Restoration of a Unitron Weight Driven Clock Drive

The weight drive on the left is all original. On the right is the restored version. You can see both in operation here http://youtu.be/UbDR3p7mtTA .

This is what I started with:

These parts are original Unitron. You can see a teardown of this Original Unitron Component in this Youtube video http://youtu.be/bmf6JOqT1nE and in more detail in this slideshow:

I built a replica of this original three ball governor to fit with the assembly:

You can see a full teardown of the replica here: http://youtu.be/KzwZS1b7-fIYOUTUBE

Here is a slideshow demonstrating the mechanics of the ball governor. Notice that there is a small “plate” that rises too meet three small friction fingers above as the balls move out with increasing speed. You can control the vertical position of the fingers with the knob on top and thereby regulate the speed where those fingers engage the plate.

Here is a slideshow showing some of the construction details of the replica three ball governor and other parts:

As you can see the restoration up to this point is not yet complete because there is no mechanism to transmit the motion to the telescope. To see the completed system in operation please see my page on replicating the Gear Boxes .