Today I did some finish work and corrected some minor faults. I completely disassembled the clock and polished all parts -- a time-consuming endeavor. I finished the escape wheel bracket by polishing and hardening the triangular carbon steel lower bearing. The escape wheel turns unbelievably smoothly on this bearing.
I also did work on the pallet arbor. I cut a flat on the arbor with a small file. This file will serve as a platform for the 0-80 setscrew on the pallet arbor collet. This assures stability, and it makes it easier to remove the pallets at some later date. I also used a file to make a slight taper on the end of the arbor that slips into the split washer that forms one end of the crutch. The taper (about .002" over the course of 3/8" of the arbor) allows the spit washer to grip more firmly, and at the same time to make it more adjustable. After everything was completed, I hardened the pivots of the arbor and tempered them to blue. (The tempering makes it easier to bend and harder to break them!)
In test runs, I noticed that there was a quiver in the pendulum each time it was impulsed by the pallets. To correct this, I made the pendulum suspension spring a bit shorter, and I also made a longer crutch, which contacts the pendulum at a lower place. This remedied the problem.
The clock shows more pendulum motion than it did earlier. No doubt due to the fine finish I put on the working surfaces of the pallets. What remains to do is hands, a base for the dome, and fancy blue screws.
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