Congreve Rolling Ball Clock Build

[olley]

Sometime in the late 60's I saw a rolling ball clock in a jewellers in Ipswich, it fascinated me watching the ball roll back and forth and I said one day I will build one.
Last year I decided to finally start. I got the plans last year and last week the first bits of brass arrived, 4 lengths of 1" dia and two sheets of engraving brass all for the horrendous sum of £272.17
This is a long term project of a year or two unless
A) I lose interest
B) I run out of money
C) I pop my clogs

The plan for the sheet brass.

Progress so far.

And

 

[John Barrett]

Great project. I would have sent the plates to be laser cut and asked for the bits back.. .

 

[poacher]

Nice to see real measurements still in use

 

[jockaneezer]

Those brass sheets are fairly substantial, no wonder they were so expensive ?
I've got a 2 foot square sheet of 3mm brass that had my last company's "ten commandments" engraved on it, (luckily "do not steal" wasn't one of them !) the other side is nice and flat !

 

[olley]

They're 12x18x1/8"

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[olley]

Nice to see real measurements still in use

I used a surface plate and a digital height gauge to mark everything out, I haven't converted fractions to decimals for years and struggled but the old Zeus book came to the rescue.

 

[ctc]

Zeus book? Slide rule a bit too modern?

 

[PhilMary]

I used a surface plate and a digital height gauge to mark everything out, I haven't converted fractions to decimals for years and struggled but the old Zeus book came to the rescue.

J****s C***t. Zeus charts. That took me back, all the way to a Cincinnati vertical milling machine in 1968.

 

[dazandandrea]

I had a lump of High tensile Brass to machine last year. The lump itself was worth in the region of £25,000.
Then two weeks on the lathe. I was proper shitting myself on the last cut.
Then another 2 weeks on the 5 axis mill.

 

[John Barrett]

I had a lump of High tensile Brass to machine last year. The lump itself was worth in the region of £25,000.
Then two weeks on the lathe. I was proper shitting myself on the last cut.
Then another 2 weeks on the 5 axis mill.

What was it, or have you signed the Official Secrets Act?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[dazandandrea]

It was basically a massive 8 start threaded nut for a forge .
The nut part fitted onto a large shaft also 8 start thread . Ill see if ive got any pics.

 

[dazandandrea]

Thats the shaft i made. Its around 4 meters long .

 

[dazandandrea]

The nut section whilst i was machining it. Faces had to be parallel to 0.05mm.
Thats an 80 mm dia boring bar im using to machine the back face of the flange.
Those faces had to be square and parallel to 0.05mm.

 

[bigwood]

I would dread to think how much the brass for my fathers clocks would cost now. In the eighties the Orrery he built sold for £25,000. The brass in all of them was gold plated to prevent it tarnishing.

 

[John Barrett]

I would dread to think how much the brass for my fathers clocks would cost now. In the eighties the Orrery he built sold for £25,000. The brass in all of them was gold plated to prevent it tarnishing.

Gosh, that's really out of this world!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[olley]

The nut section whilst i was machining it. Faces had to be parallel to 0.05mm.
Thats an 80 mm dia boring bar im using to machine the back face of the flange.
Those faces had to be square and parallel to 0.05mm.

View attachment 578322

Nice to see that not everything is CNC nowadays.
Impressive.

 

[dazandandrea]

It was lol , just on a big open machine

 

[L' Hobo]

Great project. I would have sent the plates to be laser cut and asked for the bits back.. .

I have a Plasma cutter going cheap (£300 cost over a £1000) if he wants one?

 

[olley]

I have a Plasma cutter going cheap (£300 cost over a £1000) if he wants one?

If only you had told me that before I cut those two plates out.

 

[ManTheVan]

Really impressive work from all!

Worth remembering that many schools will have plasma cutters and might do a favour for other projects like that.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[olley]

Turned four tapered pillars today, turned the tapers between centers with an offset tailstock
I haven't turned between centers since college in the late 60's and never offset the tailstock.
Every day's a school day.

 

[bigwood]

I was away from home during my fathers clock building time but I know much time he spent. He built a few of the orrery clocks and six carriage clocks with a small orrery on the top. One of the Orrery clocks was built for some one in America.
I havnt been able to find the incentive to do anything in the workshop for a while. Domestic chores seem to keep cropping up. Maybe some castings for something will appear for my birthday next month.

 

[sonny]

View attachment 578317
Thats the shaft i made. Its around 4 meters long .

Quality timber as well.
Superb lathe work

 

[olley]

A bit more done.

 

[bigwood]

The clocks looking good so far. I have seen that type of clock running but havnt seen the frame for one. It’s a very different looking clock.
I received castings for a Duplex Steam Pump for my birthday as predicted. It’s going to be a long build if only because of the amount of passages that need drilling. So far I have started on the water pump side thinking it might be easier than the steam side..

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[RedFrame]

View attachment 578289

I was going to say that it's been a long time since I used Engineer's Blue to mark out an Apprentice piece (which did include mating surfaces), but it seems Wikipedia seems to disagree with my interpretation?

Wiki

Cheers
Red.

Cheers
Red.

 

[L' Hobo]

I was going to say that it's been a long time since I used Engineer's Blue to mark out an Apprentice piece (which did include mating surfaces), but it seems Wikipedia seems to disagree with my interpretation?

Wiki

Cheers
Red.

Cheers
Red.

I had to use that scraping white metal bearings in my early MN days. Hated the stuff/work!!

 

[jockaneezer]

We used loads of tubes of "Micrometer Engineer's Blue" at work, mostly for smearing on the earpiece of the workshop phone or on the eye pieces of the binocular microscope we had, although it sometimes got used when scraping in bearings and press beds !
You're probably thinking of "marking blue" rather than "engineer's blue" RedFrame ? We used "Spectra" marking blue, it had a distinctive smell as the spirits evaporated to leave a translucent blue finish. I've just recently bought a replacement bottle online, but could only get the Dykem brand which seems exactly the same apart from being a bit slower to evaporate (H&S?)

 

[Steve and Denise]

View attachment 578317
Thats the shaft i made. Its around 4 meters long .

Brilliant thread no pun intended
Some interesting things happening on here

 

[Ditcha]

View attachment 578317
Thats the shaft i made. Its around 4 meters long .

Did you mill the multi start thread looks like it's been machined in a 4th axis or a lathe with live tooling, do just make the nut to suit the shaft thread or use gauges?

Cracking job though

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}