G'day Chris here, and welcome back to Clickspring.
In this final video of the series, I complete the skeleton clock project,
by making a custom winding key, and giving the mechanism a final polish and assembly.
These classic old keys have definitely seen better days,
but they show all of the main elements required for a simple winding key design.
A nice curved profile for the grip, a decent flat area to provide comfortable leverage for the user,
and a shaft with a square recess to accept the winding square of the arbor.
That recess is usually a blind hole, which adds an extra challenge to the job
that I'll talk about in a moment.
And although its not uncommon to see rivets used in the construction,
I've decided to make this key from brass sheet and rod stock,
and then soft solder the components together.
To form the blind recess, I've divided the shaft into 2 parts.
One part will have a slot formed to receive the flat grip, and a spigot turned on its other end.
The other part which I'm calling the endpiece,
will have a square hole formed in one end, and a recess drilled in the other to accept the spigot.
Once the 2 parts are assembled, it'll look like a single uniform piece.
So starting with the endpiece, I cleaned up the stock and then formed the required holes.
Now that square hole can certainly be formed using some careful filing.
But in this case I formed it using a small arbor press and a custom square broach,
made specifically to match the size of the winding square on the arbor.
The pilot diameter is a snug fit in the smaller hole in the workpiece,
and generous amount of oil helps the cut.
Its a fair amount of work to make a custom broach,
and I wouldn't ordinarily go to the trouble for a single hole.
But when a reasonable deep and precisely sized hole like this is required,
I think its definitely the better option, and worth the extra effort.
OK, so with the end piece under way, I moved on to the rest of the shaft,
first by forming the spigot section.
With the fit confirmed, I used some flux to prepare the join,
and then soft soldered the end piece in place.
A skim cut is enough to clean up that surface,
and a series of decorative grooves adds to the presentation.
The key will benefit from having a chamfered edge inside that open end,
to make it easier to locate it on the winding square, so I formed that next,
before parting off to profile the other end.
A quick trip to the mill, to drop in the slot for the grip,
and the shaft section of the winding key is complete for now.
Next up is the grip section of the key, which started out in this small piece of sheet stock.
The scroll saw and belt sander take care of most of the metal removal,
and then its on to some hand filing to bring the workpiece to the line.
A light rub on some fine abrasive paper tidied up the surfaces,
although the soldering process will require a bit of cleanup once complete,
so I didn't put too much time, just enough to make the job a bit easier later on.
And speaking of soldering, I'm aiming to use the bare minimum here,
just enough to wick into the gap, to reduce the cleanup afterwards.
On first inspection, it looks like a good join.
There's a small run of the solder at the previous join I made with the end piece,
but that'll be easy enough to scrape off in a moment.
The main thing is that there's a nice uniform fillet of solder around the entire seam,
leaving just a bit of cleanup work with files and abrasive paper.
A light hand polish, and that's the winding key complete.
Now before I move on to the final polish and assembly,
there's a few loose ends to tie up.
The commercial pins that I've used during construction process,
can now be replaced with custom taper pins, with a better surface finish.
And I don't need to put the barrel arbor between centers again,
so that can be trimmed to final length, and given a domed end.
And finally, the register pins and the matching holes that were installed
way back in episode 1 can be removed from the frames.
I removed the pins by simply filing them flush with the surface,
but the tapered holes require a bit more work.
Each tapered hole was drilled out to permit a slightly more substantial pin,
to be hammered in with a tight interference fit.
The pin was then lightly riveted, filed flush with the surface of the frame,
and then blended into the surrounding metal with abrasive paper.
Which brings me to the home stretch of this build, and in fact the entire series:
The final polish.
Each brass component must be given the full finishing treatment,
starting with a medium grade abrasive paper, and then working through the grits
until all trace of the previous grit has been removed.
The paper can be used wet or dry, but I find I get a much crisper result,
and use a lot less paper, if I use it wet.
It also helps to keep the cross contamination between grits to a minimum.
After each grit the tray can be emptied and cleaned to start fresh on the next grit.
And the polish is applied in a similar way using small sections of soft cotton cloth.
So after 23 episodes,
and the fabrication of more than 100 separate components,
this is it.
The clock is finally ready for assembly.
This has been an incredible project,
and I want to thank you for being a part of it with me.
Your comments, encouragement have been incredibly motivating,
and you've pushed me to go even further in imagining what this channel can be.
So be sure to keep an eye out for the next project to follow this one,
I guarantee you're going to love it.
Thanks for watching, I'll see you later.
And if you've just made your way into this clockmaking series,
thanks for checking it out.
This is just one episode of a longer series,
where I show all of the steps to make a mechanical clock from raw metal stock,
so be sure to check out those other videos.
If you enjoyed this video and would like to help me bring you more project videos like this one,
then consider becoming a Clickspring Patron.
As a patron of the channel you get access to exclusive Patron only video content,
free plans for the patron projects,
and the chance to win the actual project at the end of each build.
Find out more by visiting patreon.com/clickspring
And finally, if you're looking for some new projects for your lathe or mill,
then take a moment to visit clickspringprojects.com
where you'll find a range of plans available for download,
including plans for some of the tools I've made to help me construct this clock.
Thanks again for watching,
I'll catch you on the next video