Member postings for Stephen Benson

No problems with answering questions when your clock fails to run properly after a long build it can very frustrating however the solution is often very simple because clocks of this type are quite tolerant of errors.

Right here is the finished clock after it has run continually for 8 or more years note the steel pendulum could not be bothered pouring lead. I had loads of other projects so never really finished it as I always intended to upgrade it to the later perpetual calendar version probably with bearings.

taken today complete with cobwebs

Edited By Stephen Benson on 30/12/2016 07:22:02

Edited By Stephen Benson on 30/12/2016 07:23:22

Hi Alan

No your are right it looks like the book is confusing as that is a mistake I remember making, the collar should be steel and the curved spring sits against it to allow you to turn the hands without turning the wheels to correct the time. I will take some more photo's of the finished clock today.

Edited By Stephen Benson on 30/12/2016 06:25:33

It is a great first clock very robust design easy to make and keeps time to better than 20 seconds a week these are just photos I took when I was building it I can take more of the finished clock if need be.

Mine would not run until I had opened out the pivot holes a bit which galled the engineer in me but if a clock does not rattle it will not run.

It was my first clock and I made it many years ago so be kind it is still running perfectly 

Edited By Stephen Benson on 29/12/2016 11:59:09

Edited By Stephen Benson on 29/12/2016 12:01:31

I have been playing around with stuff from Minicraft with good success, I converted a Cowells Pillar drill originally for a Proxxon industrial die grinder but the Minicraft MB150 drill works much better for Clock work and should suit your application well with the variable power supply more pictures in the album, as with the Proxxon there is a 20mm dia ally collar to grip securely

I think this design of sensitive drill is the best I have encountered

Edited By Stephen Benson on 04/12/2016 12:43:00

I have the original Geo H Thomas one brilliant little dividing head now made in the far east but Hemingway's do still have the drawings and castings

Seen here cutting a clock wheel

Stuarts drawings are a nightmare, I would love to make several of their engines but the drawings are terrible to work to decimal inches no problem it is fractions I have a problem with could not be bothered to finish the SS50 I bought from them.

I know that lots of people on here seen it as a challenge and good luck to them I hope there are enough to keep Stuarts flourishing but model engineering is supposed to be fun I will stick to metric

Although that is true that is not what has happened the the PDF files are not from a subscriber but actually PDF files from the printers as they all the print codes on the edges.

I mentioned this to Neil over a year ago in a PM

But you still need an Internet connection to read them it just hangs otherwise, best to print to PDF all the articles that interest you and file them for safe keeping and easy reference.

I have 2 kids in Secondary School and one in the local college so our printer works hard, I have just switched to a HP printer and for a very reasonable monthly sum compared to my current monthly Epson ink costs the HP printer orders up its own ink when it gets low, working well at the moment.

**LINK**

As a clock repairer I would consider my Optivisor the most used tool I have wearing it everyday caused the plastic cushion band to turn to mush but fixing a leather strip makes a huge difference to the comfort as you do not have to have the band so tight. I also recommend the light but not the huge battery pack the actual Optivisor offical light is rubbish mine is called a Quasar LS and I had to import it. the 2032 battery has lasted over a year so far.

In the back of the book "Screwcutting by Dr Marcus Bowmam " from Camden books is a spinning top design (a picture of it is on the cover) which you could adapt to be as complicated or as simple as you like, it uses a ball bearing as the spinning point has lots of screwcutting and knurling but it could be simplified to something you could make in 2 hours

Edited By Stephen Benson on 14/10/2016 14:48:24

Right I thought I owned you very helpful people an update well I ordered and tried the recommended pots and got the same result even tried swapping wires around even though I was certain I had wired them correctly so my problem is circuit board related I would guess my chances of fault finding / fixing a Thyristor PCB as non existent.

So spoke to George at Newton Tesla Electric Drives and he was very helpful as always so I think that a three phase variable drive is the way forward because at the moment my mill has two speeds 1000rpm and 4000rpm OK if you are milling with 12mm-16mm end mill or drilling with a 0.5mm carbide drill but a bit annoying if you want to ream or bore I have a very nice Cowells mill so all is not lost and a Cowells lathe with a Newton Tesla drive as well as my South Bend with could do with a Newton Tesla drive.

I picked an old ME Vol 196, no 4265 and spotted a lovely model steam engine design that uses no castings by Guenter Kallies that has been designed in metric took me quite by surprise are there others ? is there a list somewhere of metric designs I know of Jan Ridders marvellous original designs but no semi scale period designs

Thanks John for your very kind offer but I had already ordered from RS hopefully this will sort it thanks again

Thanks guys, brilliant suggestions the wiper on both is definitely the centre managed to file the original and break of part of the dust cap to spray in some detox but did not help looking at it the copper seems worn away from wiper blade so I guess it is goner. Not sure why the replacement does not work but I will buy the recommended pots from RS although the price was not £30 but £5 thanks John just what I needed 

Edited By Stephen Benson on 26/07/2016 16:46:41

Edited By Stephen Benson on 26/07/2016 16:50:17

Hello I have a Downham jig borer with variable drive which has run well for the the last 20 years. But now the variable drive is playing up the smallest movement on the variable drive pot with make go crazy it will just about hold a single constant speed but takes a second or two to fire up the spindle

Unable to source an exact replacement pot I got the closest I could find of the same make and same 1K0K value but it is much bigger item now I am hopeful because the new pot gives a steady constant speed and fires up the spindle quickly but does not change the spindle speed at when turned.

So I think I need an equivalent potentiometer but I am well out of my comfort zone so could someone help me source a better pot please here some pictures

Original failing pot

replacement pot

My Downham milling machine has a 20mm collet installed and I make all my tools with a 20mm shanks I have a 12mm end mill Loctited (Retaining Compound 638) in with a thou or two clearance and when I want to replace it I just heat it up with butane torch pull out the old cutter wait for it to cool then Loctite in the new. it is amazing stuff use it to retain all my clock wheels never had a problem.

I have been thinking for a while that most clock parts are less than 5mm thick and they are made of leaded brass so a small X-Y table with 100mm travel either way mounted on a small mill would machine most clock parts.

The program could stop to allow the manual lowering of the cutter (1.6 slot drill) than start again until the z depth needs to be altered.

Not complicated but I guess ball screws would be better and speed would not be an issue either but accuracy or at least repeatability as backlash would destroy the idea, is there a commercial table or plans for same that would fit the bill or even a full setup?

Upgraded on purpose from win7 a couple of days ago but found win10 to be buggy and actually would not let my pc shut down would not share the printer with the other pcs in the house and would not run some software I need for my work thank god the reverse back to win7 option worked I have now installed never10