Today, I was able to finish forming the bottom cross bar. I also punched the holes in the bottom part of the frame to allow the cross bar to be placed. Once I complete the cross bar, it was time to seal the frame up. To do this, the end of long bars in the frame are heated then peened to form a head. This is the same as hammering over a rivet to have it grip. This picture shows the frame in the fire to heat up a corner to close it up.
Notice the at the top of the photo, the corners furthest from the camera have already been peened over while the closer ones are still untouched. Also notice that the part of the frame closest to the camera is held to together by twisted rope.
This picture shows all but two corners peened over. Unfortunately, I was getting tired and my blows were getting sloppy so I decided to stop rather than mess up the frame. This is what the frame looks like at the moment.
So what's left for the frame? I just need to peen over two more corners. After that, its cleanup time. I will wire brush the entire frame. I will do this using a angle grinder with a wire wheel. This is one of the few times I let myself use power tools. Since I have to use mild steel instead of wrought iron, I have to worry a lot more about rusting. I will clean the frame up then heat parts of the frame and treat it with beeswax to finish it. Oh, by the way, the frame is almost perfectly square. There is only one spot that it is out by the smallest amount. It won't cause me a problem which is good because I can't figure out an easy way to fix it.
Maybe this weekend I can start making gears...
4 comments:
Amazing. It's starting to look like the clock now.
:) Thanks... Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm making much progress but recently I've been steadily picking away at it.
Thanks again for posting the photos. Will be using the wooden model as your gear patterns?
No. I will use them for some general guidance. However, when I made the wooden clocks I only had my personal notes to make those reproductions. I hate to admit it but at the time, I knew nothing about taking the right kind of notes or photos. The gear ratios I pretty much came up with as an educated guess and doing some of the math. Since the time of my last wooden clock, I have received a large packet of information from the British Museum. In addition, I now have contacts at various museums in England as well as several people living in the country who are sending me information. In short, I now have the exact measurements of one particular clock that I am using as my guideline. Its the same clock that I use as my icon. Just as an FYI, the metal clock is about 30% smaller than the wooden one.
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