The Creation of a Turret Clock

Woohoo!!

  So, today I spent working on the key and the lock.  This was by far the most complicated thing that I have had to do to date.  It requires a high level of precision, work on very small items, lotsa filing, etc...  And the good news is that I was able to do exactly what I wanted to do.

  My first goal was to get the ward plate on the slide.  The ward plate is actually part of what "locks".  A spring pushes up against the ward plate to keep the slide from moving.  I was able to get that done.  My next goal was to punch two holes.  These two holes(which are very small) are in the slide and the key passes thru these holes to push the spring above the ward plate.  This unlocks the lock.  I was able to get this done.  Next major goal was to cut the key to preliminary size.  The key must lock into the slide(using a small hole) and the rotate with two small pins going into the small holes mentioned above.  This sounds simple but it involves a lot of filing.  The goal is a very snug fit.  If you make the holes too big then the lock is easy to pick.  This part was the most time intensive work today.  The pictures below show the key in the slide.

  This picture shows the key in the slide.  In the sequence of unlocking, this would be the key just being pushed into the lock.

This picture is of the key rotated and the pins going into the holes.



The final picture is the backside of the slide (in reality, this is the top of the slide).  The pins are pushing up.  The goal is that they must be at least as high as the ward plate.  The ward plate is the small piece of metal riveted on the slide.



I really did a lot today.  I am very happy with the results.  The last difficult thing that I need to do is to incorporate the 3 cross shaped wards into the lock.  The will be riveted to the slide.  This will block the key from working.  In order for the key to work, I will have to put 3 cross shaped holes in the key.  This prevents someone elses key being able to open your lock.  Exactly the same concept of different keys today.

  If things go well, I hope to have the chest done by the end of February.  It would be sooner but I have to travel several times for work over the next few weeks.