A Mini Tower Clock

[crueby]

I  spent hours watching the steam powered clock in Vancouver when I lived there. It added another dimension.

 

Tom

I've never been to Vancouver, but reading about that clock is what gave me the idea for adding an engine to wind mine.

[uuu]

You could have a Synchronome-type gravity impulse with a steam reset!

Wilf

[crueby]

You could have a Synchronome-type gravity impulse with a steam reset!

Wilf

I think I'll stick with the springs for this one!   

[mklotz]

I'm really looking forward to your build too.

I hate to be the bearer of sad news but, according to Wikipedia, the Vancouver clock is now electric with steam effects.  Here is a quote from the article...

The steam engine that originally ran the clock is a Stuart #4 single-expansion double-acting 1" piston engine.[8] This engine is still visible through the glass sides of the clock. However, owing to the clock's high noise levels and inability to keep accurate time, since 1986 the clock has been powered by an electric motor that was originally intended solely as a back-up system.

The complete article is here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_clock

[crueby]

Thats a bummer!  At least it still inspires...

[crueby]

Gotten a start cutting metal. The corner pillars will be pieced up from some 1" square bar and some 3/4" round bar to make it easier to do on my small lathe. Got the lower and upper sections all trimmed to length, and drilled/tapped holes for assembling things. The lower blocks are tapped top and bottom, to attach it to the base and to screw in the round section in the middle. The upper blocks are just drilled for 1/4" dowel pins, which will be loctited in place. That removes any issues about alignment of the top/bottom blocks with threads. Lots of ways it could be done, this seemed simple. Note that the bottom blocks, in the front row, have a round section turned on the bottom. This forms the decorative foot. I will go back and sand the sides of the blocks to clean them up, the raw square bar is a bit ugly. First, they need to be cross drilled for the bars that will connect the front and back sections, and drilled/tapped to attach to the flat bar that runs across the front and back sections.

Also got the middle sections trimmed all to the same length, and have started turning in the shape on one end of the first one. One end of each is threaded to attach to the lower block, and the other end of each is drilled for the dowel pins.

On other news, been in touch with the editor down at Live Steam magazine, they have invited me and my big Marion 91 steam shovel model down to join them in their booth at Cabin Fever in January to help promote the book. Always a great time at that show, been a while since I have exhibited at it!

[cnr6400]

 

[Sanjay F]

That's a lot of metal you have there!!

[crueby]

Thanks guys!
Sanjay, yes its quite a stack. I do buy larger quantities when I can, enough to do several models at least, especially when someplace has it on sale. With the number of projects I do, it will all get used eventually. The prices work out better in the long run that way, and I buy the larger sizes as 'drops' from the metal suppliers. There are some around here that will sell their offcuts at 1/4 or 1/3 the normal price per foot, I just have to keep checking their stock since it varies a lot depending what they have sold to their commercial customers. They deal in 20 to 40 foot bars, so they consider a three foot piece an offcut, where for us its enough for quite a few projects! The only downside is that the UPS delivery driver in my neighborhood hates me for all the heavy mailing tubes...   

[wagnmkr]

Interesting about the Vancouver clock. I know they had talked about electric power but didn't know they did it.I had left by then and was in Calgary.

 

[crueby]

Interesting about the Vancouver clock. I know they had talked about electric power but didn't know they did it.I had left by then and was in Calgary.

 

When you were in Vancouver, did you ever get out to the B.C. Forest Discovery Center? Bunch of steam trains, and they have a 1912 Mann Steam Wagon that they sent me restoration pictures of when I was working on my model of one. Looks like a fun place, still on my wish list of places (many of them) to visit. They still refuse to move Vancouver nearer to this end of Canada though...   

[Dreeves]

great looking project. looking forward to Cabin Fever hope to catch you there.

Dave

[crueby]

great looking project. looking forward to Cabin Fever hope to catch you there.

Dave

Look for the guy chasing shop elves...   


 

[wagnmkr]

Chris, it was one of those things were I was by that museum many times, but I was quite young then and museums didn't hold much interest for me. Tug boats were one of the main interests then. The Island was one of my main haunts, but more around the long beach area on the North end.

Funny how we can do a lot of things but moving Provinces around isn't on the menu!

Cheers

 

Tom

[crueby]

Chris, it was one of those things were I was by that museum many times, but I was quite young then and museums didn't hold much interest for me. Tug boats were one of the main interests then. The Island was one of my main haunts, but more around the long beach area on the North end.

Funny how we can do a lot of things but moving Provinces around isn't on the menu!

Cheers

 

Tom

I know what you mean - I am only an hour or so from Niagara Falls (Slowly, I Turn!  (lets see how many people remember that bit!) ) and I know lots of people here that have never been there. Even ones from Bufallo, right next door to Niagara. I would have been a big fan of the tugboats, loved them as a kid, my first RC boat was a tug - still have it and it still gets out for runs every year, after all these decades.