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WC5

INTRODUCTION
AUTHOR: J. RANDLE

2005 Randle Design, LLC


All rights reserved
Wood Clock WC5 is the fifth of several wood clock designs developed by John Randle of Randle Design, LLC.
It is a revised version of clock WC2 which was built in the fall of 2003 and has been running continuously since
that time. It was designed specifically to be built by an amateur woodworker with a minimum number of tools.
The design is a bit different from traditional clock designs in that:

1) The escapement combines the pallet design of the traditional Graham deadbeat escapement used
on most good quality grandfather clocks with the pinwheel of the traditional pinwheel escapement.
This modified Graham escapement is easier to build than a traditional pinwheel escapement, and the
pins are less susceptible to wear and damage than sharp pointed wooden teeth which would be
required for a traditional Graham escape wheel.

2) The escape wheel only has fifteen pins causing it to rotate one revolution every 30 beats rather than
one revolution every 60 beats as do the escape wheels in most traditional clocks. The fifteen pin
design was selected because it allows the use of larger pallets without forcing escape wheel diameter
and inertia to be large.

3) The clocks power gear train has an extra gear to keep gear diameter and inertia small while allowing
the use of the faster escape wheel.

4) The clicks on the first arbor are engaged by gravity rather than by springs as in most clocks.

5) There is no maintaining spring on the first arbor to keep the clock running while it is being wound.
Because of the exposed gearing it is possible to keep the gear train loaded during winding without
using a spring. See the winding procedure in the installation instructions.

This package is made up of three sections which cover the fabrication, assembly and installation of the clock.
Also included is a complete set of full scale patterns to be used for laying out and fabricating the more intricate
parts. Each section includes a set of detailed instructions and suggestions aimed to make building the clock
easy even for someone with no previous experience with clocks.

Anyone interested in more information on clocks in general can learn much by searching the internet. Specific
questions about this clock can be addressed by emailing John Randle at woodclocks@charter.net.

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