I was going to just report about my experience so far with lubrication of the gears on my SP14 Moon Phase clock. But I decided it would be cool to start a Post about the subject in general to see what experience others are having. Maybe we can find an ideal lubricant. Which, I don't know, this one I used may be it. So if you would like to share, please post what lubricant you are using and what experience you have had with it. Here is mine. When I was first starting up and breaking in my clock, I ran it dry (no escapement) to break it in with whatever weight I needed to make it free-run. After brushing some of the Synthetic Gun Oil (shown below) into the pinions using a small brush, while it was free-running, it really took off. And I found I could make it free-run on it's own with significantly less weight. Over the next day, I applied this lubricant, very thin film each time, three more times, mostly to the faster running gears, allowing a few hours in between each application. I honesty think this has helped my SP14 clock run well. Currently ticking along nicely since it was started, and keeping time very accurately. My theory is that the microscopic Teflon particles, and other additives, suspended in the oil get embedded between the layer lines of the working gear surfaces, and over time and a few applications, builds up enough to fill in the voids and provide much smoother, less friction working surfaces. Doing it while the clock is free-running not only helps distribute the film evenly, but also serves to ram the suspended additive particles into the layer voids. My thinking in regards to using a PTFE based technology, compared to something like a grease, is that it is less "sticky" than a grease product. Anyways, not sure if this is real or not, just a theory. But my clock does run with very little friction, at least for now. Only time will tell how this behaves in the long run. Here is a link that has a description of the product. Show us your lubricant. M-Pro 7 LPX Gun Oil

I was anxious to keep making gears after completing Steve's SP14 clock. I'm considering building a wooden clock as well and thought I'd give the laser a try cutting out a gear. So I just found and downloaded the first free wood gear file I could find and ran it on 1/8" Birch Ply. Came out beautiful. Cut in only 3 minutes with a single pass. I think my laser will do just fine producing laser cut clock parts.

Hello again, I'm starting this post as a way of sharing my progress on my new Moon Phase Clock build. For starters, I wanted to showoff the hardware kit that came in the mail today. At first, I was contemplating putting this kit of non-printed parts together myself. But I'm so glad I chose to buy Steve's kit instead. So worth the cost, as it would have taken me forever to put together a quality hardware set like this. Shipping was quick, thanks Steve ;-) , and the packaging was perfect. The kit comes with everything, including the correct size drill bits for the arbors. All of the arbors are nicely cut to length and the ends are de-burred. The minute hand arbor is already ground with the needed flat on it. The bearings are already cleaned and de-greased. All of the required springs are included (and shipped on the arbors for protection; clever). The screw package includes flat, pan and socket head fasteners, along with the hex key for the socket heads. And finally, the required fishing line, which is nice, heavy braided (no stretch) line. Nice work on the hardware kit Steve! Only bummer is there was no candy included! I also received a new spool of Sovol Silk Magic Tri-Color PLA in Blue-Yellow-Fuchsia to try out for the gears. I will report back on how this material performs (and looks). Part of my goal with this choice is to somewhat replicate the look of Steve's gears using the MatterHackers Quantum Blue-Rasberry PLA, which I think is beautiful. But that stuff is expensive, and not sold by Amazon (Prime). I hope anyone seeing this post will follow along as I attempt to build this beautiful work of a 3D printable clock. I am totally open to any and all comments and suggestions as I go. When I first saw this clock on Youtube, I was so blown away. I just had to have one. Time to start loading some STL files into my Prusa Slicer. More progress to follow. Cheers!