Harmonic Oscillators other than Pendulums

[SCAR]

Has anyone built a wooden gear clock using an oscillator other than a pendulum?  Any balance wheels, or other?

[Rick from Manchester]

Scar,

I haven't; however, check out Rabbit's website: The Falling Ball Clock, The Wooden Electric, The Station Clock, and his Congreve http://flashpages.prodigy.net/rpirtle/_upages/page2.html.

Also, see Carlo G. Croce's site Wooden Clock #39, a Verge and Foliot http://www.clockmaker.it/ingle39.htm

Rick.

[rabbit]

funny... i'm working right now on a wooden "watch". it has a half-second wooden balance wheel.

[dcunningham2]

Rabbit -- I've been daydreaming about this concept (ala accurate seagoing clocks of yore), and now you've beat us to the punch.  Typical.

What is your spring mechanism?  I had begun considering some type of monofiliment line suspension with weights used to maintain a constant tension.

[rabbit]

this half-seconds balance is a 3" diameter, 3/8"thick birch ring. it has small wooden pins around the perimeter. inside of each of these pins is a #8 setscrew - these can be screwed in and out to adjust the poise of the wheel (it has to be perfect).
for a "hairspring", i used a very small clockspring. i'm not sure what it came out of, but it measures 0.125" x 0.007" by 28". the inside end is epoxied to the balance shaft, and the outer end is fixed to the frame. there is a moveable anchor on a small lever - this slightly changes the effective length of the spring to regulate the period. just like a watch!
the escape is a double-roller swiss lever, designed with the help of Mark Headricks wonderful book.
this is my second balance-wheel wooden clock (my Falling Ball clock has a one-second wheel). It takes a lot of tinkering to get the inertia of the wheel correct for the desired period and a given spring, but it's actually quite easy.

[dcunningham2]

This is possibly the coolest thing on planet earth.

How consistent is the time-keeping, compared to your other clocks?  My expectation would be that this is very accurate, but perhaps sensitive to temperature, given the metal spring.  Is this true?

Also, would you mind sharing what kind of pivots or bearings you use to support the flywheel with very little friction?

Again, this is extremely cool -- thanks for being so generous with your knowledge and experience.

[rabbit]

the movement has been completed and running for only about a week, as i'm finishing the "gold watch" case (yellowheart wood). so far it keeps time beautifully. i'm sort of picky, and i'm trying to adjust it to within 1-second per day (using a good quartz clock as my "regulator"). i designed the adjustment for about +/- 5 minutes a day, and it's pretty sensitive. i'll experiment with the temperature issue.

this piece has steel pivots on all of the arbors. most are mounted in brass tube bushings. the great wheel (spring) is in steel bushings. the escape wheel has ball bearings. the balance also has steel pivots and is mounted in homemade teflon bushings. (ball bearings don't like back-and-forth motion.) the gears are all lacquered and the teeth polished. it's very efficient and smooth-running - and quiet.

oh, yeah... the coolest thing is that with the balance wheel and swiss lever escape (with safety roller and banking pins), it'll run in any position - just like a watch! you can even shake it or bang it around, and she keeps on ticking.
i'll put it on my website when i finish.

[rabbit]

i finished my wooden Watch.
check it out:
wooden Watch

[Bower]

The wooden "Pocket" watch is stunning, absolutely stunning.  Once again I am of the opinion that though you call yourself an engineer, You have the eye, soul, and hands of an artist.

I have been toying with a design for a wooden "Eureka" battery clock,  your work serves to further inspire....

Any chance of a shot of the mainspring?

John

[rabbit]

i've tried a lot of different ways, but this is the easiest way to make a spring-powered wooden gear. the Hermle #54 barrel assembly is clamped in a recess in the back of the great wheel, and then covered with a wooden shell.
someone wanted to see the "hairspring" as well.

[SCAR]

Rabbit;

How long have you been in the wood clock game?  Where do you find the time?

That watch has to be the coolest thing I've ever seen out of wood!  Would you adopt me?  HA!!

[jrbeall]

Rabbit, you are the grand poobah.  The watch is the best I have ever seen and I am positively  green.  And thanks for the tip on main spring barrels, I have been worrying with that for about a year.  I really think we need to have a get together for all so that we can see your work, and you, in person.  I will be glad to host a wood clock "convention" if anyone wants to have one.  When you do this kind of work, you shouldn't hide out in the boonies but come to town and talk to everyone about how you do it.

Looking forward to hearing from you and everyone else about this idea.

JR

[rabbit]

JR -
thanks for the compliments, to you and everyone else!  i'm not that "grand", though. i just like to build stuff...
it's the inspiration of you and all the others in this "hobby" that fuel me.
and, to answer an earlier post - i built my first wooden clock in 1981.

i think a "convention" would be great. it would be terrific to meet some of these people, and see their work in person.  i love to share what i know, and i always learn something communicating and observing other's. it may be difficult to fix a time and place, but i'd go for it.

[dcunningham2]

Getting together for some kind of a convention or a less formal get-together would go a long way towards nurturing a wooden clock-maker's community.

I would think that for those participants that have a commercial interest in seeing such a community thrive, promoting a meeting could be a legitimate marketing activity.

Also, it might be worth scheduling this meeting so that participants could attend some other related event (such as a woodworking convention) at the same time.  This would increase attendance and provide the opportunity to reach out to others who are not currently involved in this hobby.

[rus]

http://watchismo.blogspot.com/2007/03/solid-wood-1900-pocket-watch-wood-gears.html

This was forwarded to me and thought I'd pass it along
rus