Balancing the Pallets, Escape Wheel and Pendulum

Bill C asks:  How do you time the escape wheel and the pallet to the crutch and pendulum bob? This would help me set the pallet on the escape wheel and to know if the pendulum bob should be plum to vertical level.  Thanks for your help.

Aloha Bill, you are correct, the three components, pallets, escape wheel and pendulum, all need to be adjusted to each other to have the clock run correctly. 

First start with rounding and balancing the wheel, and then go to setting the pallets to the escape wheel.  You'll find how to manually check the function of your pallets and escape wheel in the FAQ section of my site.  Links to this, and more, are at the bottom of my main page. 

Once you have a round escape wheel and have tested that the pallets work around it a full 360* (I usually go around multiple times just to be sure), then you can set the pendulum to the pallets so that you get a good, strong, even tick-tock. 

You mention a vertical, plumb pendulum rod...that's not the way pallets are set, however I can give you a little hint to what it should look like...with the pendulum stopped, one of the escape teeth should be resting about halfway up the pallet face.  I stopped my Simplicity this morning to take this picture for you. 

When you move the pendulum to free the escape tooth, the other escape tooth should come into contact with the other pallet face in about the same location when the pendulum is at rest.  On a round escape wheel with nicely made pallets, the tooth should be at rest in about the same position on this second pallet face as on the first pallet face. 

Rounding the escape wheel to its center arbor is important.  I mount my escape wheel on a board with an upright rod in the wheel's center hole and clamp that to my sander.  Find the lowest tooth on the escape wheel and turn the wheel so all the teeth are sanded to that height.  Or, better yet, if you have left the paper pattern on the escape wheel, turn the escape wheel, sanding around the wheel so that the black line on the pattern just barely disappears.  Now we know that all the teeth are the same height with respect to the center arbor hole. 

Balancing the wheels is important also, and a balanced wheel is most important at the escape wheel.  Stick a rod in the arbor hole of the wheel assembly and the low side is the heavy side.  Lighten it by drilling or sanding away some of the back of the wheel, or adjusting the size of the wheel's cut out design by sanding some away. 

The photo I'm including I have named "Simplicity after 15 years".  My Simplicity is actually older than that but I've lost track.  In addition to the pallet/tooth positioning, what I also wanted you to notice in this picture is the amount of wear on the pallets and escape wheel teeth after the clock has been running consistently, every day for more than 15 years.  Take a close look...that's right...none! 

I was just sitting here thinking...Simplicity ticks once per second, or 3600 times an hour, times 24 hour, times 365 days a year for 15 years - that is well over 473 million ticks and tocks.  No sign of wear, and never a problem...wow! 

Pretty amazing.  I have a Big Smile on my face right now!  That Simplicity looks like it should still have another two or three centuries of good running left in it. 

I hope you love your clock just as much. 

Enjoy!  Aloha.  Clayton