Books
Learn how to build and repair clocks, telegraph keys or just have fun in your shop-
Workshop Techniques
$45.00This manual contains all of the articles (except serials) written by W. R. Smith and published in The Home Shop Machinist, Projects In Metal, and England’s The Clockmaker during past years. It is 8-1/2 x 11, with 108 pages and is comb bound to lie flat.
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Clock Repair and Advanced Craftsmen
$45.00When I wrote my last book in 2008, I was convinced that because of my advanced age, it would likely be the last one I would ever write. In 2009, remembering the many repair tricks from my early life not found in current clock repair books, I decided to write a book on clock repair. This effort was interrupted by open heart surgery and five bypasses. Following recovery, work was continued and the book was finally completed during the first part of 2011.
by W. R. SMITH, BSME, FBHI, FNAWCC, CMC, CMW, CMEW, W4PAL
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Clockmaking and Modelmaking
$45.00Bill Smith is a master clockmaker, and his orientation is basically and undeniably clocks, BUT…Clockmaking & Modelmaking Tools and Techniques is most definitely not just for clockmakers. In this new 8-1/2 X 11″ soft cover, 112-page, comb bound book, he has revised the best of his previously published articles in the British Horological Journal, Timecraft, Model Engineer, and Horological Journal. He has expanded and updated them as required, and put them together in book form. Any aspiring clockmaker will find a host of ideas worth many many times the price of the book. Included is an interesting idea for a method of winding coil springs in the bench vise, as well as considerable info on the workshop use of Super Glue Also included is a good section on the use of piercing saws for skeletonizing sheet brass, etc. He also shows how to hand-sharpen a twist drill so it will produce truly circular holes in sheet metal with ease and precision, and delves into button centers for filing circles in metal. A camera tripod accessory for workshop photography is detailed. Bill has used the prototype in making thousands of photos in his own shop in recent years.
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Sherline In The Workshop
$45.00This book is spiral bound, 8-1/2 x 11, contains 102 pages and 220 figures—both photographs and drawings as required. Most of the information is how to do things with Sherline equipment that no one has ever done before.
See how to mount the Sherline CNC indexing table on the Sherline lathe with a simple boss, a shaft clamp and a sheet metal restraining arm. This allows gear cutting of wheels with teeth from 2 to 999. Learn how a homemade hand crank can simplify threading with a tap or a die, as typically done with bench lathes. See how the same hand crank and a few accessories allow the winding of powerful fusee clock springs, as well as all other clock springs on the Sherline lathe.
BY W. R. SMITH, BSME, FBHI, FNAWCC, CMC, CMW, CMEW, W4PAL
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How To Make a Skeleton Wall Clock
$45.00I have just finished reading Bill Smith’s latest book, “How to Make a Skeleton Wall Clock.” As a life long clockmaker and machinist I am tempted to sometimes think I have seen it all, even if I know better. This book reminded me there are still things to learn, and I learned several from reading it. I can say without reservation that this is a “must read” book for every clockmaker. Bill writes with the same objective used by Donald DeCarle when he wrote “Practical Clock Repairing” 45 years ago.
This is a 85 page, 280 figure workshop manual for building the clock.
Silver medal winner in the NAWCC international craft contest.
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How To Make a Lyre Skeleton Clock
$45.00This workshop manual is a must for the clock repairer, and clockmaker. Detailed drawings and step by step photographs, supported by a carefully worded text illustrate the fabrication of every part of the clock. Even those who have no desire to build the clock will find the tooling and techniques of great help in their shop work.
This is a 86-page, approximately 30,000-word, 256-photograph workshop manual for building the lyre skeleton clock.
Gold medal winner in the NAWCC international craft contest
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Restoring a 1914 Telegraph Keys
$105.00Combo: A DVD showing all of the steps in the restoration of a 1914 Vibroplex Telegraph Speed Key and a book showing how to restore telegraph keys
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How To Make A Gearless Gravity Arm Clock
$45.00This is indeed one of the most interesting clocks you will ever make. People stand in front of it for an unlimited time trying to decide how it runs and how it indicates the time it is keeping.
By W. R. Smith
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Epicyclic Train Strutt Clock
$45.00A work of art that will forever be cherished by your heirs. This is one of the most interesting of all single train skeleton clocks ever conceived. First made by an Englishman, William Strutt, about 1830, it has a number of interesting and extremely unusual features not found in other clocks. Its 8-day run, spring driven train is epicyclic (planetary gearing) and involves a ring wheel of 4-1/2″ ID and 5-1/2 OD teeth. The motion work is based on the Ferguson Mechanical Paradox instead of the normal 12 to 1 gear train. To allow individual setting of the hands, the collets are of most unusual design. Both beautiful and unusual in the extreme, this clock is an excellent time keeper, which any Clockmaker will be proud to have made.
This is a 128 page, 378 figure workshop manual for building the clock.
A gold medal winner in the 2003 NAWCC International Craft Contest
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How To Make a Grasshopper Skeleton Clock
$45.00This workshop manual is a must for the clock repairer and clockmaker. Detailed drawings, and step by step photographs supported by a carefully worded text, illustrate the fabrication of every part of the clock. Even those who have no desire to build the clock will find the tooling and techniques employed of great help in their shop work.
Gold medal winner in the NAWCC international craft contest
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Fun in the Workshop
$45.00The book is 8½ by 11 with a spiral binding, 91 pages, with 186 photographs and drawings. The chapters cover refinishing rusted steel screws, making a Jacot tool for refinishing clock pivots on the watchmaker’s, Sherline and Myford lathes, lathe tools for holding small screws while shortening them, doming the ends and polishing, pallet warmers and how to build one of my design and using the Albrecht chuck to replace the use of collets. Also, for the curious, the disassembling, cleaning, oiling and reassembling a pocket watch without harm to the parts. Removing the spindle key from a lathe to achieve better centering of the part when mounted is shown. The 22 function quartz analyzer I designed is included, as I have many requests for the information, even though it has previously been published in other Horological literature. There is a chapter on the tools others have made which I found interesting and l’ve included some of the things I have made, letting the reader see some of my past ventures.
BY W. R. SMITH, BSME, FBHI, FNAWCC, CMC, CMW, CMEW, W4PAL…
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Restoring a Mecograph Telegraph Speed Key
$25.00After Horace G. Martin invented the Vibroplex and put all key makers out of business based on the fact that they were violating his patent rights, the appearance of the Mecograph key, which did not violate the patent, was such an unusual events that I decided one should be obtained and restored to factory conditions for posterity.
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How To Make A Telegraph Key
$45.00I have just done a search of the Internet for books on the building of a telegraph speed key. None were found. Nor was anything found about the making a vertical telegraph speed key. Thus, this book appears to be the very first one ever written on the subject. Those who have HOW TO RESTORE TELEGRAPH KEYS will find it a great adjunct to this book.
BY W. R. SMITH, BSME, FBHI, FNAWCC, CMC, CMW, CMEW, W4PAL
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How To Restore Telegraph Keys
$60.00After about six months of constant shop work, digital photography and writing, I have finally completed a new book, HOW TO RESTORE TELEGRAPH KEYS, and copies are available for shipment directly from stock.
Although this book does not deal with clocks, it contains a wealth of workshop techniques not found in other clockmaking, clock repair books or machine shop texts. Thus it is an important source of workshop techniques and material sources.
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Hypnosis Saved Her Life
$7.00A Novella by W. R. Smith
About 35 years ago, after having written a number of books of poetry and “how to” books for clockmakers, and having spent five years of my earlier life studying medical hypnosis and attending medical seminars on the subject, I decided to write a book, Hypnosis Saved Her Life – a charming love story illustrating the value of hypnosis to the average person. I hope you will enjoy this 201-page novella.
