French clock running too fast

[gerene]

David,

I do understand what your saying and I did check that. The teeth of the escapement wheel are touching the pallet in the area indicated by De Carle. I don’t believe there is binding since the clock is ticking and I did look carefully to the escapement while running and can’t see that sometimes a teeth is missed.
I think that the impulse is good since the clock keeps ticking for days and if the impulse would be too it would stop, or am I missing something here ?
There is of course the fact that one of the pallets is bigger than the other and I don’t know if I should change this.
I just want to rule out other factors before changing the pallets.
Certainly appreciating yours, Bernie’s, Paul’s help and knowledge based on a lot more experience than mine.

Jan

[willofiam]

Hi Jan, I just noticed 🙄 that DeCarle has what I have been trying to say on the next page 173, but of coarse he say it much better , I sometimes struggle with explaining things……also I believe the circumference of the pins should be a bit less than the distance between 2 escape wheel teeth. William

[gerene]

Hey William,

i just noticed that I started the previous post with David, where it should have been William 😳 . Sorry about that.
That page is where I was referring to when I stated that the teeth are in the correct area of the pallet.
The distance between the teeth is around 2mm (measured at the top of the teeth). This is a little bit more than the bigger pallet (.04mm) and .5mm more than the smaller one.

Jan

[gerene]

Still having trouble slowing down this clock…
I believe that Bernie was right when stating that the swing is too small. Although the clock keeps running it is a very small amplitude and that might be the cause of the problem.
I tried different suspension springs but without any major improvement.
Anyhow, 2 different sizes of pallets and one that is not set radial is definitely not original.
So I thought that trying to get this more towards the original situation would be the best place to start.
I did some more reading and found a description of this escapement in W.J. Gazeley book “Watch and clock making and repairing”. He also gives instructions on how to make new pallets.
The question is which pallet would be the original (if any)?
I am inclined to think that the smaller one is original, just going by the looks of it
So my thought was to replace the bigger one with a new one made to the same size as the smaller one.
Any thoughts or remarks about this? Your opinion is highly appreciated!

Jan

[arutha]

I would guess at the smaller being original unless you can see any sign of bushing to allow a smaller pallet to be fitted. When you watch the escapement running Jan does the larger pallet not hit two teeth? From the pictures it looks a lot larger?
Paul.

[willofiam]

hey guys….. @willofiam wrote:

I believe the circumference of the pins should be a bit less than the distance between 2 escape wheel teeth

, SORRY 🙄 , I meant diameter…..William

[gerene]

Paul,

the escapement seems to behave normal when running. I tried to set the bigger one with the flat part on a radial, as described by De Carle and mentioned by William, but then the escapement can’t move. There is not enough freedom around the pallet and the teeth are locked. I guess that the previous “repairer” replaced the pallet and since it was too big he turned it a little bit to make it kind of work.
The smaller pallet seems to be original, no signs of bushing or any other adaptation to make it fit. I will try to make a pallet with the same dimensions to replace the bigger one and see how that works out.

Jan

[gerene]

@willofiam wrote:

, SORRY 🙄 , I meant diameter…..William

I kind of guessed that otherwise it would be a tiny pallet

Gazeley states in his book “When making the pallet pins or pads, choose a piece of steel rod which will pass between two teeth when the rod intersects the wheel by its own diameter”.
I must admit that I had to read this twice before I understood it, but I guess he means that the diameter should be slightly less than the distance between two teeth which is what the accompanying picture shows.
However, the diameter of the pallet that I believe to be original is quite a bit smaller than the distance between two teeth.

Jan

[gerene]

Well I made a new pallet pin with the same size as the smaller one to go in the pallet hole. Hope this will solve the problem, but it certainly looks better already. Turning this small piece of 1.5mm was done on my Taig lathe then filed.
I still have to fix it in place. I read that traditionally it is done using shellac, but I was wondering if Loctite 603 would not be a more modern alternative. Would there be any reason why it should be shellac other than tradition?

Jan

• This reply was modified 2 years ago by Tamas Richard.

[willofiam]

Hey Jan, not sure about the loctite, shellac will give you the ability to adjust. Have fun, William

[david pierce]

If you fasten something in with Loctite and want to remove it just hit it with some heat and it will release. To re-Loctite the joint, the mating surfaces must be cleaned again. A candle, bench burner, cigarette lighter etc. should do the trick.
david

[gerene]

Oh well, I did it with shellac. Figured that some future clockmaker might presume that it would be fixed with shellac. Although adjusting and/or removing would involve heating for both shellac and loctite
It has been done with shellac for so long and it works well, so I kept with the tradition.

Jan

[arutha]

Shellac is the way to go Jan, as William stated if you need to adjust slightly then a gentle heat will allow this, if you burn it however you will need to clean it off and start again. I prefer Shellac.
Paul.

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