Clock Gear Train Calculator

 Clock Gear Train Calculator Program Instructions This program was developed as an aid to the clock designer.  Did you ever wonder how many three level gear trains there are with a gear rati o of 60  that use the same gears Such as 60/20-60/20-60/9? How about with a gear ratio o f 120?  This program will tell you.  The program allows the user to determine how many levels of gearing he wants as  well as how many  teeth on each gear, with a range of 60 to 135 on the wheels and 8 to 27 on the pinions.  It will compute everything between the pendulum and the minute hand.  The program consists of two sections The top section generates clock gear trains based on minimum and maximum values  input by the user. The bottom section lets the user set the gear ratio and compute the pendulum le ngth based on the number of teeth on the escapement gear and the gear ratio.  To use the program, these steps can be done in almost any order  Step one Decide how many levels of of gearing gearing to evaluate.

This can be two, three or four

. Two Level Gearing evaluates evaluates two wheels and two pinions. pinions. Three Level Gearing evaluates evaluates three wheels and three pinions and Four Level Gearing evaluates four wheels and four pinions.  Step Two Decide if you want all of the wheels and all the pinions to be the same same sizes. If the user checks Match Gear Sizes, the program evaluates Wheel 1 and Pinion 1 parameters for each level.

It also requires input for pinion 4.

 Step Three Set the minimum and maximum values values for each gear that is visible on the screen . Depending on what what the user sets sets in Steps One and Two, some choices may may not be available. Pay attention to the iterations window. The slower your computer and the larg er the number of iterations, the longer the program program takes to run. It is possible possible to generate generate mo re than 173 billion iterations. It's all all relative, relative, so just be aware. aware.  Step Four Set the gear ratio that you want to evaluate.

 Step Five Specify a filename and location for the output file. I usually use "Gear.txt" and put it on my desktop. If you decide to keep multiple evaluations, make sure you change the file name  between runs.  Step Six Specify the number of teeth on the escapement wheel. This is only used to det ermine pendulum period and length. The defaults are set for a clock with one minute escapement wheel rotation, a 30 tooth escapement and a 39.114" pendulum.  Step Seven Hit the Proceed Button. This generates a file with a header showing all of th e choices made by the user, along with all of the valid solutions found by the program. The p rogress bar shows how far along the calculations have gotten. If the progress bar is too slow f or you, hit the cancel button and increase some of the minimums and/or reduce some of the maxi mums. Have fun! Steve Fox