This photo was taken in late 1982 or early 1983.

Originally, I had no intention of building a cabinet for the movement as I had a stand that I used for testing clocks that I had repaired.

Almost immediately, I learned that ordinary air currents in the room would disturb the pendulum. This made accurate timekeeping impossible, even though this pendulum weighs 28 pounds. Those 4 chrome plated tubes are completely filled with lead.

I had a quantity of maple woodwork and trim that I had salvaged from a house being torn down. This case was built using casings and cornice molding from around doors.The house had been built in the 1880s.

The dial had been the lid of a 55 gallon drum, the pendulum tubes were for kitchen drains and the pendulum shaft was an extra curtain rod I found in the basement of our house. The only purchased items were:

• the glass for the cabinet
• 10 inches of copper drain pipe for the weight shell
• paint for the dial
• glue
• stain
• tubes for the pendulum tubes

I was disappointed with the accuracy at first until I purchased a RadioShack TimeKube which received time signals from the U.S. Navy.

Then I learned that the inaccuracy was with the electric clock I had used for comparison.

One three week period, when the temperature varied only slightly, this clock stayed within one and a half seconds of the National Bureau of Standards time signals.

Our house at the time was a quite sturdy Victorian Italianate style. It was built using balloon frame construction and a brick veneer. The load bearing wall on which this clock was mounted rested on an 8X8 oak timber sill. The sill in this area was directly above a steel post that extended to a concrete footing I had poured during prior basement repairs.

Because I have never been able to duplicate that original accuracy in any building since that house, I have learned just how crucial a stable mount is for the pendulum,

Turning my attention to reducing friction, this quest has led to being able to remove 4 pounds of weight from the original 10 pounds required in the beginning. A 40% reduction and I have yet to install ruby or sapphire jewel bearings, or pallets.

To get accurate information when evaluating many experiments, it is a big help to keep track of small variations in the swing of the pendulum.

I built the camera mount on the right to assure that the lens is always in the same place quickly and easily.

Getting photos like the one below is now just a few seconds away and I know that one taken today can be accurately compared to one taken days, or years ago.

When I was dreaming about how to go about making this stand, I thought the Eiffel Tower had a graceful, attractive and hopefully sturdy shape. Looking for material in a salvage yard I came across these curved tubes. I did not know where they came from until I got them home and found that one had a part number on it along with "Buick".

Did I happen to mention I am a packrat and scrounge?

In case you had not noticed by now, I am!

The stand does seem sturdy though. The clock ran with full power as soon as I started it. It usually has needed a settling down period of hours to days. It just depends on how solidly it is mounted.

Now I just need a good footing in our house or shop. The walls in the house appear to be too flexible as the pendulum will swing with no movement in the clock!

YIKES!

The clock was entered in the Experimental Timepiece Design category and the stand in The Horological Tools category

The clock earned a third place award and the stand a first place award. These results are especially gratifying because both of these projects were not constructed as showpieces, but as items for conducting experiments.

If you have read this far, then you might be interested in a thread that I started in 2011 that describes this clock and many of the lessons I have learned by building and experimenting with it. It is located in the 'Clock Construction' forum of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC). This thread already has over 53,500 views and has many excellent contributions from individuals in several counties around the world. Here is a link to save you from having to search for it:

https://mb.nawcc.org/threads/owner-built-precision-regulator.74057/.

Now Located on "The Mother Road", Historic Route 66