We finished the moon clock build, but haven’t been able to get it up and running. We’ve gone through the troubleshooting steps but have yet to resolve the problem.
Pendulum test runs for 15+ minutes. We think the issue is in the Gear 8 Winding Drum or Gear 7 Ratchet. We can turn gear 7 manually and have it engage all other gears, however, regardless how much weight we put on Gear 8 it will not rotate. Gear 8 will easily wind counterclockwise, but even using lots of manual force it rarely or barely engages in the direction it's supposed to go. There is end shake, possibly too much end shake, I don’t know?
We cleaned the bearings and they ran smoothly before inserting. We’ve lubricated the gear teeth. We know gear 8 isn’t supposed to run quickly, but this feels like there is too much resistance, but we’re unclear why. We are just at a loss of what the issue could be. We’ll include a video and hopefully you can point us in the right direction. The video doesn't have the weight shell attached because it is only (kind of) working when we manually turn, but with a weight shell attached there is still zero movement. We are new to this, so it's hopefully just something we haven't thought of, but for now we are stumped.
Thank you!
The video is very helpful. The entire gear train normally rotates with around 6-8 lbs on the weight shell, which is only 3-4 lbs on each end of the string. The pulley has a small diameter and you are pulling at the larger diameter teeth. It should take significantly less than 1 lb of force on the teeth to get the escapement to rotate. Parts appear to be flexing in the video, so it is likely that you are applying more than 1 lb of force.
My guess is that there is extra friction in the gears near the escapement. Torque reduces and speeds increase closer to the escapement. Friction near the escapement becomes exponentially worse than friction near the weight shell. The escapement is barely moving around 15 seconds in the video where it looks like force is being applied to gear 8.
You could try debugging the gear train without the pallet. Hang a 4 lb weight directly on the string. The gears should start spinning quickly. If you stop the escapement, it should start spinning quickly. Also, go through the friction related debug steps. Test that all gears spin easily on the arbors. Check all gears for end shake. The gear 4 stack in the center of the clock is a common area for a lack of end shake.
The good news is that your clock is incredibly close to being fully functional. Once you find the friction source, it should start working great. I like the reverse colors on the globe.