G'day Chris here, and welcome back to Clickspring.
In this video I make a start on the pendulum assembly
by making the regulator and the suspension post.
The suspension mechanism for the pendulum is an interesting bit of low tech,
given that its based around a fine cord of silk.
Its a simple and elegant idea.
The silk thread catches a hook on the end of the pendulum,
and then threads up through the suspension post to the Regulator above.
The regulator shaft can be rotated to wind up the thread,
which adjust the effective length of the pendulum,
and a set screw locks it in place.
There's some depthing and layout work required to locate the rods in the rear plate,
some more custom screws to be made,
as well as a perfect opportunity to introduce some rope knurling to the clock construction.
So let's get started.
Wildings construction plans specify brass rod for both the regulator and the suspension post,
but I've chosen to make them from drill rod instead.
I think the contrasting materials will look excellent together,
and given that its quite a tough steel,
it should have a greater ability to resist marking and wear than the brass.
The regulator shaft needs a small indentation
to accommodate the set screw that holds it firm, so I formed that feature first.
And with that complete, I formed a dome shape on the other end with a graver.
Next up is the suspension post which needs a short thread formed on one end
to screw into the rear frame,
and the same sort of domed shape as the regulator on the other end.
Now both of these parts need cross holes drilled for the silk thread,
but the orientation of the holes for the suspension post
must be vertical for it to look correct.
I can't know that position until its inserted into the frame,
so next I need to mark out and then drill the mounting holes.
The hole positions are located relative to the pallet arbor pivot hole,
so I'm using the depthing tool to lay out that first position on the centerline of the frames.
So that's the pallet arbor position marked out,
and although I'm not installing the pallet arbor in this video,
I do need to accurately transfer this location to the back frame,
so that I can use it to as a reference point to mark out the holes that I do need.
So I have both plates mounted on the mill,
and I'm drilling all of the way through the front frame,
but taking care to just spot the surface of the rear frame.
By doing this, I've made a small mark that I can use for the rest of the layout.
In a future video I'll open up a hole adjacent to this position,
to accept an eccentric bushing for the pallet arbor.
With the positions marked out,
the lower hole can be drilled and tapped for the suspension post,
and the upper hole drilled and reamed to accept the regulator.
The upper surface of the suspension post can now be identified,
and the cross holes formed.
A quick deburr of the holes,
and I can leave these parts as they are for the moment,
while I move on to the regulator thumbwheel.
Now in a previous video,
I made a set of rope knurls and a bump knurling tool holder,
and this is one of the parts I had in mind when I made them.
A rope knurl is an excellent way to embellish an otherwise simple part,
and very easily give it a bit of extra character and class.
With the knurl in place, I drilled and reamed the center hole,
and then formed the rest of the profile by hand using a graver.
A light polish brings up the surface finish, and the thumbwheel is ready to be parted off.
Now I need to clean up that parted off surface,
so I'm using a scrap of drill rod as a stub arbor,
and fixing the part in place with a spot of super glue.
With that surface cleaned up, the glue can now be soaked off with acetone,
releasing the thumbwheel, and then it can be permanently bonded
to the regulator post with some Loctite 603.
And at this point I decided that a small brass collar
would be a useful feature to add to the regulator,
to set the depth when its inserted directly,
rather than relying on the set screw to pull it in.
So I turned that up next,
making sure that the profile of the collar would be a close match
with the contours of the adjacent washer when its installed.
Again a great excuse for some more hand turning.
A light sand and polish brought up the surface finish,
and then as for the thumbwheel,
the part was reversed and mounted on a stub arbor, to clean up the parted face.
OK, so that's the suspension hardware complete,
now I need to form the hole for the set screw that will hold the regulator in position.
To form this hole, the rear frame needs to be securely held at full length to the spindle.
And you can see that its right at the limit of what I can reasonably accommodate
on my small mill. If the frame was any taller,
I'd probably have to come up with an alternative way of doing this on the lathe.
I've got the work strapped down to a vertical slide,
and I've run a section of steel along the upper length of the frame,
to give it some extra rigidity particularly at the top where I'm going to be making this hole.
I'm using a piece of brass rod stock to help locate the axis of the hole,
and I'm leaving that in place while I drill too,
as a bit of extra protection against the drill grabbing as it breaks through into the opening.
That hole was then tapped, and the extension marked out
so that it could be reduced to its final dimension.
And I've been keeping the matching extension on the front plate,
on the off chance that it might be useful for holding the plates.
But I don't think I'll be needing it from here on, so that can come off completely.
Both surfaces were brought to the line with the belt sander,
and then given a quick finish with abrasive paper.
Now for the fasteners.
The set screw is a straight forward cheesehead screw
with the typical features you've seen for the rest of the clock fasteners.
But the rear pillar screw is the only fastener in the entire build with a countersink head.
This is to give more clearance for the suspension thread
to wind onto the regulator post, close to the clock frame.
Once the features for the screws were formed, they were hardened,
tempered and polished, and then heat blued on a bed of brass chips.
And that completes all of the components for the pendulum suspension,
so lets put them in place and see how they all fit together.
In the next video I'll complete the pendulum assembly,
by making the hook, rod and bob.
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'd 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.
Like for example this useful little hand vise.
Find out more by visiting patreon.com/clickspring
And finally, you might also like to consider purchasing a Clickspring supporter pack.
It includes a T-Shirt, Cap, keyring and a bunch of other cool stuff.
There's a bit more information about this,
as well as plenty of project plans available at clickspringprojects.com
Thanks again for watching, I'll catch you on the next video.