About 30 years ago I fancied the idea of a large clock striking on bells to go at the corner of the staircase. In the junk box was a Westminster movement with five chime hammers, one of them lifted independently of the others for the hour strike. There was enough room for a longer barrel which could operate all five hammers. I made a case with a two foot octagonal dial and suitable hands then purchased a set of five diatonically tuned bells together with a sixth one tuned an octave lower.
As a tower-bell ringer I thought of making the clock perform a sequence of possible changes concluding with a descending scale so I made a new barrel to drive the hammers, also a new cam as Westminster wants sections of 1, 2, 3 ,4 and I required 1, 2, 2, 5. Using as an example the scale of C the sequences are:
DCFEG
DFCGEFDGCE
FGDECGFEDC
DCFEG DFCGEFDGCE FGDECGFEDC
Two pairs switch between each sequence of five notes.
The movement was fixed to the back of the dial with bolts.
As the years went by wear in the wheelwork came to produce noise that began to obscure the sound of the bells, in spite of cleaning and bushing. The warning wheel on the fly pinion was the main source. The 1/4 inch three ply dial acted as a sort of sounding board. As the centre shaft has ample length I decided to put rubber grommets in the mounting straps.
As soon as I had done this I knew that it had been successful because setting the clock in beat became difficult, I could barely hear the tick when the case was closed. The chime was back as it should be.
When I sort out how to do it I'll attach a sound file containing the chimes and strike!
https://youtu.be/V7rYmgPPIkE
As a tower-bell ringer I thought of making the clock perform a sequence of possible changes concluding with a descending scale so I made a new barrel to drive the hammers, also a new cam as Westminster wants sections of 1, 2, 3 ,4 and I required 1, 2, 2, 5. Using as an example the scale of C the sequences are:
DCFEG
DFCGEFDGCE
FGDECGFEDC
DCFEG DFCGEFDGCE FGDECGFEDC
Two pairs switch between each sequence of five notes.
The movement was fixed to the back of the dial with bolts.
As the years went by wear in the wheelwork came to produce noise that began to obscure the sound of the bells, in spite of cleaning and bushing. The warning wheel on the fly pinion was the main source. The 1/4 inch three ply dial acted as a sort of sounding board. As the centre shaft has ample length I decided to put rubber grommets in the mounting straps.
As soon as I had done this I knew that it had been successful because setting the clock in beat became difficult, I could barely hear the tick when the case was closed. The chime was back as it should be.
When I sort out how to do it I'll attach a sound file containing the chimes and strike!
https://youtu.be/V7rYmgPPIkE
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