Lego Technic Clock with Building Instructions

[DLuders]

Losing track of time while building Lego? You can make this real Lego Technic Clock mechanism. On the website http://staff.science.uva.nl/~leo/lego/clock.html , Leo Dorst posted drawings on how to make it -- they're reprinted below. Thiagot5/ T5 made an excellent video which has on-screen ANNOTATIONS that explain how it works.

CLOCK HANDS -- "The two hands of a clock need to turn on the same axle, in the same direction, with the minute hand 12 times faster than the hour hand. This minimum setup achieves these objectives nicely. The crucial part is the 16-tooth gear with the round hole in it, found in the Super Car and other LEGO TECHNIC® sets":

ESCAPEMENT ASSEMBLY [Cogged Gears] - "I have three different designs for escapement wheels. Since each takes a large number of similar parts, you may need to choose carefully (you want to pick the one that gives you the best excuse for buying more LEGO!)." See http://staff.science.uva.nl/~leo/lego/escapement.html for all three designs with detailed pictures, explanations, and Parts Lists.

CLOCK COGWHEEL ASSEMBLIES (two to choose from) -- "This cogwheel permits you to raise the weights of a clock without affecting its running; the proper way to mount the weights is sketched on the drawing for the complete clock":

"Here is an alternative design, using more modern (1997) parts and waiving the need for the large gear (which is rather rare in sets)":

TOTAL CLOCK -- "Then, when you have all the parts, you may want to build the actual clock. I have not done this, but Eric Harshbarger went all the way (with his own different designs for the internals) and built a real-size Grandfather clock! ....

"This is a flat clock, with (apart from some detail in the hands assembly) all axles in one plane. This is done for clarity; it is obviously possible to make everything more compact. I have labelled gears on independent axles by different colors.

"The weight you will need depends on the friction; a weight of 2-5 kg should suffice. The LEGO chainlinks will not take much more anyway; when you try this out, put a pillow on the floor underneath your weight, it prevents dents! In my version, the weight drops quite a bit, and I can not really run the clock for longer than an hour before it needs to be raised. If I could let the chain take more (for instance by two parallel chains), then I could overcome more friction and therefore put in a larger delay. But I doubt that the friction can be overcome enough to require recharging only once a day. Hey, it's only LEGO; this is just the principle. But let me know how long you can make it run...

"As weight for the pendulum you can use a standard Lego weight, or a LEGO motor. You need to adjust the period to your needs.

"Not all of you may have as many large 40-tooth gears as this example requires. You can replace them by more smaller gears, of course. As long as the total gear ratio is close to the one here, you can do the rest by adjusting the pendulum weight. But the more gears, the more friction!"

[Jurgen Krooshoop]

This builders clearly knows a lot about clocks. The mechanisms are amazing. Now all it needs it a nice case around it.

[Jetro]

If you're interested in LEGO clock designs, there's a whole world out there... have a look at this website: http://www.zefdamen.nl/Lego/Lego_clock_en.htm or this one: http://popbubble.com/Lego/LegoClocks/

As for the drawings you show, Leo's LEGO Designs is one of those pages I keep coming back to - full of ideas and interesting techniques.

[Jan]

Reminds me of the clock in the first TECHNIC idea book 8888, Someone ever build it?, was it precise? I doubt.

One of the best technic products ever, I think, I mean the book.

[CP5670]

Reminds me of the clock in the first TECHNIC idea book 8888, Someone ever build it?, was it precise? I doubt.

I built it here (without the cutout clock face). It has some very clever ideas, but doesn't really work that well.

[darksheep]

Cool cool cool bricklink.com hear i come !!!

[adamcnnng]

hello, i have been looking for a design like this for a long time. i know its a lot to ask, but do you think you could send me a parts list and maybe more pictures of the clock in the video. this would be great. please let me know -thanks