Regulator

This clock is my attempt at a regulator, but has a number of features that I always wanted to include in a clock, and they seem to have come together in this one. Time will tell if it can maintain an accurate rate.

The grasshopper escapement is in homage to John Harrison.

The planetary  winding and maintaining system was inspired by an astronomical clock constructed by Jens Olsen in the mid 1900's

The daisy wheel motion work was invented by Aaron Dodd Crane an American clockmaker in the mid 1800's.

The wooden chain winding gear is just because I fancied it and is of my own design.

The clock is housed in a glazed wooden cabinet and has a total height of 1400mm.

A view of the top half of the clock. The interesting shape of the dial is to accommodate the winding mechanism. The two pulleys at the top of the clock are to carry the power cord form right to left so that the maximum cable run is available and the weight can descend through a hole in the seat board.

A closer view of the grasshopper. Note the design of the centre of the escape wheel which gives a sprung friction fit onto the shaft. The 20p coin is just right as a balance weight for the grasshopper mechanism.

The winding barrel and main wheel with the planetary  maintaining power. This was modelled after a design by Jens Olsen for his astronomical clock which is displayed in Copenhagen.

The main barrel in situ, connected to the winding pulley.

The winding mechanism is an electric motor located under the seat board which in turn drives a pulley and chain system. The chain is entirely made of laser cut plywood and has only 3 parts, two being identical. The parts clip together rather like Lego and no adhesive is required.
Rewind is triggered by the descending weight tripping a microswitch and a timing unit located on the floor of the case runs the motor for a fixed time. 10 seconds gives a run time of 4 hours.

The three components that make up one link of the wooden chain. these are repeated and repeated and repea......

The daisy wheel motion work which reduces the one revolution per hour of the minute hand by a factor of 12 to drive the hour hand. Typically this would take four wheels to achieve in a normal clock. Surprisingly the 'daisy' has eleven 'petals' yet achieves a 12:1 reduction ratio.
For no good reason  the daisy wheel motion work has been replaced with the more traditional 4 gear system.

 

There is a passing strike implemented with a £1 coin striker and an empty spring barrel from a mantel clock as the bell.

The carbon fibre pendulum rod has a vane attached to the end and when swinging passes through the jaws of a photo interrupter to calculate the period of the pendulum. This of course is only temporary analysis equipment. Some results will be added later.
The circular item to the left is the microswitch unit which is triggered by the descending weight which can just be seen at the top of the picture.
The weight is 800 gm of brass hex (yet to be polished) and is strung as a double pulley system to decrease its descent rate and thus the going train only 'sees'  400 gm.