Cutting a new escapement wheel
A couple of teeth on my first escapement wheel chipped on the back side and I had to recut it. I made a replacement using a different cutting technique that preserves the fragile tips of the teeth and I also used a close to zero blade clearance auxiliary table for my scroll saw which also helped to prevent chip out from the cutting blade.

Instead of cutting fragile tooth tips close to the pattern line I angled the entrance and exit cuts towards the outside away from the tooth tips. Some extra wood outside the pattern had to be left to allow this. It worked very well and no teeth were damaged this time. The tips were then sanded off down to the line on my disk sander photo below

Making a Sanding Jig
For the clock to run it is important for the wheels to be as round as possible, especially for the escapement wheel since it has the pallet part of the pendulum running on it. The best way to ensure this is to use a sanding jig to take the tips off the teeth.

A sliding piece was cut at the same angle on each side to fit the dovetail slot and holes are drilled in the slider the same diameter as the holes drilled in the gear center. The drill bit is used as an axel to keep the gear running accurately. It took about 15 minutes to make.

It’s just to mount the gear, shove it into the sanding disk until you just sand away the pattern line on one tooth, then the slider is clamped as shown and the gear is revolved by hand until all the teeth are sanded. Very simple and effective. Here one of the main wheels is being rounded. photo below

Thanks for reading

— Mike, an American living in Norway.

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