GearHeads Corner

Hi all.
I read a post from Ian that was about a year old and didn't want to tread on his discussion. I too was having problems with the exact measurements of my ratchet and pallet size by cutting with laser. Must be the kerf difference in my case as I'm pretty sure the math part was correct.
Now I need to add some size to both pieces to make up for it but by how much? 
I have an idea but want to know from Art or Bob, is the measuring tool (upper left corner) usefull in measuring the distance between outer edges of the pieces to the outer edge of another piece?  What I could do is measure the distance from the tips of the pall (in a top-dead-center position )  to the tip of the ratchet on the application and compare it with the actual distance after cutting and then add the difference
Thanks.
Mark.

Mark:

  Most of my cutting on laser is from acrylic.. I usually add .1mm around the
outside in my case, but generally with an escapement it isnt critical. You can
usually tune and escapement regardless of if its slightly smaller. Depnds on the
escapement size though of course, the smaller the ratchet diam, the more critical
every .1mm will be.

  The measurement ruler is very accurate if you zoom in as tight as you can.

Art

Thanks Art. That's what I guessed would be the increase. I use Corel draw and can easily contour that addition to my objects. By the way for some reason my pallet wasn't very close to working the first time so I adjusted the arms to closely match the tip distances to the gear teeth. (All using draw tools in Corel) I am close now. The only hiccup would be now that I have distorted the arms of the pall, the tangent forces discussed in the videos may not be correct anymore. But it's almost working now. One more day!
Mark

Interesting - I've cut many escapements from GT using CNC router and have always found them withing light sanding of wroking perfectly

Tha mirrors my experience , when cut by laser they work out of the box, even the grasshopper hopped rigth along. When cnc'ed frmo wood they have also just worked right out of the cut.. but , like anything else, experience will vary. :)

Art

Well Guys, I figured out what I did wrong. My cuts were perfect however my deadbeat wheel was somehow changed to an old file and I was using a different size so the hub distances were wrong because the wheel was too small! I'm an idiot!
What I actually have done since is now that I have the measurements correct I have taken my pendulum and bent it over the top (double 90 degree) and the escapement is attached (one piece) to the pendulum. So far it's working so I don't need to have any adjustments. (yet anyways)
Ill upload a video soon
Cheers and thanks to all.
Mark

Ahh, thats better. Escapements usually work pretty well out of the box in Gearotic, or so most have found. Good to hear it was a simple mistake.. god knows I make enough of those myself. :)

Art