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Recoil anchor escapement: escape wheel and anchor

How does a recoil escapement work? · Hardware · basis: Xem Studio design following Brown No. 288 (1868)

Also called: recoil escapement, anchor escapement, clock escapement, pendulum escapement, escape de áncora de retroceso, Rückfallende Ankerhemmung

Exact dimensions. True size, with no printing tolerance added.

sizes
5 in table

Notes

  • An anchor rocked by a pendulum lets the escape wheel advance one tooth every two beats: a tooth is locked on one pallet, released as the anchor swings, gives the pallet a small push across its slanted impulse face, and the wheel drops until the other pallet catches the next tooth.
  • Recoil (anchor, c. 1670): the locking faces are not centred on the pivot, so after locking the swinging anchor pushes the wheel back slightly (the seconds hand visibly recoils); robust and tolerant, the escapement of most longcase clocks.
  • Drawn with a tooth tip resting on the entry pallet's locking face (contact only, wheel turned -5.09°). Brown's No. 288.
  • Parts (each has its own page): escape-wheel-30t-d50, recoil-anchor-for-30t-d50, dowel-pins-metric.
  • Brown's movement No. 288 (1868) shows it; this model is a Xem Studio design following his figure, every part at true size.

Recoil anchor escapement: escape wheel and anchor size chart

parametervalue
escape wheel30 T, Ø50
anchor span7½ teeth
pivot height35.36 mm
beats2 per tooth (60 per wheel turn)
typerecoil

Where the files are

Other publishers' files are linked, not hosted. "verify" = check the license at the link before commercial use.

Henry T. Brown (1868, public domain)Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements — scan on archive.orgwebPublisher's page; dimensions are facts
507movements.comBrown's movement No. 288: figure, his text and an animationwebPublisher's page; dimensions are facts

Free files

★ Free files 1 parts. Generated by Xem Studio from the standard; threads are plain cylinders at major diameter. CC BY 4.0. index.json

recoil-anchor-escapement-mechanism-assemblyAssembled mechanism, all parts placed at one pose (STEP keeps each part separate)STEP · STL
Let your AI pull this. Add https://xemstudio.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client (free, no account, one minute) and it can look up exact sizes, mating fits and free STEP/STL from every chat.
Set it up →

Plain text: sheet.txt · JSON: /api/geometry?object=recoil-anchor-escapement-mechanism

Recoil anchor escapement: escape wheel and anchor, isometric render of a generated part
Render of recoil-anchor-escapement-mechanism-assembly from the free STEP; not to scale.

Fits with

Escape wheel, 30 teeth, Ø50, club-free pointed teeth raked forward, isometric render of a generated part
Escape wheel, 30 teeth, Ø50, club-free pointed teeth raked forward50.0×49.73×3.0 mm★ 1 file
Recoil anchor for the 30-tooth Ø50 escape wheel, isometric render of a generated part
Recoil anchor for the 30-tooth Ø50 escape wheel44.96×25.47×3.0 mm★ 1 file
Dowel pins, 2–6 mm (ISO 2338 / DIN 6325), isometric render of a generated part
Dowel pins, 2–6 mm (ISO 2338 / DIN 6325)5 sizes★ 23 files

Questions

How does a recoil escapement work?

An anchor rocked by a pendulum lets the escape wheel advance one tooth every two beats: a tooth is locked on one pallet, released as the anchor swings, gives the pallet a small push across its slanted impulse face, and the wheel drops until the other pallet catches the next tooth.