The baseplate is the horizontal plate on which the main plates sit, and from which the suspended balance plates are hung. It is supported by the columns which run to the base of the clock. Its drawing template is extracted from the main drawing, printed to scale, pasted to a piece of 1/8" brass and sawed out with a jewelers saw, as usual. It also has a window, through which the escape wheel and balance spring will descend to the plates below. I left this uncut for the time being.

Once cut, a good way to begin finishing the edges of the plates is to use a little 1-inch belt sander, of a sort available anywhere. The belts are 320 grit, the finest available for this little sander. It does a beautiful and quick job of cleaning up saw marks. Then, I used a file to drawfile the edges. Later, I'll finish with sanding sticks and eventually with rubberized abrasive tips mounted in the Dremel tool.

The base plate template contains various marks indicating locations for the column-mounting screws, and the pillars which will suspend the balance bridges. It also contains register marks which will aid in alignment of the base plate with the upper, main plates.

It also contains a register mark which will aid in installing the bridge which holds the upper end of the escape wheel arbor.

Todays' link:

Base plate uncut
Base plate cut
Sanding baseplate edges
Plates together
Base plate (Deltacad drawing)
Base plate (DXF drawing)