A good set of books...

  I just purchased a batch of books from the York Archaeological Trust.  I haven't had time to go through all the books yet but one of them was well worth the cost.  The book "Anglo-Scandinavian Ironwork from Coppergate" is definitely a book worth owning for anyone interested in Medieval blacksmithing.  They have quite a few tools documented.

  One batch of tools is identified as punches.  The punches (they are a very basic design) look like something that could have come from my own toolbox.  There are even some that look like the punches were distorted during use.  As a punch is used, it gets hot, hammered against the anvil and it either mushrooms or bends.  A few of the punches in the collection appear to have done just that.  So a medieval smith, like me, was constantly having to retouch and reshape his punches.

  A bonus from this book that I was not expecting was a section on locks including one that closely resembles the Mastermyr lock I reproduced a few years back.  I think I may have to try some of the locks sometime in the future.

  Also in the book was too micro fiche.  I was not expecting that.  They contain additional information including metallurgical information.  I will have to see if the local libraries have a fiche reader so I can see what's on them.  I would like to get a better idea of common levels of carbon content on the tools.

Good day

  Started the day with doing more work on the remake of the crown wheel hub.  Basically this just involved straightening the metal out a bit more, balancing the center, etc...  After that, I punched the hole for the arbor.  If you look carefully on the anvil, you might see a white line.  This was used to ensure the spokes were square.





  It is not important that the arms are of different lengths as they will be trimmed later on.

After looking at the state of things, I decided that it was necessary to add a washer between the crown wheel and the smaller gear that contacts the main wheel.  If I didn't do this, I would have no end of problems down the road as the crown wheel and main wheel would contact and possible stop the clock.  If I recall on the original there was a similar washer.

Unfortunately there was not enough room on the arbor for the washer.  So I had to lengthen the portion of the arbor that holds the crown wheel.  These pictures are before and after.  Notice on the left that there is an additional 1/2" of the square portion of the arbor.







You may also notice that reworking the arbor meant that it grew an extra 1/4" to 1/2" on the right side.  That will be corrected on another day.

Then it was time to make the washer.  This was simply a matter of punching an arbor hole in a piece of metal then making it round.  This picture shows trimming the corners to round it up a bit.  After that, I did a bit of grinding and filing to round it up more.



After finishing the washer, I needed to punch a slot in the arbor for the crown wheel.  This allows to insert a pin for to hold everything on.  I forgot to take some pictures until I was almost done.  This slightly out of focus picture shows the pin going through the arbor.  To the right of pin there is the hub for the crown wheel, then the washer, then the smaller gear wheel (no teeth on it yet.)

Contacting me...

Over the past few weeks/months, I have noticed an increase in traffic on this site.  Because I know Xanga kind of locks things down as far as replying if you are not a member, I've decided to give out my email.  Just make sure that if you contact me, you put something in the subject that will let me know you are not spam.  A reference to the Xanga site or clocks will get my attention.

My email is (remove the spaces and do the appropriate replacements)    medieval smith at gmail dot com.  If you have any questions about anything I've done or you have suggestions, I do encourage you to contact me.

We've been here before...

Today I decided to start working on the replacement crown wheel.  I started the work on the new hub.  This is something I've documented here before.  Essentially a straight piece of metal is split on both ends and opened into an "X" shape.  Here are some pictures that were taken during the making of the new part.

The work on the hub is not complete.  The arms need to be evened out and the center hole punched.  My arm was getting tired (I haven't been doing enough smithing recently) and the afternoon rain showers were threatening.

Finally, I could not help but take a photo of all the parts on the clock.  It is important to remember that most of the moving parts in this photo will be remade.  But they do give me a good idea of where I've made mistakes and how to correct for them.  If you look carefully, you can see how the main wheel will contact with the smaller gear that I started earlier this week.

Things got moving again.

  Today I did take off of work so that I could get something done on the clock.  The day started with some basic tool maintenance such as cleaning, sharpening and reshaping.  Then I turned my attention to the crown wheel.  After looking at things I decided that the best thing to work on was the small gear that is on the same arbor as the Crown Wheel.  This gear contacts the main drive gear.  The reason I decided that I should work on this piece is that the width of this gear directly impacts the placement of the crown wheel.

  I needed this gear to be a little thicker, around 3/4" thick.  Unfortunately I did have the right sized stock for it.  So I started by folding a piece of stock to the correct thickness and welding this together.



  After that, a hole was punched, drifted a little larger round and then drifted square to match the arbor.

 



  Next, I marked a rough circle to cut away some of the waste.



This shows the piece close to a circle shape.  The tool to the right is a hold down tool that held the piece stable while I was cutting it. 




  Finally the piece on the arbor to show its placement.  I used the old crown wheel to show how they relate.




  I will hold off shaping too much of the small gear.  Since it directly relies on the size of the drive gear I will not make it into a circle or cut the gears until the main wheel is done.  It doesn't make sense to put a lot of work into something that may need to change anyways.

  I did some test filing and there was no evidence of the welding.  If the welding had been done improperly, there would have been a seam line that could have potentially failed.

  I would have gotten more done but a typical Florida summer storm came along in the afternoon and cut the day short.  It felt really good to work on the clock again.

 

Workday tomorrow

Well, with work slowing down I have gotten anxious to get back to the clock.  So I am taking the day off tomorrow and going to try to get a full day of blacksmithing in.  My goal is start and maybe getting mostly done a new crown wheel.

Some more thoughts on the Crown Wheel

This evening I was going over some photos a friend had taken of the Salisbury Cathedral Clock  for me about a year ago.  In looking at the photos, there was a technique used for attaching the outer ring of the Crown Wheel to the spokes.  I think I may adopt this techinque because it makes a lot of sense and is a lot easier.  Essentially, on the back side of the Crown Wheel, four squares are cut out and then the spokes and hub are just dropped in from the back.  Then, the spokes are riveted over.  These two pictures show this.  Click on them to see a larger view.

This makes a lot more sense then what I was trying to do.  I wish some better pictures of the specific clock that I am modeling.  The only photographs I have are photo copies of a BW photo.

There is one minor problem with using this Crown Wheel as a source.  The original clock's Crown Wheel is lost to history and this one is actually a reproduction.  However, it makes sense and I am going to go this route.

 

5 years ago...

  I just happened to notice today that I have now been using this site for 5 years (joined September 14, 2003 and first post on October 31st, 2003).  And what that means is that I've been working on this project off and on over the past 5 years.  I've gone through periods of a lot of progress and learning and I've also gone through periods of inactivity that can last close to 4 or 5 months.  It has been a very challenging, frustrating but yet rewarding project.  Having said that, I really hope it doesn't take another 5 years.

Finally

Well work has finally slowed down that I can start looking at putting some serious work in on the clock.  Also it is starting to be blacksmithing season.  During the months of May-September, things get very uncomfortable in Florida.  Between daily rain storms and 90+ temperatures, it is a steam bath.  Well things are starting to cool off.

I was going to do some work today but I noticed that my tools needed some attention.  Because of the demos I do on the road and my erratic work schedule, they needed some attention.  So I decided rather than jumping right back into it to take the time and do some basic maintenance and repair.

The bad:
  About 1/3 of my files were exposed to too much moisture at some point.  They will be recycled into some other project, perhaps knives or fire starters.

  The tool boxes I made about 2 years ago for demos just are not cutting it.  I made them quickly (3 of them in 2 hours) and because of a simple mistake, they always left the tools slight exposed to the elements.  Also, they are not specific to the tools they are carrying.  I hope to remake them to have boxes specific to the drifts, chisels, punches, hammers, files, tongs, etc...

  Several of the chisels, punches, etc... need some attention.  I may do some work on those yet this afternoon.

The good:
  I had a lot more punches, chisels and drifts then I thought and in a lot more variety.

  I was able to clean up a lot of my files and get them wrapped up in an oil cloth so that will hopefully stop any rusting.

  I put new handles on two of my hammers and have them soaking in a linseed oil bath.  I've talked to a few smiths online and they recommended soaking any hammers in linseed oil after putting a new hammer handle on them.  The linseed oil fills the voids, swells the wood (tight fit to the hammer head) and prevents them from drying out.  I have them in a mixture of 75% linseed and 25% mineral spirits.  The mineral spirits thins the linseed and helps it to penetrate the wood.

  I was able to clean up my work setup to make things quicker and nicer.  Hopefully during this week I will get some work in.

********

  Finally a note on the actual clock!!!  When I last left the clock, I had done a fair amount of work on the crown wheel.



  Although it may look okay, there are some balance, symmetry issues.  I think I will try to make this in a different way.

  In the first technique, I took a straight piece of metal and cut the teeth.  I then wrapped that into a circle.  Next, I made the spokes and hub to insert into the crown wheel.  This was very difficult to get inserted properly.  Part of the problem is that in the process the wheel got a little out of whack.  It is difficult to get it back into shape without damaging the teeth.

  I think this time I will start with just a straight piece of metal.  This will be wrapped around the spokes and hub then welded closed.  After that, I will true up the circle on the axle.  Once I have that trued up, i will then cut the teeth.  In other words, I going to get the circle true before I cut the teeth.  And that really makes sense now that I think about it.  Any gear on the clock needs to be a true circle prior to the gears getting cut.  It is only common sense but that is part of the learning process.

Some good forge time

  I spent a fair amount of time on the forge this weekend.  Nothing to do with the clock.  It was mostly work related to a primitive fire starting class I taught several times over the weekend.  Still, it felt good to get back to work and hopefully over the next few weeks I can get back into doing some more work.  At the very least, I expect over the next few months for work to really settle down.