Nice work Bill, always wondered how they did that 4 side clock face, thanks for sharing.
Cheers
Bob
Linkage error when reversing Bevel Gear
-
BobL
- Site Admin
- Posts: 424
- Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2026 4:56 pm
-
BillM
- Site Admin
- Posts: 188
- Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:12 pm
- Location: Mystic CT
Re: Linkage error when reversing Bevel Gear
Hi Bob
The attached photos show the inside of the clock tower. The 4-way bevel gear split is kind of unusual..the top gear is 60T and the mating gears are 50T. This reverses the 50T-60T gearing in the clock room. Our guess is that the first 50T-60T reduction may have been used to bump up the torque a bit prior to the chain of bevel gears to the tower. When the clock was last running in early 2010 the wear and buildup of friction had reduced operations to a single dial. Input /Output of each bevel set is driven via universal joints.
The current installation is different from where the clock came from. The clock mechanism was probably mounted directly below the 4-way split which would have greatly reduced frictional losses in the drive train.
The second two jpgs show one of the motion works. The input to the motion works is the minute shaft. At the time we examined one of the motion works I did not have time to document the gear thicknesses, # of teeth, or gear diameters. What I modeled in Gearotics was my best estimate of the gear ratios and sizes.
My goal of the simulations is to document the mechanical details of the entire clock.
Bill
The attached photos show the inside of the clock tower. The 4-way bevel gear split is kind of unusual..the top gear is 60T and the mating gears are 50T. This reverses the 50T-60T gearing in the clock room. Our guess is that the first 50T-60T reduction may have been used to bump up the torque a bit prior to the chain of bevel gears to the tower. When the clock was last running in early 2010 the wear and buildup of friction had reduced operations to a single dial. Input /Output of each bevel set is driven via universal joints.
The current installation is different from where the clock came from. The clock mechanism was probably mounted directly below the 4-way split which would have greatly reduced frictional losses in the drive train.
The second two jpgs show one of the motion works. The input to the motion works is the minute shaft. At the time we examined one of the motion works I did not have time to document the gear thicknesses, # of teeth, or gear diameters. What I modeled in Gearotics was my best estimate of the gear ratios and sizes.
My goal of the simulations is to document the mechanical details of the entire clock.
Bill
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
-
ArtF
- Global Moderator
- Posts: 4557
- Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 5:14 pm
- Contact:
Re: Linkage error when reversing Bevel Gear
Bill:
As of next version the bevel reversal will no longer need to be relinked to rotate properly.
Thx
Art
As of next version the bevel reversal will no longer need to be relinked to rotate properly.
Thx
Art
-
BillM
- Site Admin
- Posts: 188
- Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:12 pm
- Location: Mystic CT
Re: Linkage error when reversing Bevel Gear
Hi Art
It will be interesting to see if the fix to the bevel gear reversal also corrects the other anomaly in the rotation rate calculations.
I suspect that I may have to undo the links in my tower clock sim. But at least I've been practicing with linkages.
Bill
It will be interesting to see if the fix to the bevel gear reversal also corrects the other anomaly in the rotation rate calculations.
I suspect that I may have to undo the links in my tower clock sim. But at least I've been practicing with linkages.
Bill