Finally fired up the forge again.  I was not working on the clock, just trying to get back into the rhythm of working.  I hope to start working at least every few days with the temperatures dropping here in Florida.

Have not forgotten this...  :)  Spent some time in the past few weeks getting the garage in order and waiting for the Florida summer to cool a bit.  Much easier to do work in Florida once the temps get down into the 80s and hopefully a bit lower.  Looking forward to getting back to this.

Small steps...

So, let's get this rolling.  I want to get started and a little step will get it going.  The first bit of work will be redoing the corner posts.  Tomorrow I will appraise what metal stock I have.  I may have what I need but I'm not sure if its clean enough (not too badly pitted with rust).  I want to get started this weekend even if it is only a few hours of work.

During 1996 and 1997 I worked in London.  My office was in the heart of the city and I used that to my advantage.  Just a few blocks from the office was the British Museum.  I found myself often visiting the museum over lunch time.  As any who has visited the museum can tell you, it is massive with many areas to explore.  I was drawn time and time again to the section of the museum with clocks.  In particular, I found myself repeatedly visiting the same clock.

A video of the Cassiobury Park Clock:



At some point on one of these visits, I decided that I wanted to make that clock.  I was naive.  I thought it would be relatively easy to pick up the skills and thought at most it would be a 2 years project.  When I returned to the states, I had very little in the way of shop tools or experience.  I decided the best thing to do was to make a mock up of the clock in wood.  This was always intended as a working model to get me to the point of being able to make the clock using traditional techniques.  The photo below was my second version of the clock.

So starting in about 2002, I finally decided to try and make the clock for real.  I started getting everything around to make the clock the proper way.  I started to teach myself how to blacksmith.  In 2008, I had gotten to this point...




To be honest, I am rather proud of this.  Quite a bit of time and effort went into this.  Things were moving along great.  Then, the worst enemy of a project like this hit.  Its called "Real Life".  I started a new job which no longer allowed me to work from home which in turn cut into my blacksmith time.  One thing led to another and here I am 5 years later with no significant progress.

I won't spend time making excuses or whatever but I want to get back to this project.  I don't know if it will be this weekend or a few months from now but I don't think I will be happy in my later years if I have not finished this challenge.  So, here are a few of the things I am going to do to finish the project.

1. Start fresh.  I am going to start from the very beginning and rebuild the frame.  I am doing this for a few reasons.  The biggest reason is that honestly, I don't feel a connection with the work I've done over 5 years ago now.  I would prefer to give myself a fresh start.
   
   This also allows me to correct a few minor issues with the frame.  Nothing significant but I would like to do it over.
   
   Finally, I would like the new frame just to get my blacksmith skills back up to snuff.
2. Time Commitment.  I tried doing this before but I really didn't stick to it.  What I mean by this is committing to doing a certain amount of work each week regardless of how minor.  If I am not in the mood to work on the clock itself then I make tools that I will need for the project.
3. Patience.  This killed the project as much as getting the job.  When I finally got to the point of making gears, I started rushing which means I started making mistakes and spending massive amounts of time on parts that were throw away.

Anyway, its time to get back to this.  This Albatross has gotten a little too comfortable and I need to get it off by neck.

For archival purposes, my original effort was documented at bomlin.xanga.com

Shutting this down

It is at this point in the blog that i switched from using Xanga to using Blogger.  Any posts prior to this were from the original Xanga blog.  I've imported them here to have the record both for the reader and myself.

Need some more photos...

Here are some photos of the new way I am doing the Crown Wheel.  Unfortunately, I stopped taking photos later in the process.  When I get back to the forge, I will update with more photos.

Starting with a straight piece of metal, I mark where the spokes will connect to the Crown Wheel.

 

I then punched rectangular holes.

 

I make a quick hacksaw cut through the top.  It is intentionally slanted.  This is to make it easier to fold them back over and have them contact each other.

 

The two top pieces folded open.  This is what I am doing new.  This lets the hub and spokes to just be dropped into the Crown wheel.

 

Finally, this picture shows the wheel being bent into shape using a circle on the layout table as a guide.  Also notice that it has the spokes drawn so I can be sure its lining up.

 

I actually did get to the point where the Crown Wheel is fully formed.  The hub and spoke drop into it nicely.  In fact, the only problem is that I made the openings a little too big.  I think I am going to go ahead and connect the two to make sure the process works, then I will try making it again.  The good news is that I am getting very quick with it and the new job is settling down so I should have more time.

No pictures yet but did get some more work done.

  Due to starting the new job, didn't have as much time this weekend as I would have liked.  However, I did still manage to get some forge work in.  I decided to spend the day trying out some techniques for making a new Crown Wheel.  Basically, it is how I connect up the hub to the outer ring of the Crown Wheel.  I tried a few variations but finally found one that produces good results, is relatively easy and it appears it is a viable way that it may have been done on the original.  I'm planning on next weekend being the weekend I finally remake the Crown Wheel.  I really, really will try to get up some pictures.  Words cannot quite describe how I am doing the Crown Wheel this time.

  A good bit of news on the Crown Wheel.  I did discover a hub that I had made on a previous attempt to remake the Crown Wheel.  A quick glance at it and it looks like it would be perfectly fine to use in the new wheel.  I have to take a better look at it.  This would be good because one of the most time consuming parts is make the hub and spokes.