Ball Clock II ~ Quarter Lever Latch

IMG_4423With the strikes for the quarter hours coming too quickly it was necessary to figure out a way to slow them down.  Fortunately (by chance) the exiting balls pass below the quarter lever strike mechanism on their way back to the second lift.  It was about 1 second after exiting the cup on the quarter lever that the ball would pass below the lever mechanism.  That seemed like a good delay time.

I put a bar across the columns to mount the trip lever assembly.  It also helped make the structure more ridged.

IMG_4424A pivoting piece was made with adjustments for throw and mounted on a block so that when a ball passed down the track, the upper part would push against a latch holding the quarter lever down, releasing it to accept another ball and start the strike cycle again.

This solved the issue and provided a nice pause between the strikes,

The latch the caught the quarter lever had to be weighted to suppress bounce and assure a solid latching to occur.

The movie is in slow motion and shows the action of the latch and release working.

 

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