G'day Chris here, and welcome back to Clickspring.
In this video I take the presentation of the chapter ring a little further by making an ornamental bezel.
Wilding doesn't describe the fabrication of a bezel in his construction notes,
but I think it will really add to the visual impact of the clock,
and it's a feature that's consistent with the tradition of this design.
I'd like the outer bezel to dominate visually, so I'm going to give it an ornamental pattern.
It will also need a recess machined to accept the chapter ring.
So let's get started.
The real challenge for this part is simply holding onto it to make the cuts,
and if you've been watching the previous videos in this series,
you won't be surprised to see me reaching for another super glue arbor.
I've sized this arbor to give me access to the front and perimeter of the part,
and to also allow me to make a trepanning cut in the center which I'll show you in a moment.
Once the blank was fixed in place, I trimmed the perimeter to size.
Then I made the trepanning cut to remove the stock from the center.
This slug of brass will make an excellent great wheel on a future clock.
The inside diameter was brought to dimension, and then I formed the recess to accept the chapter ring.
At this point I'm giving it a very slight back taper, for a snap fit with the chapter ring,
and good undercut for a close seating.
I've machined a register on a second arbor to be a close fit in that recess.
This arbor will then hold the part from the other side,
so that I can machine the other face.
The fit with the register is nice and close;
all it needs is a small amount of superglue to hold it in place.
And off camera I gave it a light facing cut to true up the surface for the next operation.
I want the ornamental cuts to be precisely the same depth around the entire piece.
The work was then set up on the mill to form the pattern.
I'm using a rotary table for indexing, and I'm making the cut with this shop made D bit cutter.
I've shaped it with a wide angle on the tip,
to give a broad shallow cut that I hope will generate interesting reflections from the light.
The cutter was positioned over the work,
and a series of fine cuts were made to create the pattern.
The milling needs a little tidying up at the edges, so I re-mounted the work in the lathe,
and carefully skimmed the perimeter.
I also pulled out the form tools that I usedin a previous video to make the pillars.
I used them here to put a light camber on the outside edge, as well as a nice contour on the inside rim.
At the moment the surface is nice and bright from the fresh cut, and I really don't want to lose that shine,
because this part will be difficult to polish.
So before anything else I put on a coat of lacquer.
I will need to redo this again later. But for now it'll keep the oxidation to a minimum.
So now on to the inner bezel.
And in some respects this part was more difficult to make, simply because it ends up so small and flimsy.
I held it in a similar way using a super glue arbor,
and started by truing up the disc, and then machining the recess for the chapter ring.
Much like the outer bezel, I'm aiming for
a snap fit with the inside diameter of the chapter ring.
It was then separated from the parent stock.
I turned up another arbor with a register that matched the rim,
and then after it was fixed into place, I formed the basic profile of the bezel.
I finished the final profiling by hand using this high speed steel graver.
And I know I've said it before, but I just
can't get enough of this freehand turning, especially on brass.
So with both the inner and outer bezel complete, its time for a closer look at how it all fits together.
And that's the bezel done for now
Now whilst the outer bezel is a good fit, I think it would be better to have a more robust idea to lock it in place,
so in the next video, I'll make some bezel screws that should do the job.
Thanks for watching, I'll see you later.
And If you've just found your way into this clockmaking series,
here's 2 more videos from earlier in the build, that you might want to check out.
There's a number of toolmaking project videos that you might enjoy too;
have a look under the "shop made tools" playlist on the main page.
And finally, I'd like to say a special thank you to all of the generous people who are
showing their support for the Clickspring channel via Patreon.
Every dollar makes a difference, and helps me to produce more and better videos.
Thanks again for watching, I'll catch you on the next video.