Build a wooden wheel clock

Only four wooden wheels, a rocker arm (foliot escapement) instead of a pendulum, and full
visibility of its operation, make this 15th century clock a fascinating conversation piece.
It will run for about 24 hours on an 11feet weight cord before shifting the weights, and is adjustable
for timing. In making it, use quarter sawn hardwood, well seasoned.
Black cherry is especially recommended.
Quarter sawn wood swells and shrinks least in width.

1. Frame:

Start with the frame, top left page 673, Fig. 1.

To get corresponding holes of both plates in alignment, clamp the plates together and drill both at
the same time.
Use sharp drills and feed them slowly so that the grain won't divert their true course.
The brass bushings are short to minimize friction and are a press fit.
Remove the burr inside both ends.
Two dowels project from the back plate to hold the weight cord.
One on the front plate holds the hour wheel and hand. A brass bearing bracket clears the rocker-arm
shaft and supports the escapement wheel.
The lower end of the shaft engages brass-screw eye bearing.
The frame cross pieces are detailed in Fig, 2 at the upper right of page 673.
This drawing also shows the wheel assembly.
Glue the cross pieces to the back plate only and at perfect right angles to it.

2. Wheels and shafts:

In making the three wheel shafts, Fig. 3, 7 and 8, first drill the bearing-pin holes at the ends of
the blocks in perfect alignment before you do the turning.
Slight misalignment can cause binding of pins in bearing and wobbling of shafts and wheels.
The drive-wheel shaft, Fig. 3, has a bearing pin at one end only.
The other end rotates in a hole in the front plate.
You drill four pilot holes in this end for brads that serve as pinion to turn the hour hand.
All the wheels and the ratchet pulley have 1/2-in. center holes drilled before turning, and these are
used to mount the work on a threaded arbor.
One side of each wheel that can be seen in the assembled clock is turned to a pleasing contour.
The shafts are turned so the wheels fit them snugly.
The hole in the ratchet pawl is pivoted on the side of the drive wheel and is kept in firm contact
with the ratchet by a music wire spring secured by staples, Figs. 4 and 5.

3. Cutting the teeth

The gear teeth can be cut in different ways.
One method consists of laying off the teeth according to dimensions in Figs. 5 and 6, using a
sharply pointed hard lead pencil, or by tracing them from these drawings.
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Remove the waste with a fine tooth bandsaw as shown in the photo, a jigsaw, or even a hand
fretsaw, and dress down to the marked lines with a small flat file or manicure sanding stick.
Another method involves the use of a router that slides on a track above the lathe, and an indexing
plate on the lathe spindle having the required number of indexing holes.

4. Matching wheels to pinions:

Check each shaft separately for easy rotation in the frame so there is no trace of binding in the
bearings.
Match the drive wheel to the 7-tooth pinion on the center wheel shaft before gluing on the center
wheel.
The fit between wheel and pinion may turn out to be so close that the wheel cannot turn freely.
Free the teeth by very delicate dressing, but first blacken with ink the tip of one pinion tooth and the
tips of two wheel teeth that straddle it when meshing.
This essures subsequent reassembling of pinion and wheel in the same relationship.
To match wheel and pinion teeth, hold the frame in a padded vise and gently apply a little pressure
on the wheel in the same direction that it will rotate in the clock, at the same time putting a slight
drag on the pinion to simulate actual working tension.
Carefully determine just where binding occurs, both when a pinion tooth starts to engage the wheel
teeth and when it disengages from them.
A small piece of carbon paper fed between the meshing teeth will locate the points of excessive
bing.
Dress only the slopes of the wheel teeth but not the tips as this reduces the wheel diameter.
Too much dressing ruins a wheel because it produces excessive clearance and allows pinion teeth to
strike the tips of wheel teeth.
Remove all high spots from the wheel teeth that tend to slow rotation of the wheel when it is barely
touched with your finger and the pinion is kept under a slight drag.
The tips of pinion teeth should be semicircular in cross section and must not be dressed down on
the top.
If the tips of the wheel teeth bind on the bottom of pinion gullets, deepen the gullets a trifle.
After matching the drive wheel to the pinion on the center-wheel shaft, glue the center wheel to its
shaft and proceed to match it to the pinion on the escapement-wheel shaft.
This is done while the drive wheel is removed.

5. Escapement mechanism and timing.

Drill pilot holes for the equidistant brads of the escapement wheel, Fig. 8, using glue on the
brads for extra holding power. Uniform height is obtained by grinding.
Fig. 11 shows the rocker-arm foliot and associated parts.
Sheet-metal retents on the shaft alternately stop the escapement wheel momentarily.
Just before an obstructed pin.is freed from one retent the opposite one swings in to obstruct the pin
moving toward it.
Bend the retents separately to proper shape on a nail of the same diameter as the shaft, then slip
them on the shaft and solder in place.
After pressing the rocker arm on the shaft, you can "snake" the latter into position down through the
hole in the upper cross piece.

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When the shaft is set in its bearings and hangs from the top pin by thread, the retents should swing
about halfway over the pins when engaging them.
Adjust for this dictance by moving the bearings.
Avoid contact of the shaft against the bearing pin of the escapement wheel.
The escapement mechanism will require delicate adjusting, mostly by bending the retents in or out.
If spread apart too far, they won’t stop wheel rotation.
If a retent lands and stops on the tip of a pin, the spread must be decreased slightly.
When the retents are too close, the pins cannot pass either of them.
Two1/2 -oz. weights on the rocker arm can be shifted to adjust timing.
If this is not enough, the rocker-arm weights are made lighter for faster movement and slower for
slower movement.
Fig. 12 details the weight pulleys and cord.
The latter goes through the anchor post and is knotted above each.
If the cord slips on the ratchet pulley, apply some rosin.
The pulleys must not bind in the sheaves, which may be enough to stop clock movement.
The 3-oz. weight keeps the cord taut.

6. Hour wheel and dial.

The hour wheel is identical to the center wheel but is glued to a sleeve, Fig. 9 which fits the
dowel on the front plate.
Fig. 10 shows the hand which is easy to loosen and tighten for changing its position.
A tapered brass pin slips through the dowel.
The dial, also shown in Fig. 12, surrounds the hour wheel and is held by tapered brass pins which
also hold the front plate on the cross pieces.
Numerals on the dial can be done with India ink.
The clock pictured here is a replica of one of the first handmade, weight-operated clocks.
Making a copy of it will increase your admiration of bygone craftsmen.
The closeup view minus the dial, hour wheel and hand, shows the relationship of the three time
keeping wheels and the escapement mechanism.
Waste between the teeth is first removed with a band or a jigsaw, then the teeth should be filed with
a small, flat file.
Be careful not to take matorial off the tips of the teeth.

Fig.1 FRONT PLATE, BACK PLATE

 bushed bearing holes countersunk on outside

 1/8 inch O.D. brass tubing 1/32 inch wall
 hole
 rivets
 1/16 inch hole for brad
 brass screw eye for roker arm shaft
 5/16 inch dowel
 3/8 inch dowel,glued
 1/16 inch brass

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Fig.2 ASSEMBLY OF PARTS

 notched for pins

 dial
 3/8 inch dowels at ends, glued
 3/8 inch brace, glued

Fig.3 DRIVE WHEEL SHAFT

 easy fit in bearing hole

 taper pin
 bearing pin 1/14 inch D.
 pinion, 2d brads
 drive wheel glued to shaft

Fig,4 HALF OF DRIVE WHEEL

 staples made of music wire

 wire bent
 actual size
 face contour
 56 teeth, 7in1/2 th circum

Fig.5 RATCHET CORD PULLEY

 Rotates on shaft
 Pivot, brads
 Music wire

Fig. 6 HALF CENTER WHEEL

(Actual size) 5/16 inch thick

 Side facing front turned to contour as in fig.9
 48 teeth 6 in 1/8 circum.

Fig. 7 CENTER WHEEL SHAFT

 Wheel glued to shaft

 7 tooth pinion(actual size)
 1/16 inch Diameter pins at ends sunk 3/8 inch

Fig. 8 ESCAPEMENT WHEEL SHAFT

 Pinion 6 tooth (actual size)

 17 equidistant brads in tight pilot holes
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Fig. 9 HAND WHEEL

 Duplicate of center wheel

 Face
 Sleeve glued to wheel

Fig. 10 HAND

 Tapered hole7/16 inch to ½ inch

 ½ inch Squares(sqs.)
 ¼ in thick

Fig. 11 ROCKER ARM & FITTING

 1/12 inch X 2 ¾ inch Rod into back plate

 1/16 inch Saw kerfs
 Thread
 Ground &drilled
 Shaft bearing 1/8 inch X 2 ¾ inch rod into back plate
 1/16 inch Deep and spaced1/16 inch
 3/12 inch X 5 ¾ inch Hard - brass shaft
 Hammered to widen
 Rocker arm ¼ inch X 6 inch
 Tight fit
 ¾ inch X ¾ inch X 1 ½ inch ½ oz. With lead
 Music-wire staple
 Blind hole for lead
 Wheel escapement
 About 3/16 inch
 Screw eye
 End wiew of shaft & sheet metal retents
 Relation of retents to top&bottom pins

Fig. 12 WEIGHTS. PULLEYS&HOOKS

 Lead, hammered to shape

 Large 1 3/4lbs
 Small 3 oz
 Coat with lacquer
 Dial Center part open
 3/8 inch dowel through front plate
 Tapered brass pins engage notches in dial
 2 required
 Washers
 ¼ inch dowel
 Screw eye
 S-hook nr. 14 wire
 Dowels on bck plate
 Knot
 1/8 inch Cord
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 UNITĂȚI DE MĂSURĂ

 1foot =0.3048 m
 1 inch = 25,4 mm
 1oz = 1uncie = 28,35 grame
 1 pound =1 lbs = 0.45 kilograme