I'm not sure how many people still frequent this site, but i wanted to give an update to anyone who may have thought i fell off the face of the Earth.
I'm still working on my hand-made watch and hope to finish it within a year, now that everything for it seems to be "just right" in my eyes. I spent a lot of time just doing work to help develop my skills further and to buy some essential equipment to make the watch the way i want to make it, pretty much everything i posted here previously was made with almost less than the essential equipment, i only recently bought a full set of collets for my lathes. I didn't really know how long it would take for me to get to the point where i felt comfortable with every aspect of watchmaking, but i feel like i'm very close now. Of course, i'll never stop learning, but i feel i've learned enough by now to finally finish this project.
The design is completely different now, again. It's still fairly similar to what i had last shown here, but has a couple of other things thrown in. An equation of time in the same cam-style of Breguet and Daniels, as well as an up-down indicator has been included in the list of toys.
I've also decided that i am making the escapement entirely myself, i'm using George Daniels Double Wheel, however, i'm using it in a tourbillon in the same way that Derek Pratt did it. It'll have a constant force spring between each escape wheel and their pinions.
The pictures that i last posted were of my new tourbillon carriage design, the top and bottom bridge are made as a single piece, this makes it easier for me to accurately bore the top and bottom jewel holes for the balance staff since they're both essentially in the same solid material. Another advantage for me is that there is no need for screws to hold the top and bottom half together, which means less material weight and less mass near the outer perimeter of the tourbillon which hopefully will help slightly to improve efficiency compared to the last design. The escapement will be held in a sort of "module" which will fasten to the bottom of the main carriage, this makes assembly and disassembly much easier and quicker than my previous design. For the pivot caps i was thinking of threading a protruding cylinder on the top and bottom of the carriage where the pivot caps could thread onto, however after speaking with a more experienced fellow mad scientist, i was encouraged to just use normal screws due to the many things that could possibly go wrong with my idea, so i will.
Here is a sort of proof of concept of the carriage, this isn't a working piece, it's something that i experimented with to see if i could make it well enough to bother with the idea. The final design will be slightly different (You can use the middle mouse button to open them in a new tab.):
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-0T5_y8pwhE4/UQF2RRPDsSI/AAAAAAAAAtg/yOcATF4YbqE/w1253-h835-no/DSC03804.jpghttps://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-oQ-xsFZGc9Q/UQF2QqQibrI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/4kStTV45a3E/w1253-h835-no/DSC03814.jpgI actually ground most of this to shape with a small grinding wheel held in one of my lathes, this is a good way to reduce the material without destroying some good files in the process. The steel was already hardened before this point and must be in order to maintain structural rigidity as it's shaped down to it's final dimensions.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0mf5B24LpGc/UQF2KY7knwI/AAAAAAAAAs4/zNQx3s2X6HI/w1253-h835-no/DSC03767.jpghttps://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Jxl_izdNVvo/UQF2KqK3y9I/AAAAAAAAAtA/p353IKxMJ50/w1195-h835-no/DSC03721.jpgHere it is next to the top and bottom bridges of the previous tourbillon carriage that i made.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-88CJ7vD9KkM/UQF2PIOXFMI/AAAAAAAAAtI/ur6tPxxtfZA/w1113-h835-no/DSC03785.jpgThis is what i plan to make as the working tourbillon.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_If0lCOB51I/UQF6cd86OmI/AAAAAAAAAvE/8Dj2Y9ORJz4/w1214-h835-no/carriagefull.jpgHere is a drawing that i made of the new design for my watch.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-jhsT049jgN4/UR7Wxc4dZ_I/AAAAAAAAA2Y/nJeYTHRgv_U/w1215-h835-no/LPH1-FULL-C.jpgThere are a few areas in the design that will be different but most are entirely cosmetic differences. The hands will be completely different, but the Kanji numerals will stay, the purple steel will stay as well. Various other things will probably be different though, possibly even the layout, since this drawing is just that, a drawing. It's not an exact blueprint of what i'm making, so all of the smaller details will be dealt with as i get to them. I'm very capable of designing in CAD now, and i considered modeling this watch fully in CAD. However, in my opinion, doing things on the fly is the most sensible way of making a one-off piece because there's always the possibility for improvements or changes which could come from inspiration at the last moment.
Here's a set of escape wheels that i previously made:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-K7CuOyVMkMI/UzIqk1HuF1I/AAAAAAAABto/CxyqbZ9mzdU/w1215-h835-no/DSC04440.jpgAs you can see, one of the teeth on each was cut too deep, somehow i miss-counted while indexing and made a mistake, i'm currently working on the next set of escape wheels and should have them cut in a day or two. The pallet will be next, then followed by the balance wheel.
. Then I work out the angles between the pallet stone slots relative to the roller slot. Make a blank and fix it to a holder in the lathe, and cut the slots with a saw in the milling attachment, using a dividing attachment to turn the blank to the proper angle (and offsetting the milling attachment- you get the drift). Getting them right on size and location means making a very true and rigid holder for the saw blades. In the days before I had a jig borer I would also plant any auxiliary holes besides the one for the staff (which locates it on the holder) with the milling attachment as well. Now I take the blank and align it in the jig borer and put in the holes. It's fiddly work any way you do it!
