Making gears by hand without machines - Part 1 - Kosmos
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- How did clockmakers and watchmakers arrive at the divisions in their gear wheel teeth before the invention of sophisticated tools? We can create very accurate divisions using only simple methods. In this part 1, I show how this is done, as also demonstrated at a horological exhibition last year. In part 2, I show how the teeth are actually cut and filed, by hand.
This process has been used for at least a few thousand years. I first learned of it by watching Michael Wright, of the London Science museum demonstrate this on the BBC. The method has also been published in German and English horological reference books.
Great video-- thank you for sharing. I do have one thought to consider: You're too focused on using the divider to 'guess' your way to the proper tooth division distance. Time is money. They were well aware of PI, and the relationship of circumference, and diameter by that time.
Therefore, the most likely solution to allow them to determine caliper width for marking, was a very simple, one-pass process:
I've explained it here:
They were exactly aware of how many turns of the adjusting knob it took on their marking caliper to close or spread the caliper for a specific, common distance in clock work.
Once the circumference is known, and the width of the division is known, all that must be done is that the caliper adjusting knob be brought to zero (legs closed), then turned the appropriate number of times (to open them). Caliper is now the proper dimension for tooth distance, and the wheel can be marked. One pass, no guesswork. Engineering.
Remember-- they did this for centuries-- the stumbling only lasted a few years.
5 years we patiently waited and no part 2 :(
It will never happen. He was silenced by the clockmaker's guild for revealing closely guarded secrets passed down over the centuries to apprentices who proved themselves worthy of the sacred trust. The secrecy helps to protect the earnings of the guild members. Honestly, how many poor clockmakers do YOU know? I rest my case.
One of my players in D&D wants to start making clockwork things. Very informative for coming up with stuff to describe how it was done.
How incredibly disappointing to discover that there is NO part two , as the cutting of the gears is (should be) the ultimate conclusion to this video.......
He only makes a few videos per year... Give him time.
@@albertrasch4793 No hurry. Doomsday is not near!
@@albertrasch4793 It's been over a year by now. In fact it's been so long that UA-cam have forgot I've already viewed this video!
HE TOOK TOO MUCH TIME IN TRYING ERROR, TO FIND THE DIVISION OF A SMALL GEAR.
If that was your machine, how often would you use it? It seems to be a bit of an antique. This is obviously not for everyone, personally I quite enjoyed watching the process.
That dividing engine is a fantastic piece of mechanical history. I would truly enjoy replicating it.
There is no part two:(((
I would love to see part 2!
Part 2?
Leave it to a clock maker to start something and never finish it.
ObiTrev They're out of time...
Just so you know, we're still waiting :D
still waiting
@@-loarado still waiting
@@commentcrafter4158 what happened 😢
@@angelocarantino4803 he time traveled back home
🤣😂🤣
where is part two please ?
me too!
@@alexanderstohr4198 - we're still waiting!!!
If I were to become a wheel cutter I would be tempted to make a much larger disc with a centre spigot. Each disc could be marked out very much more accurately because of its greater circumference and a straight edge used to transfer the lines to the wheel blank mounted on the spigot. Very low tech and much easier especially with small wheels. Once made the pre marked master discs would save considerable time. I know this video is a demonstration of dividing but I can't help wishing that you had mentioned how it could have been done without precision drilled index plates.
I enjoyed your video. Looking forward to part 2. I actually got onto this partly because my family were watchmakers many years ago and also because I was interested in making my own custom threading tools for work on horn material. Some of this transfers pretty well. So how about showing us how the teeth were actually cut?
Any progress with part two? I've been pressing refresh for 4 years
Pretty interesting. I greatly enjoy learning how these incredible machines were made with minimally sophisticated equipment.
Very cool video. Don't listen to these morons who say it is boring. I love all the tools associated with clock making. They are extremely fine and controllable tools, but all very substantially and accurately built.
Have you seen how clickspring did the deviding on his latest project? Basically he made the circle to be devided much larger then the gear to be cut, and the projected the spacing back onto the gear, thus making the deviding a lot easyer and more precise, still using only a pair of deviders like you did here. cheers.
That was my thought. Why not start with a large wheel, say the size of a wagon wheel, and cut, by hand, a large number of teeth, e.g. 360. These can be marked out using the same method of walking the divider along the edge. Now a much smaller blank can be placed at the center of the large wheel which can be rotated an approprite number of teeth for the gear to be cut. Any error in the layout of the large wheel is reduced substantuaily in the smaller gear.
Flip de boer Exactly what I was thinking. I was utterly fascinated by Clickspring's technique and the result. His use of marking fluid also made it very clear what was happening.
You're missing the point. He's showing how a gear is cut before the dividing circle concept came about.
It's not clear when the dividing plate came about, but the Antikythera mechanism that Clickspring is reproducing is 2000 years old and contains some pretty small gears with a multitude and unusual numbers of teeth. Something along the lines of a dividing plate seems like a necessity, at least in its case.
They had CNC machines back then. LOL!
Now for the time saving maths, just after you inscribe the main radius (before you saw anything) take the radius and mutliply it by two then multiply the result by pi (3.14159) e.g. R=12mm, R*2*pi = 75.4mm. Now devide the answer by the number of teeth e.g. 75.4 / 31 gets 2.42mm. Now set your compas to 2.42mm and inscribe a semi circle to the circumference, from the centre of that circle mark a point on the circumference and from there draw another semi circle. Mark half the disc this way clockwise, then start back from the top and do the same counter clockwise (this is to reduce the cumulative error) and your done. If you do this for a larger wheel you will see that these circles intersect a two points, draw a line linking these two points to the outer circumference these intersection points is the marks you are after!
Wonderful ...Just where I am up to. Please do do the next part of cutting the teeth :) . I was pleased to see the dividing and cutting machine. My nutting out some sort of machine to do the same I am pleased to see, is on the right track then.
I really enjoyed the video and the information it conveyed. It was a bit slow for my likes so I just increased the play speed to 1.5. The voice sound changes very little and is clearly understandable. I call it a win/win. :-) Thanks for posting this video.
I listened at 3.5 times speed and it was perfect
I hate waiting for the sequel. When will we see part two?
Thanks for part one.
please please post part two!
I am amazed the work is not scored into say quarters which would give an indication of accuracy before completing all the marks. Even a centre line would mean the opposite tooth should be bisected. I can't believe clockmakers didn't make it easy for themselves.
I would love to hear more about those three nails lathes you mentioned.
when will you be doing part 2?
Now how did they make a coping saw blade? Chiseling edge on steel band?
yes, i think so. it would have been a bow saw, with a narrow blade, maybe, so it could turn. earliest saw blades were bronze i think; all of them larger than the coping saw used in the video here. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_saw
Very interesting! Please let us have part 2. Thanks!
Good evening. Is part two available?
Great video. What I'd like to know more than making gears by hand is, "how did they make dividing plates so accurate back in the day"?
Presumably by the method just demonstrated ?
Very interesting. However I'd like to see how was the template manufactured prior to machinery existence.
why do i find this video soooo satisfying?
Kosmos, thanks for this video! I just want to ask to give us the other parts! It's too bad there is no part after months!
About on how to divide the wheel: since everybody is saying what they think, here are my thoughts: I'm not sure if there weren't people who did this but I would simply get the circumference size by doing 2 times pi times radius and divided properly by the number of teethes plus one to get the section size for the desired number of teethes. And them, using a ruler (I'm not sure if it was available a somewhat precise ruler - surely not in centimeters), I could get the proper arc for the tool used to mark the blank disc just for the sake of the video.
verry interesting. i can not wait to see part 2
I was amazed at how the clockmakers of olden times made clock gears from brass castings. I am still puzzled as to how they made the saw blades for cutting brass at that primitive day. Do you have any knowledge of how they made the tools necessary to work in miniature at that early day?
I feel like part 2 is just around the corner! 🤪
🤣🤣🤣
The (B.C.) Antykithera Computer is an extra ordinary example: Centres are so critical.
wow so sad part 2 never got made, i was really curious
I am trying to visualize the 3 nails in the bench lathe described in the beginning of the video. Is the work piece trapped underneath the nails? If someone would be kind enough to make a drawing that might help.
Lossanaght I think one nail is used as the tailstock, and two nails are driven into the other end to drive the piece as it's rotated by some other means.
It is a bow lathe where the third nail is the cutting tool
i love to know how people worked before modern technology!
Is the part 2 video released ? cant find it..
I am also looking forward to parts, 2, 3, 4.... ☺️
i imagiine if you use that last method you might have already a set of markers/deviders with the correct width for the number of teeth/size of wheel you want to make. like two pins a set distance from each other
for my school watch iim hopiing to do some wheels with the slot cutter, topping tool, ingold fraise method. perhaps i will make a video.
Instead of just trial and error why not just use a known radius instead of an arbitrary when you scribe your circle and then just use basic math to calculate your chord length? That would have put you way closer and way faster than just trying to figure out the chord length trough trial and error.
Same thing I was thinking, divide the parimeter by 31. Anyway, then there is standard tooth width to consider and mating with pinion. They also talk about pitch I think. But it is interesting to know how watchmaker/clockmakers of the past overcome.
Calculating and setting the dividers with any level of accuracy may have been more difficult/time consuming than this trial and error method. Keep in mind that the clockmaker probably didn't have a micrometer or calipers, only tools that they had made, by hand, by themselves. It's easy for us to use a calculator to figure out the circumference and then divide by x number of teeth but without a calculator? It only took a few tries for him to get fairly accurate and that was explaining his process along the way and keeping in mind he is not doing this every day so with practice the time required could be reduced. I am impressed!
The reason for this method is because he was showing how it could have been done before accurate linear measuring tools were developed.
Chris Hurlbut, that is what I was trying to say but you made the point clearly. I find it fascinating to see how clocks were made using just hand tools. I can't imagine making a gear without my lathe and milling machine.
@towerclock- No. These people are engineers, not artists. They work in knowns, and very quickly (because time is money, and this was likely their livelihood), they learned to remove guesswork. The divider they used, even if made by hand, can have arbitrary accuracy simply by it's design (and as I explained at the head of all of this a moment ago), there is a step-by-step, one-pass method of determine tooth distance accurately using a 'crude' divider/caliper tool.
The secret is the threading of the divider's adjusting knob. And this, of course, would have made their tool incredibly accurate.
We have a weelcutingmachine like this in our company museum :) we started in the 18hundrets with clock parts and two people in their private houses :) now we are world leaders in diamond polished and cutted surfaces and count over 170 employes :) the company had these weelcutting machines wich were powerd by a leather strap connected to a watermill :) now we count hundrets of cnc machines in our company ... cracy how far the technology has come and i am proud to do my aprenticeship in the company to be a part of it :)
I would love to see you show how to cut an escape wheel by hand.
are you trying to make a automatic watch
Glad I have watched it to the very end.
Silly question. Why would they not make a wood or brass master cog for each ratio and then use that to mark out the brass cog. If the master is made thicker it would retain its shape so you would only ever need to do the math and measurements once. Were the ratios that variable?
Very instructive. But please, where can I find part 2? Thank you
Im afraid he passed away
Hey Kosmos, where's part two??
Very interesting, sad there is no part 2 yet :(
AMAZING Job!
This sir is a good video hope there’s part two coming
And where is part 2..?
Very informative where did you get that myford mug if you don't mind me asking ?
you should see the shaublin ones they are da best mugz
Been three years now. I'm guessing Part 2 isn't coming?
Perhaps a much larger disk could be made and a tape or rope of length equal to the circumference could be more easily divided into equal length segments. The tape or rope could be wrapped around the disk and the marks transferred to the disk, then the wheel blank could be clamped to the disk and a straight edge from the common center of the blank and large disk could be used to divide the blank to match the large disk.
cphank151
GOD! THANK YOU!
You've just described how to make a dividing plate. Although it's not significantly more difficult to mark the wheel directly as opposed to a straight tape unless you wish the marks to come out at intervals that lend themselves to doing it by folding.
such a great video, exactly what i was looking for. Thank you!
Interesting, though maybe a little slow paced. Would like to see the part 2 if you do finish it. Thanks.
Dividing a circle into a small number of equal divisions is easy using the scribe, but for unusual numbers like 31 you would probably want a premarked blank you can copy from. Which is basically the precursor to your marking wheel. A method you might use is to scribe a straight line onto some brass, open a scribe to the width you want your teeth set to. Scibe the required number of divisions along the foil, then when you stop at 31 you have a line the length of the circumference of your desired gear, with correct divisions. The problem then is to transfer that to into a circle. You could use pi to get the radius from the circmference. Or if you scribed into a strip of metal you could join the ends together to get a tube, as long as it's not badly warped that will give you the radius. There might be other ways to use this method more accurately.
Most engineers would do this only once, They would create a template. They would not step out each tooth the way you did, they would divide the circle into 60 deg sections, this being the chord length equal to the radius, and then section each chord length into whatever pitch was required. I was looking forward to how the dividing plate was made, later video perhaps?.
Its a great amazing video!
Im new in this amazing world! I want to be a watchmaker! Can you make like a list or a video mention the tools like you show now? Please! That can help us a lot to start buy them and start real good in this world! Thanks a lot!!!
For sheet metal work, the method of similar triangles and parallel divisions would be used to get the gear pitch.
Very interesting and impressive video. When you adjusted the dividers to make 31 rather than 32 divisions on the circumference, manually!!!!! I thought "Holy C@#p", this guy is good. I thought a geometric technique must have been used, not trial and error as you did. Perhaps geometric techniques would have been used to make the dividing plate which is the template from which many accurate wheels could be made. This is a very good explanation of how clock wheels were made at the earliest time. I like your presentation method. Slow enough for students to take in the significance of each comment. And like many of the other comments below, I too want to see PART 2. Stop teasing us. Finally, I think this explains how the Antikythera mechanism was made in ancient greek times. Even so, that device inspires awe in anybody who can appreciate how far in advance of European clock maker it's creator was. Thanks again for this video, now please give us your promised PART 2. Cheers.
Is there still any plans for a part two? Such little information on the original tools for this fine craft.
where is part 2?! I need more!!!!
Clickspring has a great video as well describing ancient wheel cutting
Wheres part two? You've got me interested now!
With the diameter of the inner circle known and hence its circumference. Would it not have been easier to strike off the test lengths on a straight piece of brass?
Waiting for 7 years for party 2.... I'm starting to think he might not make it
I'm ready!
You could just use for instance a 30cm diameter wood disc, roll a paper ribbon around, then fold the paper in half, then in half again repeatedly until it's small enough, then you put it back around the disc and mark each folding line. You then draw a line from each point to the center of the disk, then your put the gear you want to make in the center and copy the marks on it and you're done.
You can easily make any even number of teeth this way. For odd or high number of teeth, you gave to divide the paper by measuring it first.
Please make the second part!
Nice work
The question is, how they cut all the way through, if the blank was sitting straight on top of dividing plate, without damaging it? I have seen different device,very old,which had a 1 tooth cutter on rotating wheel and worked somewhat like a shaper. Dividing plate was NOT under the blank, but on side and the "cutting table" , on which the blank sat, was movable just a little bit...the amount equal to cut tooth depth plus little bit more...on the screw. So the first pass all around was barely cutting, then small adjustment of the table with screw closer to cutting tool and again one more time around, but little bit deeper, and again and again until it was all finished. Cannot figure out how this one cut.....
I believe the piece to be cut sits at the top of the spindle. The highest part of the machine looks like a clamp to hold the gear in place using the pin with the conical end attached to it. Zooming to full screen, I think there is actually a small gear still clamped in place. I see what looks like a cutting wheel lined up next to it.
And show us how to use a wheel cutting engine please 🙏
I'd be very interested in seeing the three nail turning technique
A nice tool a machine you have there. Great lesson on copper brass forging, material was not always a buzz away to get in your shop. Nice first lesson I might wonder if you will come back to complete the lesson of how gears used to have to be made before the manual then electric engine, again gear teeth were not easy to make during this same materials times.
Surely it would be better to use Pi to get the circumference and then divide it by the number of required teeth, rather than the "hit 'n' miss" method you demonstrated.
Or have I missed something?
So..... When do you think part two will be out?
How do they make the thing that makes the things?
So which came first the gear or the dividing head ?
alan graham
obviously the gear.
IsbjörnXII I agree
so, where is part 2?
Very interesting. Second part coming soon?
Did they even have saws or maybe even files back then that could cut bronze/brass? I’ve always been fascinated by small and very small mechanical movements such as those used in clockwork, pocket and wrist watches. I’m also pretty confident I could figure out how to cut teeth with modern hand tools on my own, but what did people of antiquity actually use before the invention of early machinery? I’m aware many people have asked this already , but did you ever actually cut any teeth in your blanks? Is there a part two of this video?
odd I can not hear any thing at all.
Not sure if it is my end or an issue with you tube videos for me
mater of fact an alarm is sounding off as i type
odd
Very informative. Thank you!
Î'm looking foreward to the next partl
so, what's new about any of that? How else would you divide a circle?
Thank you for the great lesson.
Nice so far, but where is part 2?
Where is part 2?
how they make gears in pocket watches?
I'm really interested in how could you turn things with 3 heavy nails without a lathe,... hmm?
Your hand is a very good actor 😂
Part 2 - Using a machine to make the gear
Why do not some videos allow subtitles?
I need them!
Why didn't you calculate the circumference of the tooth circle by multiplying the number of teeth by the width of the tooth base.Using pi calculate a diameter and scribe your pitch circle.Better than constantly guessing and ending up with numerous marks.
how can you say"using no equipment whats so ever" as your hold the piece of equipment that you just used?
I bought a barometer because I noticed that it had an error in the face -- the numbers (inches Hg) go from 24 to 31 with tenths marked. From 27 to 31 it's all good (27.0, 27.1 &c), but from 24 to 27 it's wrong (24.0, 24.9, 24.8 ... 24.1, 25). The face is a metal (copper?) which is silver plated and the numbers are engraved and appear black. How could this mistake have come about, and how come the barometer was not discarded as a mistake?
This video leaves the questions: How did they make the tiny drill bits. How did they spin the tine drill bits. How did they make the tiny toothed saw blades. Obviously many unnamed geniuses in past history.
Where's part 2?
This is why clock makers were very rich men.
Wait... how do you turn with three nails?