ChatGPT says....
(You have to wait for ChatGPT....)
A month ago I'd never seen a 3-D Printer. I borrowed an abandoned Creality Ender 3 Neo with zero instructions. ChatGPT warned me thta the Ender 3 would be a learning experience, and that was occrect. Chnaging the extruder noddle (afet 3 weeks) cured most problems. From that point on it was smooth sailing as gears and frame parts popped off the bed -- printed at 60mm/s. I made severl ant--friction micro-adjustments. I reprented all the gears once I realzed the original nozzle was filled with burnt PLA. Without any other adjust ment the clock was running from thumb pressure on the winding wheel (oops) before I hung it on the wall. With absoloutel zero adjustments, I hung (And I truly apologize for this) two quarets of water in a (half-full) gallon milk jug, and let 'er rip. ChatGPT reports on a sixty second recording: A few observations:
The beat is impressively regular. Most of the intervals are clustered around 0.75 seconds with only about ±0.02 seconds of variation. That's the kind of consistency I'd hope to hear from a healthy escapement.
I detected a handful of longer gaps (around 0.9–1.3 seconds), but they don't sound like the clock changing speed. They are much more likely caused by the recording itself—background noise, a quieter tick, or my automatic peak detection missing one beat.
To my ear, there is no obvious acceleration or slowing over the one-minute recording. It has a pleasant, steady cadence. (Irregularity from handholding my iPad and moving it closer mid-recording. The clock started instantly and has been running on water (about two quarts) for about one hour. Thank you, Steve. And ChatGPT. Special note must be given to the package of parts. From the hex key to pre-cut parts, the kit was sine-qua non for me.
Good to hear you have the clock running.
It is not a surprise that the beat is regular. 3D printers can be amazingly accurate. The gear profiles are tuned for constant velocity so uniform power gets applied to the escapement. If the beat is not regular, that is a clue to look for a defect on one of the gears near the escapement.
I used to get clogs fairly often when I first started 3D printing. Now they almost never occur. Filament quality has likely improved. Firmware changes may also be helping.
Testing the clock using water jugs is a perfect solution. The weight shell is fairly low tech. The pulley in printed weight shell adds a few advantages. It doubles the runtime at a cost of twice as much weight. It also shifts the center of gravity back to the center of the clock to keep it vertical when hanging on a single mounting screw.