Review:

Workshop Procedures for Clockmakers & Modelmakers

A Video by Bill Smith

February 6, 2002

Bill Smith’s latest instructional video is a bag full of machinist’s "insider" techniques. The content is a reflection of years of experience at the trade, and makes no pretentious claim to revealing the techniques not often found in books, but that is what it does. I have been a machinist and clockmaker for almost as long as Bill Smith, and I know from that experience that most of the old timers take for granted the information in this video. They assumed that everyone learned these things as apprentices.

Few have bothered to write in the detail that was common knowledge among those whose careers were in the precision machining and clockmaking trades. Even Machinery’s Handbook does not cover the little pieces of practical information that shorten the time spent on many daily jobs. Moreover, even the best written material cannot cover points that become clear when watching an ongoing procedure. Workshop Procedures for Clockmakers & Modelmakers is a video for craftsmen (and women) who did not learn their trades over a lifetime in the shop.

Machinists and machine shops are far from dying out, but the trade, which is necessarily closely allied with clockmaking, is no longer a common part of American industry. The result is that the shops where young workmen learned from the old are scarce. Since Bill began publishing his books in 1989, he has said that his object is to capture and pass on techniques and procedures that have been at the root of clockmaking, and small parts machining. He has certainly done that with this video.

Among the subjects treated in Workshop Procedures are various old and new ways to make and use indexes for gear cutting, an efficient and effective way to make an internal gear, a tool for laying out gear spokes, how to turn exact convex and concave surfaces with an "x/y" engine lathe, winding mainsprings on a lathe, and three practical ways to determine if a mainspring in a barrel is the right length. The viewer will see how ridiculously simple it is to repair lantern pinions, just because Bill shows how the pinions were assembled originally.

Side issues are not ignored. There is a section showing how to make a motor reversible with a toggle switch. Methods of powering lathe attachments are discussed in detail, ranging from self-contained units, to fitting a versatile counter shaft to the lathe. There is more: a simple way to put uniform Damascening on metal using a drill press. How to lay out duplicate scribed lines end-for-end on metal stock is shown along with an ago-old watchmaker’s method for finding the drilling center of a shaft, here adapted to larger work.

In all, there are over twenty separate procedures demonstrated on a two hour tape. Each of these demonstrations is straight forward, and no time is wasted on the obvious. Bill respectfully assumes some intelligence on the part of viewers, as well as prior knowledge. Accordingly, he uses shop terms at many points. A novice would need to watch these demonstrations more than once to get the most out of them, but unfamiliar terms become clear as they are associated with the operations in view.

To continue with Bill Smith’s mission to encourage workmen who do not own extensive workshops, the tool compliment required to take advantage of the techniques in this video is kept to a minimum. Most of the turning and milling applications require only a bench lathe. A Myford, South Bend, Atlas or the like is ideal. Nearly all of these procedures can be scaled to a smaller lathe, but unlike his last tape, Bill has not concentrated on using a Sherline lathe to the exclusion of other available equipment. Emphasis on a general selection of tools and machines significantly extends the usefulness of this video.

I began by saying I have been a machinist almost as long as Bill Smith. I learned much of my trade in a clock factory machine shop --- the old fashioned way. Even so, I have learned several things watching this tape, and every viewing adds more to my knowledge. Put in the simplest terms, I think anyone working with lathes and other machinery will find this video worth the $35.00 it costs. It’s also fun to watch.

John C. Losch

Holliston, MA
 
 

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