Hi all,
I got hold of this sector clock project and would appreciate advice on the bezel. The bezel it came with is a blackened spun brass job, missing the retainer. If I were to use it, I'd either need to make a retainer (that would be a long, narrow, curved bit of sheet I imagine), or use plaster of Paris.
I also have a cast bezel which fits, but I'm unconvinced it would be appropriate, because the groove for the glass isn't pointing towards the centre radially, but slightly outwards, suggesting it might be for curved glass. It's 1.2mm wide and 1mm deep so quite a lot of glass would have to be removed to make the bevel.
Anyway I've never fitted glass to a cast bezel and from what I read here, it isn't easy.
The book I'm working from, The History of Clocks in the RAF by Bob Gardner, states that the Type 1 sector clocks usually had cast bezels. Mine is a Type 1 Elliott fusee of 1939. But Gardner also says that often bits were moved around between clocks and repairs were made with whatever was available, so my thinking is that the glass in a cast bezel might have broken and the repair tech fixed it with a spun bezel, a much easier job than fitting new glass.
So, my 1939 clock could have started life with a cast bezel and finished up with a spun bezel, not factory-original but possibly RAF-original.
That's my thinking. Is it logical? Would you use a cast bezel or keep the spun one it came with? And if the latter, would you use plaster of Paris, or try to make an original-style retainer from sheet metal?
Thanks!
Peter
I got hold of this sector clock project and would appreciate advice on the bezel. The bezel it came with is a blackened spun brass job, missing the retainer. If I were to use it, I'd either need to make a retainer (that would be a long, narrow, curved bit of sheet I imagine), or use plaster of Paris.
I also have a cast bezel which fits, but I'm unconvinced it would be appropriate, because the groove for the glass isn't pointing towards the centre radially, but slightly outwards, suggesting it might be for curved glass. It's 1.2mm wide and 1mm deep so quite a lot of glass would have to be removed to make the bevel.
Anyway I've never fitted glass to a cast bezel and from what I read here, it isn't easy.
The book I'm working from, The History of Clocks in the RAF by Bob Gardner, states that the Type 1 sector clocks usually had cast bezels. Mine is a Type 1 Elliott fusee of 1939. But Gardner also says that often bits were moved around between clocks and repairs were made with whatever was available, so my thinking is that the glass in a cast bezel might have broken and the repair tech fixed it with a spun bezel, a much easier job than fitting new glass.
So, my 1939 clock could have started life with a cast bezel and finished up with a spun bezel, not factory-original but possibly RAF-original.
That's my thinking. Is it logical? Would you use a cast bezel or keep the spun one it came with? And if the latter, would you use plaster of Paris, or try to make an original-style retainer from sheet metal?
Thanks!
Peter


