The simplicity wood gear clock design was developed by Clayton Boyer. The clock uses a weight as its source of energy and a pendulum to control that energy. The clock will run for 30 hours and will auto rewind through a lifting weight system.
The tick tock sounds that we can here from this clock are actually brought by the energy that slowly escapes. It is built out of the escape gear, lever and the pendulum. The gear stops spinning when the pendulum swings moving the lever in and out of the escape gear.
The energy of the weight spreads over a period of time so that winding the clock every 2 minutes is not necessary. To build a simplicity wooden gear clock, here are the steps:
1. Materials
These are the woodworking materials you’ll need to make this wooden clock: scroll saw, drill press, miter saw, hand saw, clamps and spray adhesive. For designing, the materials are free2Design, Gimp and blender.
2. The Plan
2. The Pendulum
The mechanisms of pendulums are quite interesting. They are the weight found at the end of a pole. The time it takes for it to go from one side to the other and vice versa is its period.
To make this clock, we need to have a 2 second period. This will take the pendulum a second to swing to the other side. This will also allow the escape gear to turn one tooth at a time.
The escape gear will be the second hand because it rotates one tooth every second. The length will be 1 meter for a period of 2 seconds.
The pendulum will have 30 teeth since the escape lever will have 2 teeth that will stop the escape gear at each end of the pendulum swing.
3. Gear Train and Design
The minute hand is an axle that will rotate once every 3,600 seconds. We need a gear ratio of 60 between the minute hand axle and the escapement axle to make it.
The hour hand will rotate once every 43,200 seconds or 12 hours. We will need a gear ratio of 12 from the hour hand to the minute hand to make it.
There are parameters that have an effect on the size when designing a gear. Calculate the diameters of the pitch, root, outside and circle base. Draw gears in CAD.
4. Cutting Gears
Download simplicity wood gear clock plans and then print out the drawings. You’ll need them as patterns when you cut the wood. Drill a hole that is 1.5 inches in diameter. Then around the diameter from the outside, cut the gears and the teeth.
5. Placement of the Gear
Create a template to drill the hole of the escapement axle. Slide the gear on the axle then place it to the hole. After that, place the mating gear on the axle and hold it.
Modify and place the next gear, make a mark and drill the hole. Make sure that both gears will fit the hole. Continue the process with the remaining gears.
6. Assembling the Clock
After the gears and axles are placed in their slots, secure the face of the axle with the ¼” dowels. The levers and the escape gear will be set at the back of the pendulum. Sand the wood to have a smooth finish.
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