Afternoon-
I am fairly stumped....I have rebuilt and (I thought) verified everything in my 10 day easy build a couple times, but I can't seem to figure out this issue. All assembled, the pendulum will run for hours and all the gears turn except the ones that actually tell the time. From what I can tell Gear 4b, 5, and 6 do not move. I can't tell where the energy seems to be disappearing. I am currently printing the updated gears 3 and 4 to install, so I'll have the clock back apart in a bit, any quick thoughts on what I might be a culprit that keeps my clock from telling the time?
Thanks
Hi Ben,
There are two gear trains in the clock. The first train runs from the weight shell to the escapement. The second train branches off the minute hand gear to turn the hands.
The good news is that you have the most challenging gear train working to keep the pendulum swinging. The problem must lie in the second gear train. This gear train is loosely coupled to gear 4 through the friction clutch. There is a 12:1 divide ratio to run the hour hand.
The friction clutch is what allows you to change the time while the clock is running. Gear 4b is held tight to the minute hand arbor. The spring pushes gear 4 against the back collar (I forget what it is called). This lets the minute hand arbor rotate when gear 4 rotates, but a small amount of pressure on the hands allows the clutch to slip when needed.
There is either not enough pressure in the friction clutch or too much friction in the hour hand gears. The first things to check are that the spring pushes gear 4 against the back collar. Then look for binding elsewhere, specifically where the hour hand passes through the front dial. This is a printed shaft passing through a large hole. You may need to enlarge the hole slightly so the hour hand gear spins easily.
Steve