Strutt Epicyclic Train Clock (maybe?)

[Kim]

Those look great, Kvom!   

Kim

[kvom]

Plates have issues based on my failing to read the book carefully.  The front plate's arbor hole needs to be 1/2" in diameter while the rear hole is supposed to be only .080".  As it is the diameters cut would be 3/16" after reaming.  Smith had the front at 3/16 in order to use a shop made punch to mark the rear plate.   

While I do have sufficient material to have the rear plate remade, my plan to to ream the rear hole .186" and press in a piece of 3/16" brass rod that's pre-drilled.  Enlarging the front hole will be done by using successively larger reamers.

[kvom]

As stated in tbe previous post, the rear plate was reamed .186" and a length of 3/16" brass rod was pressed in with my arbor press.

Then the front plate's center hole was enlarged with reamers each 1/32" larger than the previous.  Final diameter was .501.

[kvom]

I made 6 small, easy parts that took surprisingly long to complete.  The ring wheel pillars are just 3/16" brass rod, .300" long, and with a 0-80 through clearance hole.  They do need to be the same length fairly precisely with no burrs.

These pillars attach the 6-legged ring spider to the ring wheel with 0-80 steel panhead screws.  The ring wheel is tapped.  I ordered a package of 25 1/2" screws from Amazon for $5.  Total length needed is .488" given the thickness of the spider and wheel.

The centers of the spider and wheel must be concentric; with no center point of the wheel to check, the assembly can be verified only when complete.  I'm holding off on machining the spider as I have several alternate ways to consider.  I'll be away from home most of May, so that part will be put off until I return.

I clarified something mentally that had been bugging me.  The great wheel has has 120 teeth and its pinion has 10, so one turn of the wheel and fusee turns the pinion 12 times, and with it the center arbor.  The minute hand is attached to the end of the arbor.  It just dawned on me that the fusee has two grooves per day, so the wheel turns two times per day, not 1.   

[crueby]

I'm following along, good progress!   

[Kim]

The centers of the spider and wheel must be concentric; with no center point of the wheel to check, the assembly can be verified only when complete.  I'm holding off on machining the spider as I have several alternate ways to consider.

That does seem like quite the challenge! Looking forward to seeing how you do this.

I clarified something mentally that had been bugging me.  The great wheel has has 120 teeth and its pinion has 10, so one turn of the wheel and fusee turns the pinion 12 times, and with it the center arbor.  The minute hand is attached to the end of the arbor.  It just dawned on me that the fusee has two grooves per day, so the wheel turns two times per day, not 1.   

The fusee on the clock I'm making is the same - 1 turn is 12 hours.  I wonder if that is a standard of some kind?  Or just an accident of our two builds.

Kim

[kvom]

Some more smaller "housekeeping" parts.

The dial is attached to the front plate with 4 pillars made of 3/16" brass rod.  The holes in the dial are tapped, and those in the plate are clearance.  The pillars are tapped 0-80 on both ends, and for the dial side will have threaded brass rod loctited into the end.  The length of the threads is to be such that the end will be flush with the dial.  I have temporarily inserted 1/2" screws into the dial end, and will cut off the extra once the dial is made.

The great wheel has three holes that needed to be tapped.  The smaller ones are 0-89, and will fasten the clickspring.  The larger is 6-32 and holds the click stud around which the click can rotate. 

The click stud was made from 1/8" diameter drill rod threaded on one end 6-32. 

[kvom]

Test of shop-made depthing tool with great wheel and center pinion.

Since the mounts have 1/8" through holes, wheels or pinions with different diameters will need an adapter.  In the case of the great wheel, the ccenter hole is 5/16", so I turned a length of brass rod and drilled/reamed it.

The great wheel needed to raised to center on thge pinion.  I used some washers, but I think a wider support would be necessary when it comes time to measure for real.  In addition, the adjustment screw is pushing against the threads of the clamp, so I think it will ne better to machine away that portion of the threads.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CJfYtHtC6O0

I wanted to imbed the video but the [youtube] gadget didbn't seem to work.

[crueby]

Coming along nicely! 
As for youtube videos, I usually just past in the youtube address to them, and have noticed that for 'shorts' videos it just puts in the link, think its something about how youtube hosts it.

[Kim]

Nice job on the depthing tool!  It's fun to use it for the first time, isn't it? 

On the YouTube video, as Chris said, it's a 'short'.  You can see that by the URL they give you for it.  It says "short" in it.  And you can't embed shorts, for unknown reasons.  But you just can't.

I have found no way to get YouTube to change the 'short' designation of any video it has decided is a short.  Apparently, any video that isn't very long and is recorded in portrait mode is automatically designated a short.  No way out.

The way I have found to get around getting the 'short' designation is to record my videos in landscape mode.  For some reason, YouTube doesn't make any landscape video a 'short'.  Also, if I record a video on a non-phone or tablet device (like my Nikon camera that is capable of recording videos, or a Camcorder) those videos don't get designated as shorts either.

I've heard that if you make your videos long enough, they won't automatically be designated a short.  I used to think that limit was one minute.  But I've had videos longer than a minute be regated to 'short' status.  Besides, I like to keep my videos short anyway (just not a YouTube short  ).

So, the moral of the story: record videos on your phone in landscape mode if you want to keep them from being shorts.  YMMV.

Kim

[kvom]

Thanks for the hint.   Future ones will be in landscape.

[kvom]

Today I turned the pinion stud for the planet pinion and wheel.  This little part showed me why watchmaker's lathes are useful for this type of work.  The first step was to turn down 5/8" of 3/16" drill rod to 0.108" diameter.  This wasn't too challenging with the drill rod held in a collet and a live center  at the other end.  But afterwards there is 1/16" of untouched drill rod and 3/16" turned down to 0.104" diameter.  I couldn't do this with the same setup as I really needed to match the diameter to a hole in the planet arm (needs a tight fit.

I don't have a collet that can mount .108" diameter and my regular chucks don't close that small.  By luck I acquired a Rubberflex chuck with the lathe 15 years ago.  I've very rarely used it, but today it's a lifesaver.  The smallest collet has a range of 1/16" to 1/8".

Photos show the planet arm, stud, and pinion, the chuck, and a beauty shot with these parts and the planet wheel.

Difficulty is still in the future because on assembly the stud needs a tiny cross hole in the tip for a pin to retain the pinion.

I'm going on a trip starting in early May, and when I return I hope to have a machine I ordered on Kickstarter, a 60W MOPA laser.  It will cut 1/16" brass, and I'm hoping to use it for the rest of the wheels and some other thin parts.  So I likely won't make much progress until june.  But I intend to try to design a chapter ring I like.  I've tried several different fonts and didn't like the look.  I do have a CD with 500 free fonts, and there is at least one with Roman numerals that might work.

[kvom]

After seeing Kim's chapter ring, I decided to try designing one  of my own.  The Truetype font that looked best to my eye is Bodoni MT Condensed.  Applying these to the Strutt dial "base" yielded the attached image from my CAM program.

There are several ways to finish this.  One is to cut through the letters.  The laser will cut 1/16", but the dial is 1/8" thick.  So the laser (or mill) could remove 1/16" all over the chapter ring area. then cut the numbers through.  I'll have to experiment on a smaller piece to see how it looks.  A  second idea is to have laser engrave the letters and fill them with black paint.  And a third idea is to engrave the chapter ring, leaving the letters proud.

On Smith's version, the letters are a set of twelve brass pieces from a now-defunct company that were attached between two separate sections, leaving the space between the letters empty.  That is also a possibility.

[kvom]

I did a test engraving of some of the Roman numeral characters on some MIC6 plate.  DMC2 Mini CNC mill using an 30-degree engraving v-bit with a .015" tip.  .005" depth of cut, 40% stepover, 20K RPM, 4 ipm.

Seems a lot easier than what Kim's doing.   

I'll do another test on some brass, and probably increase depth to .007. 

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSGn9Q8L5OU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSGn9Q8L5OU</a>

[crueby]

Nice result!  I wonder - if the surface of the plate was painted before engraving/milling, would the edges stay good enough or would the paint get chipped at the edges?