Debug Hints

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SP5B Weighting

After some minor tweaks, my 12-day clock ran for 2+ weeks including a winding or two and was keeping excellent time. It's using 4.4 kg of weight with the fishing line loop as designed. Although the weight is a touch heavy, I was just happy it was running so well. Then I woke up one morning and it had stopped. I was able to get it to run again for anywhere from minutes to hours by making minor adjustments but then it would stop.

I took the fishing line loop out and suspended 2.2 kg directly planning to run it without the escapement but before I could do that, it's back to running like a champ again--16 hours straight. I tried the loop with 4.4 kg and it stopped again. As I write this, it's running great with 2.2 kg direct hang.

Any ideas what could be going on?

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Steve

Mar 04

If the clock works with 2.2kg direct and stops with 4.4kg plus a pulley, and nothing else changed, then the pulley must be the problem. More likely, something else changed. It is easy to check the pulley just in case.

Two things to check after the clock stops are the escapement and the pendulum. It's even better if you can observe the clock just before it stops. Does the pendulum slowly lose amplitude? Or is the escapement losing energy?

Move the pendulum back and forth slowly while observing the escapement. Does it have the same energy as before? Then check the beat. Does the escapement tick and tock at equal amplitudes from side to side?

This clock has a friction sensitivity with gear 3 and the escapement. Sometimes when the clock is being adjusted, the frame can be squeezed and the escapement shaft collars get moved. This can push against the escapement. The slightest amount of side thrust against the escapement can stop the clock.

Hopefully, this provides some help.

aleitner

30 days ago

Clock used to run reliable, but no more

Hi Steve! First of all, thank you very much for these clocks! They are amazing!

I printed and assembled a SPB5 with the 15 day option. After a bit of tuning and reducing friction using your awesome debug hints I got it to work reliably. I went on vacation and even after a week it was still ticking just fine.

Then I decided to take off the weight shell (for an inspection) and put it back on. I didn't change anything else. Ever since then the clock is not running reliably anymore. It runs for a few hours at most, sometimes maybe just for a few minutes. The pendulum amplitude gets smaller and smaller till it completely stops. (I can restart it very easily though with just a gentle push of the pendulum)

Since then I tested the gears in isolation (without the pallet) and the weight (of ~6kg) drives…

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aleitner

Mar 14

Hi again,

Steve, thanks for your reply. For some reason it disappeared on the forum, but I tried your suggestions. Unfortunately they didn't help. Here is some more info from my side:

I added grease to the pinions, it didn't fix the clock. It is hard to say if it improves things, because the clock seems to sometimes run for a couple of minutes and sometimes for a couple of hours (even without greasing).
I have indeed a lot of weight. About 6kg. I tried with less weight as well, but it also didn't get me to a reliable clock unfortunately.
I recorded another video; this time hopefully with a better camera angle. The clock ran for about 3h this time. Here are the interesting timestamps:
Time stamp 1: The clock stops. It feels like the escapement has enough energy, but it somehow fails to give enough of an impulse to the pendulum to keep it going. But what do I know (:
Time stamp 2: The clock has stopped now for hours and I manually move the pendulum and also re-start it so you can observe the even-ness of the tick-tock

If you have any ideas of what I could debug next, I'd really appreciate it. It was so cool to have this amazing clock running reliably.

February 18, 2026

Gears Not Moving With Weight Attached

Hi Steve!! I love all your designs! I built the easy-build wall clock, but the gears won't move freely when the weight is installed. I reversed the Pendulum just to see if the gears would budge with no interference. No luck. I have taken the clock apart and rebuilt it several times now. All the gears on the left side work great on their own. All the gears on the right side work great on their own. When all together, it takes a ton of force to get anything to budge. Please help! I look forward to having your other clocks built. But need this one working first.

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Steve

Feb 18

It takes a surprisingly small amount of friction near the escapement to stall the gear train when there is around a 500:1 gear reduction. My guess is to look on the right side close to the escapement.

The debug steps should be listed in the assembly guide. Here are the important ones:

Every gear must be drilled to be loose on the arbor.

Every gear needs to have some end shake after assembly into the frame.

The gears that pass through the frame need to rotate freely. This would be gears 6 and 9 on this clock.

Gear 3 behind the escapement is connected solidly to arbor, so the arbor must rotate freely inside the frame.

If all of these checks pass, then start removing gears one by one to see if you can identify the trouble spot. Start with the escapement, then gear 2, 3, and 5. You may need a spacer to hold some of the gears in position along the arbor for some of the steps.

January 30, 2026

Moon dial not moving

Not sure how to resolve this but the moon phase gear isn't turning. The clock runs and reliably. Any suggestions?

132 Views

Steve

Jan 30

The moon phase operation is only two gears and a friction clutch. Make sure that both gears can move freely. Touch the gears and they should move slightly. Test the friction clutch by manually rotating the moon dial by reaching behind the main dial. There should be a small amount of resistance.

Another possibility is that you need to wait longer to see the moon phase rotate. The moon dial makes one complete rotation every 59 days. This gives a full moon cycle of 29.5 days.

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