A clockmaker's donut

This article was published in the August 2005 NAWCC Bulletin starting on page 469. Over the last four or five years that I have been a dealer in Vienna Regulators I have had a chance to work on quite a number of mechanisms, both factory made pieces, as well as those earlier mechanisms that showcase the skills and inventiveness of individual makers. Each time I start work on a mechanism, be it factory made, or the result of an individual masters efforts, I look for, and often find unusual ways that were developed to perform the many functions that make clocks run. Some are quite ingenious, others quite amazing, in both good, and sometimes less than good ways. The donut in question was found in the mechanism of a rather dirty late Biedermeier-period Vienna Regulator that was reported to run for two weeks. Now mind you; in the past I have been told that two week duration Vienna's are very rare, in fact several very knowledgeable folk have told me there were never any two week duration Vienna's. None the less, here was this clock that only ran two weeks. And, in fact, it did only run two weeks. But, see, there was this donut. Read the rest of this article by reading the caption of each of the three photos below.

Have you ever started to clean a mechanism and decided instead to take it out in the garage and blow it out first. In this mechanism's case it was rather necessary it was that full of cob-webs. Anyway, after giving it a good blow I take it back and do my usual "pre-take it apart and try not to loose any of the little screws" inspection. Everything looked pretty typical for a hand-finished (say 1840 to 1845) mechanism. Especially one that runs a bit more than a week. The clue was the rather large winding drum. See, your typical week-duration Vienna has a drum that is perhaps a half inch in diameter. Longer duration ones tend to have larger drums. In general. And this one had a 1 inch drum hey, it is supposed to run two weeks, so it made sense. <br />
<br />
I also noted that the gear on the winding drum was very big, and it drove a very small pinion on the minute arbor. But, hey, it runs two weeks, so, again, this seemed to make sense. <br />
<br />
Next thing I know, it is in a gazillion pieces, but there seems to be one spare piece. See, there was this donut. <br />
<br />
And, a rather well made donut it is, as you can see in the photo. In fact, it is made to perfectly slip over a half-inch winding drum. Sort of like the maker took a left-over winding drum rather than starting from scratch. Overall it wasn't a badly-made donut, nicely soldered, and fitted. Made me scratch my head, and wonder just what I had stumbled into. <br />
<br />
None the less, next step is to put everything into the cleaning solution and get off the years of grunge that coated every part. Did I mention it was really dirty? <br />
<br />
As I proceeded with my inspection I was pleased to see there was not much wear on the pivots. In fact, they looked quite shiny. And, while the pallets had obviously been ground (probably to get rid of grooves), they didn't look that bad. OK, they clearly needed to be ground, flattened, and burnished, but they wouldn't keep a clock from running. <br />
<br />
But, see, there was this donut, and I kept asking myself, "Self, why is there a donut in this mechanism?". <br />
<br />
And yes, I do talk to myself in the shop. I also talk to my cats, and sometimes to the mechanisms I am working on. <br />
<br />
Anyway, I started thinking how nifty it would be if this turned out to be a month running clock. In the back of my mind I was beginning to realize that if I got rid of the donut, well, heck, this clock would probably run for a month. <br />
<br />
If it ran, that is.

1 / 3

Have you ever started to clean a mechanism and decided instead to take it out in the garage and blow it out first. In this mechanism's case it was rather necessary it was that full of cob-webs. Anyway, after giving it a good blow I take it back and do my usual "pre-take it apart and try not to loose any of the little screws" inspection. Everything looked pretty typical for a hand-finished (say 1840 to 1845) mechanism. Especially one that runs a bit more than a week. The clue was the rather large winding drum. See, your typical week-duration Vienna has a drum that is perhaps a half inch in diameter. Longer duration ones tend to have larger drums. In general. And this one had a 1 inch drum hey, it is supposed to run two weeks, so it made sense.

I also noted that the gear on the winding drum was very big, and it drove a very small pinion on the minute arbor. But, hey, it runs two weeks, so, again, this seemed to make sense.

Next thing I know, it is in a gazillion pieces, but there seems to be one spare piece. See, there was this donut.

And, a rather well made donut it is, as you can see in the photo. In fact, it is made to perfectly slip over a half-inch winding drum. Sort of like the maker took a left-over winding drum rather than starting from scratch. Overall it wasn't a badly-made donut, nicely soldered, and fitted. Made me scratch my head, and wonder just what I had stumbled into.

None the less, next step is to put everything into the cleaning solution and get off the years of grunge that coated every part. Did I mention it was really dirty?

As I proceeded with my inspection I was pleased to see there was not much wear on the pivots. In fact, they looked quite shiny. And, while the pallets had obviously been ground (probably to get rid of grooves), they didn't look that bad. OK, they clearly needed to be ground, flattened, and burnished, but they wouldn't keep a clock from running.

But, see, there was this donut, and I kept asking myself, "Self, why is there a donut in this mechanism?".

And yes, I do talk to myself in the shop. I also talk to my cats, and sometimes to the mechanisms I am working on.

Anyway, I started thinking how nifty it would be if this turned out to be a month running clock. In the back of my mind I was beginning to realize that if I got rid of the donut, well, heck, this clock would probably run for a month.

If it ran, that is.

DonutComplete Clock