Debugging my lantern pinion

[jwmelvin]

Improvement is often all we can ask for. Making click parts seems challenging because of their small size. As you’re finding out, small things are challenging, or at least that’s been my experience. Nice work though and thanks for sharing your progress.

 

[dewbane]

Improvement is often all we can ask for. Making click parts seems challenging because of their small size. As you’re finding out, small things are challenging, or at least that’s been my experience. Nice work though and thanks for sharing your progress.

It really gives me the utmost respect for watchmakers. That's a whole new league of working at a small scale, with dedicated little specialty collets, and specialty equipment. I can barely make these clock parts with the equipment I have, but if I can make these smallest, most intricate parts, I should be able to build the whole thing in time. The other parts are much bigger, and I already had some successes cutting gears.

I scored a good deal on a Blake co-ax indicator, and while I wait for that to change my life (hopefully), I'm going to change over to making some fixtures and wheel blanks and such, to round out my stay-cation.

Also: It bears special mention that I finally invested in an opti-visor. That is a real game changer. I never would have even seen the error with the lower shroud without that thing.

 

[Just for fun]

Glad you're making progress, the photo of the part on the quarter really puts into perspective of just how small it is. Not much room for error!

 

[dewbane]

Glad you're making progress, the photo of the part on the quarter really puts into perspective of just how small it is. Not much room for error!

After I slept on it and eyeballed the thing again this morning, I decided to put that one in the finished parts pile after all. I didn't drill the lower holes deep enough to hide the cut ends of the music wire, but they are in there. It was hard steel, and I basically nailed it into the brass. Nobody is going to see those little shadows of cut ends that I didn't notice myself without magnification. When it spins under power, it's going to be turning very, very slowly anyway. The angles will be a little off in a way that will probably wear parts of the clock out prematurely, but I'm 50 years old. How long do I need this thing to run to be satisfied? My overall plan is to build a simpler clock first before graduating to the John Wilding skeleton anyway. I want to build mine to plan, including the bell on top, but I feel that is too advanced for a first clock.

I already rescued this part from the jaws of defeat once, and I'm going to gamble on being able to work through any problems its minor defects might cause. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. It's the Little Lantern Pinion that Could

 

[gerritv]

Back to an old topic in this thread, making your own pivot drills. I just found an excellent descriptive video on making the drills. These are more forgiving than carbide.