I have not made one of these clocks, but can offer some suggestions arising from experience with other clocks.

I suppose you have tried testing the gear train with the clock assembled, but without the barrel or the escapement?

That way, you can apply gentle pressure and see and feel what is going on under gentle power but without the force applied by the spring. It's also quicker than waiting a week for the clock to stop.

As Neil says, it is a good idea to mark the offending teeth of pinion and wheel if you can identify them when the sticking occurs. Try it a few times. If it is always the same teeth, they can be given individual inspection and attention.

Is there an eccentricity caused by the seating on the wheel collet? It is always a good idea to finish turn the collet after it has been secured to the abor, before attaching the wheel.

If you know which tooth of the wheel is definitely causing the problem, I would recommend burnishing the face of the tooth before reaching for the file. Next in line would be the tip of a triangular scraper, followed by the burnisher, before reaching for the file.

Did you make the little depthing tool to J.W.'s design? It's quite handy. Not big enough for the great wheel, of course.

Neil is also right about the changes in meshing when the gears and arbors are under load. Skinny arbors tend to deflect under load.

Marcus

I would hesitate and have a cup of tea before removing metal from the (steel?) pinion. It may be that the pinions were supplied with a final polish, but, if not, I would certainly polish the leaves using a piece of approximately-shaped wood and some fine abrasive powder. Wilding recommends ~"coarse oilstone dust" in one of his other books. I think a more modern way would be a finer grade of diamond paste. Rub along the gaps between the teeth. Once satisfied, move to a finer grade. JW recommends Solvol Autosol, and that's as good as any for a final polish once any marks have been removed.

I might also try my luck with the arbor suspended in vee blocks and a DTI with an elephant's foot against the tips of the leaves, to see if you can measure any eccentricity. I suppose you could do this in-situ, if you can secure the frame and the DTI so that they do not move relative to one another. You could repeat this with the mating wheel. I understand that clockmakers of yore used a 'topping tool' to ensure the tips of the teeth were all at the same distance from the centre of the wheel.

Forgive me if I grasp at a few more straws:

I assume you burnished the pivots at the ends of the arbors. Those need to be well-finished and burnished to harden the surface. The shoulders where the pivots step back up to the full diameter of the arbor should be finely finished, and undercut if possible. A watchmaker would polish the faces of those shoulders. The inner edges of the bearing holes in the plates should have a really tiny chamfer. The idea is that the pivot shoulder cannot seize against the corner of the hole. The bearing holes themselves should have their inner surfaces burnished, to harden them and reduce friction. I know you probably did all that, but those are sources of additional friction.

You say the train runs freely under finger-power. How freely? It should coast for a long time, if there is nothing to impede its progress. What happens if you tilt the clock while the train is spinning freely? Same if you tilt it the other way?

Marcus

Glad to hear your clock is up and running sweetly now. You can count that a success.

What’s the next project…?

Marcus

Andrew,

The Strutt is an interesting clock. I have the Bill Smith book on that one, and I have seen several completed clocks, some original and some made from the Smith instructions. Smith's book refers to the photos of a Strutt in Royer-Collard's book "Skeleton Clocks", but I see better photos of a wider range of Strutt & Wigston epicyclic clocks in Derek Roberts' book "British Skeleton Clocks" (Wigston was an engineer, and business partner of Strutt, so I imagine Strutt was the designer, but commercial manufacture was arranged by Wigston). I have seen instances of completed Strutts at verious ME exhibitions, and I think I recall seeing one a couple of years ago in the collection of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, held in the Science Museum. The interesting part of the machining of the Strutt is the cutting of the internal teeth of what Smith terms the ring gear.

I built a Wilding 16th Century one-handed clock with a verge and foliot escapement, as it was serialised in the Horological Journal in the late 1970s. I can still remember quite clearly the moment I got it to run, so I can imagine your ow joy with your current clock. I have a Widling Congereve almost clomplete, on the bench at the moment. I have built a number of skeleton clocks which originated from a Wilding design and are based on a pigeon timing clock. My plan was to start with the Wilding modifications and make some changes as I went through a series of those. The clock features a daisy wheel mechanism in place of the conventional motion work. After the first one, which was fairly close to the Wilding design, I made some significant departures from that design, so that the whole motion work is now quite different (although still based on the daisy wheel). The clocks also feature a prominent platform escapement, so I have had to learn how to deal with issues concerning springs and rating. Other parts of the original design have now been progressively modified, so that the whole thing is now rather different. That was the idea behind the 'series' of clocks, and although it has quickly taken me in directions I had not anticipated, I have enjoyed the journey. Along the way, I have been unable to avoid a constant stream of repairs to (mostly) longcase and wall-hanging clocks, and cuckoo clocks (which I find bring a smile…), all of which brought valuable (and sometimes hard-won) experience. And I have a design for a wall-hanging clock which I am almost ready to start making. That's if I can get the next 3 skeletons off the bench, and get the Congreve finished, polished and into its Perspex case. Interestingly, Wilding recommends polishing the pinion leaves, in the Congreve book (and others) but it is a technique explained in a number of general clockmaking and repairing books, so I am surprised it is not in the Great Wheel book. Polish; harden; re-polish (or at least clean after hardening).

I can recommend membership of the British Horological Institute, and its journal, as well as branch meetings of like-minded souls who are a constant source of good advice. They run good courses as well, at their headquarters. There is also a distance learning course which can be done at your own pace.

Marcus

Andy,

I'm pleased to hear of your progress, and I hope you will be providing updates (and photos?) as you go along. The Strutt is, to my mind, not only an interesting clock but one which will provide a really satisfying project. 'Half way through' means you are close to being nearly there…

I'm glad to hear you joined the BHI, and you will now have access to their new online library of back issues which are an absolute goldmine of good information. Mind you; I do appreciate the monthly physical copies of the Journal; thin but beautifully produced and full of interesting articles.

Marcus

Ah yes; time. That's an ongoing challenge, I find.
I have a skeleton movement n the bench just now, but it awaits one brass part, which is the little nut (the front collet) at the end of the minute hand shaft. I changed the design of that part of the assembly, so the nut will allow me to test my changes. It's only a very minor change, so I'd be surprised if it doesn't work. I have the base and legs ready, so assembly can begin soon, I hope. Assembly doesn't take long; its the parts for the movement which take the time. I have the drawings for a significantly amended part of the daisy wheel arrangement, so that will be the next stage, for the next movement. That's a bit away yet, though.
The Congreve movement needs the dials finished, and one finial turned. The clock stands on its own feet, but I intend to make a base for it to stand upon, although I have not yet decided on the material. Wood might be traditional, but I'm tempted by stone or even by Corian. I have used Corian (or one of the look-alike materials) for some clock legs, and it can look really good as faux-marble. Thicker sheets need to be built up in layers, though. There were some interesting photos of the Congreves built by the Sydney Clock Club in Australia, in the BHI Journal, some years ago. Their bases were made of Corian, and they looked very attractive.
So there is progress, but, as usual, it has been interrupted a little by other things which seemed more important at the time (and were supposed to be over quickly, but aren't).

Marcus

Andy,

That's good progress, and its nice to see the dial too, as that, together with the frames, gives a real sense of what the finished clock will look like.

I look forward to reading about, and seeing, progress.

Can I suggest you start a new thread for this clock? I think it would be very useful to have the posts accessible to anyone coming to the forum looking for info on the Strutt, or even just inspiration for a project. That post with the photos would be a good start, perhaps even with a sentence or two about the source of the design. I don't know how you would transfer that post to a new thread, but just starting a new one and re-posting the photos there would do, I think.

Marcus