True Confessions from an Experienced Clockster, Part One

Bob has come up with some great tips and some confessions of his blunders and how he fixed them in this great email.  My responses are in red. Hi Clayton, I liked your blog. I'll have to check in from time to time. I think the stick on numbers might do the trick. I do like the wood burned ones as well so maybe I'll have to practice. Aloha Bob, you are right about the numbers on the Genesis. I knew my artistic abilities were not up to the task of hand lettering them on the wheels, so I made 'shields' with the numbers, just like on my Horologium. I think that they look better on the Horologium, too. I do make the numbers available in dxf format if guys want to CNC their numbers into their wheels. Wood burning looks great, but then you are back to that artistic limitation that I possess. A professional did the wood burning that you see in those pix. I learned something from your blog. I built Balance with solid wheels (laminated) and I think I committed the sin you spoke of in the blog. I think I sleeved the wheels.....and did I mention she is having trouble staying running? I'll work on fixing that situation.  On the blog post of 3/30, I was referring only to the folly of adding bushings to the frame. I have been guilty of the same lapse in judgment. In my early clocks I added a few brass bushings. Those are the clocks that now take the most maintenance. Since it is metal on metal, some lubrication is required a couple times a year, and lubrication takes up dust which means the clock has to be cleaned often - and I don't like cleaning clocks. I like designing and building them! My Six, without bushings, has been running faithfully daily for almost nine years without a single problem and never a cleaning. My bushed clocks, however, are constantly needing something. Balance by Clayton Boyer