Filling in the blanks
More clock related news ….
The Arnold & Lewis clock had its ‘minutes’ clock face (called the pilot face) replaced at some point or it never got its final face. The clock had a simple hand stamped brass blank. This was probably not the original plan. Based on seeing an old photo of a similar clock and referencing other clocks, the pilot face should have been cast brass piece.
These days, finding a foundry to make a single piece is costly. But the clock really needed it. Fortunately there are talented and creative craftsmen (gender neutral usage here folks). The machinist I hired thought he could build the piece using a CNC* machine. I created a custom font to resemble cast iron and he programmed the face. The last step was using a thirty-thousandths cutter (0.0030″) to emulate the variances that casting would have produced. It took some trial and error *but* he was ultimately successful.
I liked the resulting part so much, I had a duplicate made as a desk display. The machinist did the same <grin>.piece.
*CNC = Computerized Numerical Control
