Mantel Clock MOC

[danielhstahl]

I've been interested in lego pendulum clocks for 15 years.  I've had functioning clocks before, including some relatively long running variations.  Recently I've decided to revisit with a different set of design goals:

• It must use standard lego techniques and be functional without careful fine-tuning.
• It must be educational.  I want my 4 year old to learn about pendulums and gears.
• It must be beautiful.  I want to display this in my living room.  

Out of scope:

• Accurate time.  Not only is accurate time difficult to achieve, it doesn't aid with being educational.  The clock hands move too slowly to notice.  In this clock, the minute hand makes a full circle around roughly ever 2 and a half minutes
• Long running.  Again, making a clock that runs for a long time adds complication without aiding in education.  A 4 year old is going to run out of patience after a few minutes and a few rewinds. 

Features:

• 24 hour clock face
• Time can be adjusted by moving the minute hand
• Side door can open to reveal the gears inside
• Manual rewind that uses a differential to keep the clock running

Video:

 

I've borrowed aspects of the hand mechanism from:

 

And the escapement from:

 

 

Edited December 15, 2020 by danielhstahl

[Lira_Bricks]

Nice clock! But how is your(?) child going to learn how a clock works if all the gearing is hidden? :)

Also, your video is linked to start somewhere at the end of the video. Was that on purpose or was it meant to start at 0:00?

[danielhstahl]

Thanks!  I have the top open and the side door for my kid to see the moving parts :).  I think I fixed the youtube link; it should start at 0 now.

[Horologist]

Good design, It seems to work really well for its purpose. What's the gear ratio between the two hands?

[danielhstahl]

14 hours ago, Horologist said:

Good design, It seems to work really well for its purpose. What's the gear ratio between the two hands?

Thanks!  Gear ratio is standard 12:1

28:8->20:14->24:20->24:12