Beginner Gear Clock Design

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I decided I wanted to create a beginners guide to building an electric gear clock. The last while works very well will be labeled as experienced since it has more moving parts and needs tighter tolerances.

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The front and rear plates are simple and need no bushings installed. As long as the arbor holes and motor mount holes are unaltered the front and rear plates can be just about any shape or material. The face has four mounting holes that need to line up with the plate spacers, but other than that it can be altererd in any way.
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The motors I plan on using arrived and I was able to build the prototype. After I cut the parts it went togeter in less than an hour and that included rounding over all edges.

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The two plates are held together with 1/2" x 1/2" x 2-3/4" pieces of stock. These should probably be the same material as the plates. IE if walnut then these should be walnut.

I used drywall screws on the prototype but these should be nice looking brass or painted screws.

On this design. I just milled pilot holes with the CNC and drilled the diameter needed with the drill press. This worked out better as some of the holes you want the brass parts to fit loose and others tight.

There are 4 places where the brass tubing needs to be glued to the gear or of plate. I had been using a thick CA lue but it does not seem to hold. I need a glue that will stick to brass resonably well. I say resonably becuse it is not as though there is any load. As a matter of fact on this proto type I am not using any glue.

[Gary Hair]

Very nice! I'm patiently waiting (ok, not really patiently) for your plans to be available, I think it would be a blast to build a clock! As for the glue - I have used thick CA to glue the brass tubes in pens for years and have had no problem. The one thing you need to do is to lightly sand the surface of the tube, it will give the glue some teeth to stick to as well as remove anything on the surface that might not let the glue stick.

Gary

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Its a bit of work as I tend to go beyond just plans. I want to show options so that the seasoned CNC user and the begining wood worker can both build the clocks. Honastly the hardest thing about building a clock is makeing sure the grears are properly meshed. As long as you get the holes properly in place and parrallel all is good. The next problem is the dang Crutch on a weight or spring driven clock. We wont have that problem.

I needed to find a source for the motors so there would be a consistant and reliable motor mounting system. The plans will actualy have two motor mount holes shown. As there is another motor tends to be available on ebay. I have used them a lot. I will also post other mounting hole patterns on the web site once it goes live.

I also want to post various body styles on the web site.

I need names for the two clocks. Currently I have been calling them:
Electric Gear Clock
and
Simple Electric Gear Clock.

I am open to sugestions.

FYI the little prototype shown above has been running for a couple days and is spot on the current time. Tommorow I will be building the rounded version (I want to test my alternate motor Mount)

[john blile]

Michael

very nice project and video, a craftsman for sure. waiting for the plans

john

[Rod Williamson]

Michael:

I too am awaiting plans...good looking project.

Rod

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

OK I have the finalized design for this gear clock. Once the parts were cut it went together very quickly. This is not the finalized face. Just something I cut out with the laser.

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This rounded design uses a three point system for the base. The rear plate is rounded so the center touches the table surface. The front plate then as two small legs to form the triangle. This means you dont have to be perfect in your alignment. For the CNCer this is not such a big deal. For the scroll saw and band saw user this means your holes dont have to be perfect.



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I opened up the rear as I did in the original clock. This makes the gears easyer to see. It is optional however. Notice the two holes in the back. This is for the two main types od Syncron motors. I still need to work on cable management. For now I just use those little yellow twisth connectors to connect a cord to the motor wires. Since I am always switching motors for testing. In the plans I will show some more permanant methods.



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This is actualy the 2 nd prototype of this design. I put one together and my daughter came in and took it. Said it was an early birthday present, or something to that effect. In any case I have all the sizes for the spacers and tubes recorded so the only thing left is to come up with a more apropriate face design and some new hands. I also need to go out and get a bunch of brass screws so I can record the proper sizes needed to mount the face and plate spacers.

Onc the face is done I will finish it. The internal main gears will be done in Barn read with black glaze for a wood grain effect. The motor will be painted Flat Black. The Pinion gears, spacers, will be painted a dark brown. The front and rear plate will first be painted gold then brown. The brown will be sanded to expose some of the gold on the edges. The face will be painted gold. The hands will be black

I have aready started the book. But once painted I gan buckle down and spend 100% on the book. Since it is aready modeled in AutoCad, I can easily generate all my ilistrations and drawings. I think I will also offer a full size set of drawings as well. These will be printed from Corel.

If anyone hase any face or hand Ideas let me know. I can add them to the model and see what they look like. The face in the original post looks good but this can be hard to duplicate without a laser of CNC. Although a circle jig could probably be used on a band saw.

[Mick A Martin]

Very nice work Michael

Mick

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I just got through doing this face. Tommorow I will cut it out of 1/4" MDF to see what it looks like

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I fugure after its painted brass or gold I will paint the numbers black or dark brown. I have some of those acrylic pens that will work perfect for the numbers. The hole idea with the gold or brass paint is that the face will take on a metal look. On my last clock most people dont know its not metal until they touch the clock.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Here is the result. I like it. It needs a little more sanding but I think the size is perfect for this little clock. The letters were engraved with a 1/16 bit. The pocket and cutout was cut with a 1/4" bit. Had a bit of a mistake as the 1/4" bit cut too deep and I lost my tabs. The main ring broke free and I still had to change bits and cut the slits, holes, and letters. I used my waster board as a guide and clamped the ring down. Worked pretty good


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I still have to come up with some older looking hands. Possibly of Victorian design.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

I dissaasembled the to clock today and applied my finshes to all the parts. I also cut some new hands. I have to say it turned out very well.

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If you look at the original Autocade model its very similar. I did increase the size of the face so I could add some Roman Numarals. One thing I need to do is to paint the hands with some semigloss paint as the Flat black does not look very well. I also need to experment with the hand sizes as they are little too large for the clock. I need to go look at other victorian vaces and look at the hand to face ratio.
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[Michael Simpson Virgina]

hans1.jpg Pefected the hands. I even added a little gold highlight so they look and show up better.

[Rod Williamson]

Nice finishing touches...looks like a completed project!!??

Rod

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Yes. Now I can concentrate on the book.