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.
Beginning of fabrication and assembly of remontoire. The third photo gives
one an idea of the scale of the remontoire.
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.
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.
This video was made April 7 so technically belongs in next month's
section, but it shows the movement pretty much to date