BHI Cheltenham Branch

2026 Programme: All welcome!

BHI Cheltenham Branch 2025 Clock, Watch and Tool Fair.

"The friendly fair"

Free tea, coffee, cake and biscuits - donations to Branch Funds appreciated!

ALL WELCOME

Zandaam Time Museum
https://zaansetijd.nl/
An absolute "must visit" if you are in the Netherlands!

BHI Cheltenham 2025 Keynote Speaker

All welcome!

Following the excellent turnout and fascinating and inspiring presentation by David Poole MBE FBHI at our September meeting, we are pleased to announce that we have been able to reschedule our planned 2024 Keynote Speaker for Wednesday 9th October.

Stephen is Senior Research Curator at the History of Science Museum in Oxford and is currently working on astrolabes, astrology and time telling from the 14th to 16th centuries. With a doctorate in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University, Stephen was formerly a curator and special projects officer at the Science Museum London.

We are privileged to have such an eminent and knowledgeable speaker. Do join us for what will surely be a fascinating evening, All are welcome: BHI members, non-members and guests.

We meet at Parklands Community Centre, Wymans Road, Cheltenham. GL52 5PR, where refreshments are available and there is ample parking. Admission is £7 to cover hall hire and speakers’ expenses (with a reduced rate of £35 for a full year).

Choice of wheel and pinion cutters for new work

I am making my own lantern clock (for those that know me, yes.. still the same one!). Previously I have only cut wheels and pinions to match antique work, where advice has always been to use a pinion cutter 0.1 module smaller than the wheel, both to provide strength and to accommodate the thinner wheel teeth of antique work.
However, this clock is a 1970s design with a 1.0 Module going train and 0.9 module strike train. I have some original drawings and an original 1970s clock to copy.
The going train of my clock is up and running at last, but there have been some surprises along the way. Can anyone with experience of designing and cutting their own wheel trains explain the logic of this design:
The going train is 1.0 Module, but the 8 leaf second pinion has been cut with an M1.0-6 cutter and the 6 leaf third pinion with a an M0.9-6 cutter.
The strike train is 0.9 Module, but all three 6 leaf pinions have been cut with an M0.8-6 cutter.
To my mind, using a smaller module cutter (i.e. thicker leaves) for the pinions, with standard thickness wheel teeth is just asking for trouble.
Can anyone suggest a logic for this design?

Wed 11th September 2024 @ 7pm.
Parklands Communicty Centre Cheltenham
David Poole: "Which Regulator"
On Wednesday 11th September we are pleased to announce that David Poole MBE, FBHI will share with us his knowledge and experience of the design and construction of complex regulators. David’s talk “Which Regulator?” encompasses five separate regulator clocks that David has designed and built, incorporating complications such as sun and planet maintaining power, correctors, and compound pendulums.

David, a former master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, has been a clock maker of the highest standard for over forty years. He has made critical contributions to horological education, establishing remote learning, support and examinations for the BHI and organising apprenticeships through the George Daniels Educational Trust. Between 2016 and 2019 David set up the Watchmakers Trailblazer Apprenticeship Scheme, one of the first of its kind under the government-backed initiative to promote craft apprenticeships, overcoming many obstacles with devotion and total service.

We are privileged to have such an eminent and knowledgeable speaker. Do join us for what will surely be a fascinating evening, All are welcome: BHI members, non-members and guests.

We meet at Parklands Community Centre, Wymans Road, Cheltenham. GL52 5PR, where refreshments are available and there is ample parking. Admission is £7 to cover hall hire and speakers’ expenses (with a reduced rate of £35 for a full year).

BHI Cheltenham Clock Watch and Tool Fair last Saturday. An excellent day out. Lots of intetesting people and some great horological bargains.