Escapement

In our last episode your local horologist was trying to get the Thomas Adams Astro Regulator English Bell Strike to just run.  Rather to get the necessary repairs, adjustments and various tweaks done so we can see if the clock will function. This in service of YLH's first principle :  first get the thing to run . Your correspondent needs to apologize as he realized that he had jumped ahead rather rapidly in the last episode. Going from the installation of the cords directly to ready to test, he left out some of the good stuff. Specifically all the reassembly, tweaking, aligning, checking, testing and then the final installment of the weights, cords, etc. So summarily, with all those prior repairs in place,  reassembly of the movement commenced. One item in particular that YLH was watching carefully was the formerly bent hammer spring and how it would operate in action. Lots of parts for the motion works  (wheels that operate the hands) and the strike components ...

Patient readers, we have traveled far from what started as a review of parts on Jeff's kitchen counter... In our last episode your local horologist was still working to just get the Thomas Adams English Bell Strike clock  to run. This most recent essay was a flailing at friction to enable  beat adjustment of the movement. In particular that effort was to ensure that the precise angle between the crutch and the anchor would align correctly to the slot in the pendulum. Once again the image of the gizmo in question: Effectively speaking that crutch has to hang inline with the center of the anchor and the pin itself should point straight along in vertical alignment with the anchor arbor and at an angle such that it is centered and perpendicular to the slot of the pendulum and entering roughly at its center. Whew. Like this: Your bender-of-metal will spare you the details but between now being able to adjust the beat and seat the pendulum suspension spring in the suspension brid...