The escapement was fully hardened, and now it’s all polished up.
While most of this piece of steel was polished for aesthetic purposes, there are four surfaces that needed to be an absolutely perfect, mirror-finish - the surfaces that interact with the escape wheel.
That piece of steel rocks back and forth with the swing of the pendulum, interrupting the spin of the escape wheel. When it does, the surfaces that stop the escape wheel slide across the tip of each tooth. In order to slide friction-free, those surfaces needed to be polished to a mirror-finish.
In addition to the finish, the geometry needs to be perfect, so rather than attacking it with buffing wheels, I methodically polished it in steps. First with small precision polishing stones, and then soft wood sticks and very fine-grit diamond paste.
I’ve already checked the wheel & escapement on a test plate. Everything seems to be working as it should.
On to the next thing!
Steel Hardening
Fun with salt lava!
I can’t think of a better way to hang out in the Michigan cold than next to a 1500° vat of molten salt.
Yesterday I fired up the salt-bath kiln to harden some of the steel parts for the new clocks. This kiln does a really good job of evenly heating up delicate parts. With a torch I always had a tough time heating it up to the right glow without melting off the delicate thin areas. Also, since the parts are immersed, there’s no carbon buildup or scaling. A little soap & water and the salt and oil comes right off.
Next steps:
For the torsion springs it’s off to a second type of kiln to spring-temper them.
For the escapement pallets it’s time to start polishing. Like….lots and lots of polishing. Maybe forever.
The Great Wheel
Timelapse showing the 160 tooth “great wheel” being cut. This gear is used for the power/weight assembly, and is the biggest one in the gear-train.
More ratchet cutting
This morning I cut a 40 tooth ratchet wheel for the power/winding assembly of the new mechanical. This will be stacked on the same arbor as the 80 tooth one I cut yesterday. This one ratchets the weight (power source) back to the top, and the other one retains a loaded spring in order to keep power to the clock train when the clock is being wound. It’ll make more sense once I have all the parts finished, and I can show how they all work together.
More soon!
Timelapse - Ratchet Cutting
I have more quartz clocks to make, but I wanted to take a week or two to make some progress on the mechanical clocks I’ve started. This is the ratchet for the barrel assembly (the stack of parts that powers the clock).
New Clock!
The new quartz clock is finished.
This one is a throwback to a clock I made waaay back in 2009, which was simply titled “Quartz 9”. A lot of people liked that one (it was even used for a few tattoos) so I decided to revisit the design.
This one got a pretty big response, even before I finished it. It looks like my time with it will be limited to just a few days, because this clock has already been spoken for.
So…what’s next?
I have a few irons in the fire right now, and I’m not sure which project I’ll tackle next. There are two mechanical pieces that I’ve started, so maybe I’ll take a week or two to make some progress on one of those.
Finishing touches
Funny thing…I actually already finished this clock, but when I hung it on the wall I decided it needed a little more contrast between the hands and the face. I darkened the metal part of the hands, re-cut the paper part, and used a touch of white oil paint on it this time. That way there’s contrast between the paper blades of the hands and the face, as well as contrast between the two parts of the hands. Hopefully it pops better, and I’ll have some finished photos for you soon.
I have to wait for the oil paint to dry before I adhere it to the metal, otherwise I’d already be finished.
More soon!
Almost there
Almost there! The body of the clock is finished. Only a few things are left - I have to make the hands, modify the quartz motor to accommodate the hands, and add the paper.
This is a small quartz clock, measuring just 16” from top to bottom. Even so, the invested hours are significant. There was a time when I could make quartz clocks much quicker, but as my metal-carving skills improved, so did the detail, and thus the time required. Sometimes I wish I could make them quicker again…like not add the detail, but I can’t seem to help myself.
Time to make some hands!
Grinding away
With a Foredom rotary grinder in hand, I’m slowly carving away at the new quartz clock. It’s starting to take shape now.
Drill tap thread
After drilling and tapping the necessary parts, and making the screws and spacers, the new quartz is assembled. The next step will be sculpting everything with the Foredom.
New quartz clock in the works
My last quartz clock was on the larger side, and was horizontal, so I decided to switch it up and make a smaller vertical piece next. Here are the drawings, along with a short time-lapse video showing one of the parts being cut out with a jewelers saw.
More soon!
New Horizon
I’ve just finished a quartz piece titled “New Horizon.” It has a horizontal design and features hand-painted old-english-style lettering around the dial. Some very tiny brushes, a magnifying visor and a lot of patience were required to paint the lettering on this one.
It’s worth noting that the paper I used is particularly challenging to paint on. It’s a type of rice paper called kitkata, and it’s made for printmaking, not painting. It has a soft, almost fuzzy surface texture, which makes it difficult to brush a nice crisp line. However, that quality is also why I love it. The soft surface looks beautiful, and I like the contrasts against the hard metal. It also takes the weathering process well. To get that aged look, I drench the face of the clock in water and rough it up with a hard bristled toothbrush. Most paper would disintegrate, but the longer fibers of kitikata just stretch and fray, giving me the control to make the weathered edge look the way I want.
I’m very happy with this piece. The overall design is one of my favorites to date, and I’m especially happy with the way the dial turned out.
This clock measures 36” wide. The body is hand-carved brass, and the dial is acrylic and oil on kitkata rice paper.
“New Horizon” is available for $7,200. If you’re interested, contact me. This is currently the only quartz clock I have for sale.
Two more on the way
New clock parts! Some people get excited for Christmas presents - I get excited for this. I’ve just returned from my water-jet vendor with pieces for two more clocks. Everything looks perfect, and I’m now looking forward to assembling and sculpting some new work.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I now have three projects in the works: A very elaborate moon phase clock, a horizontal time-only mechanical clock, and a horizontal quartz clock.
While I could work simultaneously on all three, the weight of my hours will first go toward the quartz piece. Then I’ll tackle the horizontal mechanical one, followed by the more involved task of completing the moon-clock.
What’s nice about having other projects in the works is if progress stops because I need to wait for a tool, or supplies, I have other clocks I can work on while I wait. It’s a good way to stay productive. The only challenge is staying organized, and keeping really good notes so I can pick up where I left off.
All cut out!
After a lot of planning, figuring out gear placement, and CAD drawing, I now have all the parts cut out for “Synodic 17” (working title). One note - I was still on the fence about which design I wanted to use for the small spire over the middle dial. I figured out a pretty simple solution to make both so that I could swap them out and compare. Sometimes it’s difficult to visualize things with a drawing, so hopefully the choice will become clear once they’re fully sculpted.
I also have the gears for the moon-phase cut, and most of the going train (the main set of gears for the time).
The fabrication starts to get fun at this point. I still have some gears to cut, but the part where I get to start assembling it is in the near future.
The Moon Train
All the gears & pinions for the new moon-train are cut. This particular gear train is a first for me. My previous moon-phase gear-trains were more traditional, but I wanted to come up with something more accurate.
While this meant cutting more gears, with some really weird tooth-counts, it’s still just a straight forward gear-train. So I figure why the hell not. Doing an extra week or so of work so that I can highlight the completely unnecessary accuracy of the moon-phase dial seems like a worthwhile endeavor to me ;)
Now it’s time to make test-plates and bridges to see if everything works. If the math is correct, and I can find a way to make these gears neatly fit behind within the spacial parameters, I'll be a very happy clockmaker next week.
More soon!
Starting a new one!
This is the first gear for my next clock!
For this piece I’m going to venture into some new territory (what’s new?). This clock will have a moon-phase dial. While the inclusion of a moon-dial is nothing new for me, the way I’m doing it is. Firstly, it will share the same axis as the main dial, which poses some mechanical challenges. Secondly, I’m using a new gear-train. Some weird tooth-counts were needed, and it requires more gears than the usual moon-train, but it will result in a synodic cycle every 29.53058798148120 days. This number is extremely close to the actual average cycle.
Because of the new moon mechanism, I’m going to do some testing before I finalize the design for this clock.
Side note - These teeth are a lot smaller than my usual gears. In order to fit them behind the main dial, I had to shrink them down a little.
Many more posts to come. Enjoy the ride with me!
Perpetual No.1 has sold
“Perpetual No.1” Has sold. Soon it will take a cross-country road trip to it’s new home in Seattle.
This piece is arguably the most important clock I’ve made to date. It was the first time I attempted a perpetual calendar mechanism, which in horology is referred to as a “grand complication.” Upon its completion in 2019, it received a lot of attention and directly led to the biggest commissions of my career.
“Perpetual No.1” has been ticking on my walls for five years now. While I wasn’t opposed to the idea of selling it, I was never a priority either. This is a very personal piece to me, and I liked the idea of keeping it. I still stare at it sometimes when I’m drinking my morning coffee. And at midnight, when I hear it click and whirr into action to switch the date, it still makes me smile.
But in the interest in moving forward as an artist, I decided it was time to let this one go.
On another note, I’ve been away from social media and clockmaking for a couple months. I’ve been at this awhile, and in 20 years I haven’t really taken my foot off the gas. I needed to step back and get some perspective. I did a little work outside - House painting, landscaping…the type of thing that’s great physical exercise and lets you think. The hope was to mentally disengage from my creative endeavors, evaluate the course I’ve been on, and decide what path I want to take next. And I did…sort of. These types of things are always more complicated than I’d like.
For now I’m going to get back to basics, and make some smaller mechanical pieces. I have a few designs lined up, and I’m ready to get to work.
More soon!
New Quartz Clock
I’ve just finished the latest quartz piece. This one is a vertical piece with number panels in the spirit of “Perpetual No.1”. Soon I’ll be packing this one up and sending it to it’s new home in Spain.
Enjoy!
Assembled
After a lot of drilling, tapping, and screw-threading, the new quartz is assembled. Now it’s on to the grinding and sculpting. More soon!
Progress on latest piece
Progress update on the newest quartz piece.
For this one I decided to go a little old school with the fabrication, and cut the pieces out by hand with a jewelers saw. Usually I use CAD with a water jet cutter, but the size of this piece made it reasonable to saw it out myself. The end result is the same, and while the cutting itself takes a bit more time, I save time by not having to re-draw it in CAD, and trips back and forth to the vendor. It’s also a good way to use up some of the irregular-shaped pieces of scrap brass plate that I’ve accumulated.
Right now I’m tapping holes and threading screws so that I can assemble everything. Then it’s on to the carving (fun) part.
More soon!
