To Repair Clock Escape Wheel

From American Horologist magazine, October 1938

To Repair Clock Escape Wheel
By W. H. SAMELIUS

When repairing clocks we often find Clock pivots should be well polished the escape wheel out of round and the escapement cannot be adjusted to function properly under such conditions.  To make the escape wheel is not a complicated job and can be done quite easily.

You mount one end of the arbor in the lathe, supporting the other pivot by means of a female center in the spindle of the tail stock. Then by raising the T - rest as high as it will go you use it as a means to support a very fine file or oilstone. Then when the lathe is in motion you take a very light cut off the top of the teeth until the wheel teeth are all the same length.

After this operation it may be necessary to cut the thickness of the tip of the teeth. To do this, use a fine cut file and cutting the front of tooth only until desired thickness is obtained. Never attempt to file both sides of an escape tooth as the results may be disappointing.  You are apt to find the spacing from tooth to tooth vary. In other words, the circular pitch of the teeth will be irregular, making it impossible to set the pallets and getting good results. Figure No. 1 shows mode of procedure.

Clock pivots should be well polished to make a free running train.  The work is easy and very simple.

Make a hardwood support with repair the escape wheel is not a compli- groove as shown in Figure No.2. It must be a close fit that there is no danger of slipping after once locked in place. Fasten wheel arbor in lathe chuck seeing that the V-groove is high enough to support the pivot to be burnished on center. Run the lathe at fair speed and use a burnish back file that has been cross-lined with a No. 2 emery buff stick. Take a few strokes with file applying a fairly good pressure and the results will be a highly burnished pivot.  See that edge of file is also cross-lined with a No. 2 emery buff stick. You will then have a nicely finished square shoulder. Any further detail is hardly necessary as cut is self-explanatory. (Figure 2. )