass for the plates for the movement, also the
brass tubing for making the weight cases. On
unpacking these items it was noticed that the
brass plates wer e far from flat, and knowing that
brass of ,\ in . thickness would be no easy task to
planish, the following method was tried out and
proved fairly successful :
Each plate in turn was placed in the wood-
worker's vice and two small pieces of
wood arranged on either side of a hollow in the
Data Table t o Drawings
.
Number Full Diame-
of diameter Width tri cal Quantity
Refer ence Description of it ems teeth (in.) (in.) pitch r equir ed
Fig.C.
35
Front plate of movement . . - - - - I
"
3
6. Pillar of small auxiliary front
plate . . .. .. - - - -
4
"
37
Centre wheel of movement
96 I t 3/64 7
2 I
"
3
8
.
Pinion on centre wheel arbor .. 12
.
185 I
"
39
Upper 3rd wheel of movement
90 I t
3/
64
7
2 I
"
4
Pinion of upper 3rd wheel arbor
of movement .. .. 12 . 185 I
"
41.
Escape wheel dead- bea t
straight-sided teeth . .
30 I t 1/16 I
"
4
2. Pinion on escape wheel arbor 12
.
18
5
I
"
43
Dead-beat adjustable pall et s . .
- -
-
- 2
"
44
\Vinding gear on arbor of great
wheel .. .. ..
7
8 I 13/16
!
40
2
"
45
Intermediate winding gear ..
3
6
95 t
4
2
"
46.
Gear mounted on winding arbor
3
6
95 t
4
2
"
47
24-hour wh eel . . .. ..
144
3 3/
64
5
I
"
48.
Hour wheel .. .. ..
7
2
I t 3/64
5
I
"
49
Minute wheel on centre pinion
44 t 3/
64
52
I
"
50.
Rever sed minute whe el ..
44 t 3/
64
52
I
"
51.
Minute wheel clock ..
"
- -
- - -
"
52.
Bridge for hour wheel .. - - - - -
Fig. D. 53.
Pill ar to main clock frame ..
- - 6
"
54
Weight case .. .. .. -
3
Length: 15 in. 2
131
THE MODEL ENGINEER
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AUGUST 2, 1951
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plate whil e a third piece of wood was placed on
the opposite side of the plate immediately over
_ the bump. The jaws of the 'vice were then
. carefully closed, causing the bump to be flattened
out. Both plates were gone . over thus ' and al-
though the result was not exactly
finish, it was reasonably good for the purpose
in hand.
Pillars were then made. This was a straight-
forward turning job, the ends being threaded with
a fine pitch home-made die; after this , ring nuts
were made and tapped to suit the ends of the
132
\ ' .
THE MODEL ENGINEER
AUGUST 2. 19Si
Front view with cam wheel and finger removed
pillars. The plates were now drilled to receive
the pillars. After fitting the pillars, the frame
was ready to assemble and it went together quite
well. The various wheels and pinions were now
laid across the edge of the frame and it was then
easy to see to mark them out for the pivots to be
turned. The turning of the pivots was done
with a graver and handrest, running the work
fairly fast in the lathe, and afterwards they were
smoothed with a pivot file followed by oil-stone
dust on a polisher, and finally finished with
rouge and oil. The next operation was the
planting of the train of wheels in the frame.
This was accomplished without any mistakes
with the aid of a depth tool.
By the end of the-writer's two weeks' holiday,
all the inside wheels were planted and also the
upper wheels contained between the main front-
133
THE MODEL ENGINEER AUGU ST 2, 195 J
plate and the upper small auxiliary plate. It
will be seen from the drawing that the back
pivot of th e centre wheel is hel d in a cock screwed
to the underside of the main front plate, the
pinion on the centre wheel arbor engaging with
third whe el of the train. Aft er this the work
progressed rather slowl y, being mai nly done at
week-ends; but by Christmas, 1949, the dead-
beat escapement and pendulum were made and
the exciting moment arrived when it was pos sible
west comer contains double the number of
teeth of the hour wheel wit h whi ch it meshes,
and, therefore, makes one revolut ion in twenty-
four hours . There is a pin situated in one of its
arms which, as the wheel turns anti-clockwise,
moves the lever to the right , whi ch in turn moves
the big arm or det enr also to the right. Att ached
to the detent are two clicks and weak springs
pointing in opposite directi ons to one another .
That on the left is for moving the seven days of
Fig. D
to see if the movement would go. As the weights
had not yet been made, weights from other clocks
were quickly borrowed and a short length of
wire line was attached to each barrel. A total
'weight of abo ut seventy pounds on a double line
was required to get way on the wheelwork.
After adj usting the crutch in beat the clock was
st arted, and, strange to say, it went for the first
time of asking. The pendulum rating-nut was
adjusted by pure gues swork and the movement
was left going for a fortnight during which period
it kept time with Big Ben within a minute or so.
It was then decided to add the perpetual calendar
attachment.
This part of the job took about three months to
construct, and the followin g is a brief description
of its action, which is on Broco's principle:
The drawing of the calendar work shows the
various parts as they appear with the clock
dial removed. The large gear wheel in the north-
134
week star wheel, whilst that on the right is for
moving the thirty-one days of the month wheel.
As the detent travels towards the right, the two
clicks will slip past a tooth of their respective '
wheels without the wheels moving in any way,
but when the pin in the twenty-four hour wheel has
moved past the extremity of the curved arm, the
detent will suddenly return again to the ' left-
hand position and in so doing both clicks will
advance their respecti ve wheels one tooth. This
happens every time the det ent travels to the left,
whether it happens to be a short or long month.
It will be seen from the drawing that the week
and month wheels are steadied in their positi ons
by rollers shouldered on screws fitt ed to arms;
the lower extremities of the arms car ry light
weights. This idea, the writ er considers, is
better practice than using springs . A similar
weighted arm is also used for returning the det ent.
,( To be continued)
*CONSTRUCTING A YEAR CLOCI(
by C. B. Reeve
T
HE action for the short and long months will
now be described. Fixed to the axis of the
month wheel and turning with it is a pinion of ten
leaves which engages the teeth of an int ermediate
wheel of any number of teeth. This int ermediate
wheel meshes with another wheel containing
*Cantin uedfrom page 134, " M.E. ," August 2 ,
1951.
12 0 teeth and is the year wheel which makes a
complete revolution in twel ve months. This
wheel is shown in the drawing occupying the
lowest central position in the movement. On the
axi s of thi s whe el is fitt ed the hand that indicates
the vari ous months of the year . Also superim-
posed on this wheel is a smaller wheel containing
36 t eet h, whic h drives a larger wheel containing
144 teeth which turns on its axis once in four
View of movement f rom above
179
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THE MODEL ENGINEER
years. This last wheel is indicated in the drawing
on the left-hand side of the movement beneath
the cam wheel to which the latter is screwed.
There are 48 divisions on the circumference of
the cam wheel, this being the number of months
contained in four years. There are 28 uncut
portions on the rim of the cam wheel corre-
sponding to the 31-day months, 16 shallow slots
corresponding to the 3o-day
months, 3 deep slots corre-
sponding to the months of
February with 28 days each
and one slightly less deep
for the month of February
in Leap Year . There i.
a pin placed in th e 31-day
month wheel opposite the
tooth representing the zsth
day of the month. Situated
on the detent is a bell crank
lever freely pivoted and
on its lower extremity is a
pin which rests on the
circumference of the cam
wheel and by its own weight
the bell crank lever will
cause the pin to enter any
of the slot s on the cam
wheel as it rot ates the four-
year wheel beneath it.
It will be easy to see that
when the pin rests on the
highest step on the cam
wheel the opposite end of
the bell crank will also be
in the highest position and
will be out of reach of the
pin in the 31-day month
wheel, but when the pin on
the lower end of the bel1
crank has fallen into one
of the shallow slots (cor re-
sponding to the 3o-day
month) the upper end of the
bel1 crank will have arrived
at a lower posi rion and the
notched end of the lever
will be in' a posit ion to
move the 3I -da y month
wheel forwa rd one tooth.
This will occur on the
night of the 30th of the month as the detent
is finishing it s travelling to the right. On
the det ent being rel eased by the pin in the 24-
hour wheel it . will return to its normal position
and in so doin g carry the 31-day month forward
one more tooth and thus bring the date to the
first of the ne xt month.
For the month of February containing 28 days ,
the pin on the lower end of the bell crank lever
will have fallen into one of the deepest slots and
the upper end of the bell crank lever will be at
its lowest position on the night of the 28th and
its notched end will then advance the 31-day
month wheel three teeth as the detent travels
to the right; on being released again it will still
move the 31-day month wheel one tooth forward
on its return journey to the left and bring the date
to the first of the next month.
For Leap Year the same action takes place,
180
AUGUST 9, 1951
but as the slot in the four-year cam is made slightly
shallower, the notch in the bell crank lever will
only advance the ]I-day month two teeth as the
detent makes its excursion to the right, and on its
return journey to the left the 31-day month wheel
will again be advanced one tooth. The pin in
the bell crank lever will slide out of the shallow
slots of the four-year cam wheel quite easily. The
Fig. E
bottom sides of the slots are .sloped away for
this purpose. In the case of the deep slots, this
is not so easy owing tothe angular movement of
the cam wheel, but in order to accomplish this,
there is a shaped finger fitted to the axis of the
year wheel and turning with it. The extremity
of the finger will pick out the pin and prevent it,
for a time, re-entering the slot again until the
four-year cam has moved on sufficiently for the
slot to be out of reach of the pin . As a further
pr ecaution to prevent the pin entering these
deep slots again after it has done its work, there
are shutt ers fitted and pivoted on small shouldered
screws. These automatically open and shut by
their own weight according to their position as
the cam wheel rotates. These are not shown in
the drawing but can be seen in the photographs.
The next item made was the square dial which
was a fairly straight-forward job. T he raised
THE MODEL ENGINEER
AUGUST 9, 1951
Side view, looking from right
chapter ring was engraved but' the lettering in the
four smaller dials was painted on, the idea being
to have these engraved professionally aft er the
clock had been exhibited.
Cutting the circular openings for the small
di als in the back plate of the dial was an int erest-
ing job. The writer obtained a tool used by plum-
bers for cut ting hol es in wat er cisterns, and by
altering the shape of the cutter it was possible
to produce a nice chamfered edge to the circular
openi ngs. The tool was fitted to the carpenter's
brace and by operating this very slowly a nice
clean result was obtained with no chatter marks,
and very little after- tr eatment was required.
181
THE MODEL ENGINEER
AUGUST 9. 1951
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Time was now getting on and a start on the
clock case was made during the Easter week-end.
The trunk of the case was made detachable from '
the base as the writer found it much easier
to construct this type of case in two sections . '
One axiom that is necessary with woodwork
is that -all the tools must be kept in the sharpest
possible condition. .
The case was finished towards the end of May
and by June rst the movement was set in the case
and the job considered finished. The clock was
182
set going and behaved very well and was left
alone until Sunday, August 6th, -1950, when it
was taken down and the various parts packed up
for the journey to the "M.E." Exhibition.
The case just before packing was given the once-
over with beeswax and turps.
On the eventful Tuesday afternoon of August 8th
it was all packed into a Morris 8, the writer nurs-
ing the movement on his lap all the way to the
Horticultural Hall -so as to avoid disturbing the
calendar work -of the movement.

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