A David Walter Double Pendulum Clock – Part 1, The Journey from raw materials to a finished clock

Jun 17, 2015,23:10 PM
 

A David Walter Double Pendulum Clock
  – Part 1, The journey from raw materials to a finished clock





David Walter has started a new double pendulum perpetual calendar clock and has agreed to take us along on this long journey from start to finish, from a pile of raw materials to a beautiful one of a kind hand-made clock.  We will be able to follow him making of this very special clock, a resonant double pendulum showing:
  - Mean time
  - Sidereal time
  - Equation of time – the difference between mean time and actual solar time
  - Wandering moon
  - Night sky at Greenwich
  - Sunrise and Sunset
  - Perpetual calendar.

Among the processes we will be following will be:
  - The dial designs, they must be determined before anything else can be started
  - Laying the foundation, the plates and drilling the very first hole
  - Making the barrels; barrels are quite complex and little attention is ever given to them
  - Making the pendulum suspension
  - Creating wheels & arbors, depthing and fitting to the plates
  - The jeweling
  - Designing and making the escapement
  - Making the complications as work progresses
  - The production of the dials and hands.


To get a taste of where this journey will be taking us, here is a picture of a similar David Walter movement.





Our starting point can be seen here, a collection of brass and steel.  Some raw material is still missing in this picture 'though, such as the invar steel and the fused silica glass rods for the pendulums themselves.  Some parts one can already imagine, the two pendulum bobs in the back not so far from their final shapes, for example.  But most of the rest of the parts are pretty well hidden by unneeded material waiting to be cut away by a skilled hand.


Can you already see that clock just struggling to get out of the unnecessary metal around it in that picture?

The first step in making any clock is deciding what will be displayed and how.  The dial design is fundamental to laying out the positions of all the parts of the movement.  As a double pendulum clock has two separate movements David has two dials to lay out.

The left movement dial.




The right movement dial.



Now let's start getting down to business and making some metal chips.  In this picture we see the metal for upper and lower plates of one of the movements screwed together.  The first hole in the middle has been drilled on the drill press.  The first hole is in the center of the movement and it is from this hole that all the others are measured and set.  By drilling the front and back plates together one assures that the holes are  exactly placed so all of the axles are later standing perfectly straight.


Note that David’s drill press in equipped with an xy-coordinate table.  Using the scales on the hand wheels it is possible to do very exact positioning of the holes drilled.  With the drilling of the center wheel, barrel and escape wheel holes as well as the 4 pillar holes the foundation for the movement has been laid out.


After the most important holes are drilled the plates are cut out of the sheets of brass on a band saw, the front and back plates still screwed together.


Here we see the plates for one movement.


That's it for this, the first installment along this long journey.  David and I  hope that you will enjoy and be fascinated by this work.  As you can already see, this clock will be hand made and one-of-a-kind.  Emerging from the mind and hands  of one very skilled person, David Walter.
See you soon for the next installment.


This message has been edited by DonCorson on 2015-06-17 23:13:07 This message has been edited by DonCorson on 2015-06-17 23:14:03 This message has been edited by cazalea on 2015-07-17 07:19:26

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Thank you, Don for ....

 
 By: blomman Mr Blue : June 17th, 2015-23:31
Bringing us along this journey. Very much looking forwared to the next step! :) Best Blomman

What a treat!

 
 By: aditya : June 18th, 2015-11:55
Thank you for this rare opportunity! Is this in real time or has the clock already been made? Kind regards Aditya

Wonderful journey

 
 By: Ophiuchus : June 19th, 2015-15:24
What an amazing chance to see how he does it. Deep thanks to both David and Don for making this happen! Can't wait to see more. Especially keen to see the jeweling stages and how David works with the fuzed quartz rods.

Taking time to see a David Walther clock being made

 
 By: MTF : July 3rd, 2015-00:14
Don and David, Thank you for showing this incredible clock making journey step-by-step almost in real time on PuristSPro. Its series like this that made "PuristS" the horological home that we come back to time-after-time. In a way, making a big clock coul...