Pins and slip-it

Now that the clock "runs," I've been tuning it so that it runs well.  The largest apparent problem was that that the anchor slipped on its arbor.  This meant that sometimes the clock would run with an even beat, and then lose this...  So to fix the problem, I made a small pin, like the one shown below:

In the end, the pin shown here didn't grip well, so I turned a second one that was tapered.  Then, with the anchor in place, I drilled through the anchor into its arbor and gently hammered the pin in place.

This helped with keeping the beat even, but the clock still was stopping abruptly.  After talking with my father, we settled on lubricating the teeth.  Nearly all wooden clock enthusiasts argue strongly against such a move, most wood lubricants or finishes turn hopelessly gummy and become hard to remove.  However, one caught our attention: slipit.  They sell two kinds, a wood-working kind (without silicone) and a "mechanics" kind (with silicone).  The reviews indicate that the kind without silicone doesn't work well, but the kind WITH silicone seems to work better.

So we settled on the stuff with silicone, and I applied it to all gear teeth with a small paintbrush.  After putting on a frightfully large weight (9 lb 8 oz), the clock has worked absolutely smoothly since!  Amazing!

Now, I did notice something odd.  Although the minute hand seems to run at about half speed, the hour hand runs at the right speed.  Weird.  I guess I made TWO gear ratio calculation errors...