Posted by grim (206.162.192.40) on August 03, 2002 at 17:04:34:
In Reply to: Two thoughts posted by Rob on August 02, 2002 at 11:28:36:
Rob I would guess J.B. probably balanced his wheel as best he could considering the technology of the times, after all he was a clockmaker. I got a book from the Lindsay booksite a while back on how they achieved flat surfaces on
metal down to .000001" by a method still used today for lathe ways and milling machine ways-simple labor-intensive (for those days) scraping. Not even a surface grinder can give that flatness, but they were able to obtain those
results in the 1700's with a lot of elbow grease. They certainly weren't backward neanderthals in those days, it just took them longer to do stuff. I'm sure J.B. applied his clockmaking skills to his wheel and balanced as best as
was achievable. This plywood disk I'm toying with is certainly not balanced by any means, but if the thing works I'll probably mill it out of Lexan to make a "visible wheel". I don't hide anything or I wouldn't have posted what I
did. Tues. start on what I am deducing is the positive weight placement mech. Just been busy, got the parts for it though.
As far as the devices you mentioned, throw some together and try it. There's certainly more than one path to the finished results. Personally I just got tired of trying to second-guess J.B. and took him at his word that the parts
and movements were scattered throughout the drawings.
Make your inertial devices and give it a shot!
----Regards to all, Grim