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Apr 21, 2015, 08:29 PM
#11
The Dude Abides
Pretty amazing.
I am sure this is the same clock my ex-wife's attorney uses to time my alimony payments.....
"Either He's Dead, Or My Watch Has Stopped....."
Groucho Marx
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Apr 21, 2015, 10:57 PM
#12
Member
Originally Posted by
Matt
You know, I'm looking at that and asking myself what couldn't be knocked up on a CNC with remarkable ease. Just because it's a stunning design doesn't mean it would automatically be that hard to fabricate. Obviously, the pendulum would have to be invar to get half way decent performance, but if you had the CAD schematics I'd assume that it would barely make it into triple figures to make the majority of the parts and construction wouldn't be beyond a competent hobbyist even if fettling might be an interesting challenge.
Anyone tempted?
It's always the 1st one that is the most expensive. A little more technology than the average hobbyist has on hand. 1st of all a CNC, some type of CAD system, not to mention all of the raw material stock. Sure, build 100 or more and the cost might get down to triple digits... if you also had a clock makers background. The, "if" you had the CAD drawings, would certainly be an issue from 250 years ago. Not likely.
I have found that some people just like to hear themselves typing.
Friends Don't Let Friends Buy G-Schlocks.
Okay..., Charging Paddles... CLEAR!! BZZZZT... Another Thread Revived!
Every time God closes one door... I open a bottle of bourbon.
¹ I'm Just Here For The Comic Relief. Nothing I Do or Say Needs to be Taken Seriously.
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Apr 21, 2015, 11:39 PM
#13
My immediate question is whether the performance is to do with the design or to do with modern precision fabrication of parts.
How would it perform if made using period metal working techniques, using period materials?
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Apr 22, 2015, 12:51 AM
#14
Originally Posted by
drunken monkey
My immediate question is whether the performance is to do with the design or to do with modern precision fabrication of parts.
To some extent both, but chiefly the design. Harrison never made the clock but claimed, in the face of prevailing wisdom at the time, that his design would be capable of such performance.
Rory McEvoy, the Observatory’s curator of horology, described the design as 'something approaching a perfect clock'.
So what is being celebrated is Harrison's visionary design.
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Apr 22, 2015, 01:33 AM
#15
Member
Originally Posted by
Donf
...First - that son of a gun is gonna look HUGE on my 7 1/2 in wrist..
And then there's the whole name recognition problem. As soon a someone sees "Harrison" on the pendulum they'll be judging me and I'll be trying to pull my cuff over it.
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Apr 22, 2015, 01:47 AM
#16
Member
Originally Posted by
drunken monkey
My immediate question is whether the performance is to do with the design or to do with modern precision fabrication of parts.
How would it perform if made using period metal working techniques, using period materials?
Oh, I wouldn't underestimate John Harrison; he was the quintessential lone genius and perfectionist. If he said he could do it, he could do it.
Great read on him and the subject: http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Lo.../dp/B00450V1G8.
The NOVA and BBC shows were pretty good too:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/longitude/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Longitude-DV.../dp/B000L42N96
Look familiar?
(See my avatar.)
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Apr 22, 2015, 10:21 AM
#17
Originally Posted by
Vincent Vega
It's always the 1st one that is the most expensive. A little more technology than the average hobbyist has on hand. 1st of all a CNC, some type of CAD system, not to mention all of the raw material stock. Sure, build 100 or more and the cost might get down to triple digits... if you also had a clock makers background. The, "if" you had the CAD drawings, would certainly be an issue from 250 years ago. Not likely.
I can only assume that you are unaware of the remarkable range of hobbyists knocking up fairly complex wood and even brass clocks (and DXF plans for clocks) on small routers and cutters and selling them on for fun and profit. For example here's a beautifully simplified wooden version of Harrison's H1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JHnEABOFxc
in action, produced from a kit that costs just under £130 for the complete kit ready to build in wood. However, if you wish you can just buy the CAD files and fittings and make it up in brass - a quick enquiry tells me that you could get the DFX file instantiated in brass for just under £100 locally. The DXF plans are about £30 and the fittings kit is about £30 so you could realistically produce a simple version of H1 for under £200. Why precisely should a simple version of H1, cost £200 in brass or a little over £100 in wood and a version of Clock B, itself a wonderfully simple mechanism, cost so much more?
Woodentimes also offer a range of other clocks that are worth a look:
http://www.woodentimes.com/
As does this complete maniac:
http://lisaboyer.com/Claytonsite/Claytonsite1.htm
Mind you, if that's too rich for you, you could build something with a mere anchor escapement for two figures - a mere $69. Again, you could pick up a DXF for this and have the parts knocked up in brass for not much more.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/hshg/
The fact is that Harrison both produced prototypes and whole clocks in wood and so a version of clock B in a high quality wood with perhaps a metal escapement looks like a real possibility. As far as I can see, the first and second one have already been made. So I'd assume that there are already CAD designs out there even if they are not publicly available yet. Even if the CAD files are not released, I'd be astonished if some hobbyist somewhere will not have reverse engineered (or pulled from Harrison's drawings, now the proof of concept is out there) some DXF files, if not a whole kit on the internet by the end of the year - it's too nice not to, and they've done everything else. The grasshopper escapement central to the clock is already in the public domain http://www.bhi.co.uk/sites/default/f...rasshopper.pdf.
Moving on from the design I'd assume that most people can get access to at least a CNC router. I can think of three ways I have access to a CNC router or a laser cutter (one of which is simply Googling something like CNC or laser cutter services) which would be able to do the overwhelming majority of the fabrication in short order and I'd be surprised if the remainder of the parts couldn't be pulled off the shelf or knocked up easily on a lathe. I'm looking at about £50 a sheet of brass straight off a DXF file and two sheets needed for something like clock B. Alternatively you could do a short evening course on using a laser cutter or CNC and produce the parts as your project for a few hundred quid!
As for the clock maker's background, personally I think I'd be able to manage
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f20/ot-...bm-407892.html
and I find it hard to imagine that most people here couldn't at least knock up a kit from instructions.
So I'd say it's very likely indeed.
Last edited by Matt; Apr 22, 2015 at 10:46 AM.
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