ITS ALIVE!

Here is the Gravity Escapement in real life!
I cut the parts on the weekend...It seems a lot easier to cut than the others...could just be me getting better at creating the tool paths.
It kind of worked when assembled, but if I put too much power into the system with my finger, it would skip 2 or 3 beats.
So I went and redesigned some parts and installed them.

1st leg and wheel prototype...I thought that the small angle faces on the ends of the spokes were slipping off. So i decided to make spokes that required the wheel to be recoiled a little, kind of like a hook, but they just didn't release. Sorry for the bad pics, but you can see it above over to the right with the clear perspex arm.

So I made a new prototype which might release earlier because I thought that the spokes might just be catching on the edge and letting go.

You will see below that the action happens so fast...By looking very closely, I saw that the skipping problem was caused by the small black arm that is close to horizontal was dropping off the steel pegs. So I sticky taped a small piece of perspex above it and that stopped the problem!
Although the escapement was actually working, there was still a problem with it impulsing the pendulum way too much and making it swing too far. You can see above a small bit of aluminium taped to the top of the pendulum and also a small recess ground out of the clear perspex on the bottom right.
Here is a video of the escapement working. But working with a 1 second per swing pendulum instead of what I originally intended to use, which was a 1/2 second swing.

There are a couple of reasons for thinking about going with a 1 second swing over a 1/2 second swing.
1 The escapement is impulsing too much for the 1/2 second swing pendulum, which is caused, I think, by the arm being too heavy being made from the perspex.
2 The large impulse is working great for the 1 second swing pendulum
3 I have already noticed that there is going to have to be a very large weight to drive the clock. That weight can be HALVED INSTANTLY by keeping the 12 spoke wheel and halving one of the gearing ratios.
4 Upon running the clock on the 1 second pendulum, the noise created by the escapement is no where near as a racket only clicking every 2 seconds instead of every second. ( This type of escapement is regarded as one of the most accurate, but it is noisier than most )

Some more pics to have a look at...

Well that's the latest update!
Over the next couple of days, I will be finalizing the escapement design and cut a new gear ratio just behind the escapement from being 40 to 8 teeth, to being 40 to 16 teeth...or i may even change the ratio on the large right wheel from being 60 to 8 teeth, to being 60 to 16 teeth...which is probably a better solution, because it will make the right wheel more similar size to the left side.
Actually no...I'll do the large wheel in the middle, which is 64 to 8 to be 64 to 16, then it will be easier to see the teeth from behind the face. Fewwww. Glad thats over! :)
See ya soon!