Back Up Next                         Going train,  March 2008

Below is the main frame pillar upon which the remontoire cocks are mounted and in turn the remontoire itself. See the taper pin system used to ease the repeated assembly, reassembly procedures. The design of the Wagner swinging frame remontoire is a bit difficult to deal with in this manner, see original design conception from January.

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Beginning of fabrication and assembly of remontoire. The third photo gives one an idea of the scale of the remontoire.

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For the first time the assembly is mounted between plates as it will be in final form. We will be using plastic for the temporary plates in the same thickness of of 1/2 inch as will be the metal. This has many advantages. One is that plastic is easy to machine, is cheap and light. Two, we can split the plastic plates into modules to accommodate each train as fabricated. But the greatest advantage is that we can clearly examine what we are doing. It also lends itself superbly to photography. I can't stress the importance of this last fact. The clock is being built overseas, my only way to see what is going on is from photos and videos. If we had chosen to start with the metal plates everything would have been buried between two massive metal walls. Manipulation and repeated reassembly procedures would have been burdensome and dangerous as each uncut plate weighs over 100 LB or 45 KG. It was tempting to consider making the clock plates out of glass to really show off the wheel works. There were many problems with this not the least that it would cease to be a clock in the traditional sense but more of a mechanism. The weight and torque forces brought to bear on this clock that will weigh nearly 800 LB, 360 KG are too great. Also the glass would inevitably become dusty and dirty on its inside faces. Once the works are installed there is no way the glass could be kept clean on these surfaces and would soon become an unsightly distraction. We will endeavor to make the brass filigree frame as thin as practicable. This plate and spacer design was later changed to a modular pillar design in March 2009; allowing for easier fabrication and later servicing.

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These photos show the initial remontoire four-armed star cam. These will mediate the frequency of the recoil. I had objection to the thin gauge of the material and it will be thickened by one third. The main cocks are yet to be shaped. All of screws will later be blued to an electric blue.

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This video was made April 7 so technically belongs in next month's section, but it shows the movement pretty much to date

                                          

                                                                Loop:

                                                                                                Astro_03-08_vid.mpg

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