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It ticks like any mechanical clock with an escapement.

@@stevesclocks every time I see an 3d mechanical clock it make sound sometime

You can substitute the tube with something close that is available in your country. 3mm thick wall brass tube should work. SP1 was the first clock I designed. It used readily available parts in my country. I never expected it to go international. Eventually, I redesigned it to be easier to build and with all metric components. The tubing and bushings have been eliminated. It is available at www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-small-8-day-clock-337387 for a nominal charge that may be less than you would pay for the one piece of tubing used in SP1.

Thanks. I used to cringe when anyone bought the older designs and I knew the newer designs would be so much easier to build. The new gear profiles appear to make these clocks my most reliable at the moment. I will add them to the easy build clocks next to see if 32 day mode is more stable.

Thanks. I wanted the older designs to have same easy to assemble frame style that my newer clocks use.

Thanks. Glad you like it. Enjoy your build.

I agree that 3D printed gears should have less friction than laser cut wood. Friction would be reduced by adding bearings at all the pivot points. However, the gear tooth friction in my clocks is probably 10X higher than the pivot friction. The arbors have a small diameter with steel turning in a smooth PLA hole. The gear teeth engage at a larger diameter and will always have some amount of sliding friction. Completely eliminating pivot friction would only reduce the overall friction by around 10%. It is much easier to just increase the drive weight by 10% instead of adding bearings throughout the clock. A wooden gear clock with wood dowels as arbors will have a much higher pivot friction. It might see a much better benefit from additional bearings. The only places I use bearings in my clocks are where there is a moving weight. The pendulum arm has about 5-6 ounces of weight and is the fastest moving component in the clock. It gets small bearings with very low friction. The weight shell also needs bearings due to the heavy load being supported.

My oldest clock has been running for over 5 years with no visible signs of wear. The only part that has been replaced is the winding key.

The trivial solution is to double the weight and reduce the diameter of the winding drum by 50%. This achieves the desired result without needing a complex mechanism to switch between multiple weights.

@ I’m talking out of my hat here as I have not built let alone designed a clock. However I thought there was a constraint around loading of the mechanism and precision ease and also sensitivity to small environmental fluctuations like knocks. Thanks for the reply. One day I’ll get to this. Preferably with the kids too :-)

That sounds like an over-complicated way of doing something that has a trivial solution of using simple gears to move the hands. I do not think I have ever seen an analog clock operate the way you describe. The closest I can recall is the schoolroom clocks that were all synchronized to the master clock in the main office. An electromagnet would be energized once per minute to move the minute hand one step. The hour hand moved normally with a 12:1 ratio to the minute hand.

@@stevesclocks You're right, it IS an over complicated way to do it. And when I say "used to" I mean like a couple hundred years ago when clocks were first being made. You go to all the old city clocks in Europe that are still operating and when the minute and hour ticks over, you'll hear a REALLY loud CLUNK and the hands will move. :) I just thought it would be an interesting challenge for You.

@@Runescope That is very interesting. I always assumed that a tower clock would be completely analog.

@@stevesclocks Oh no, they are! That's kind of my point. The process is all done through gearing, that's why I thought it would be a challenge for You to figure out how they used to do it.

Good to hear. I was just about to reply to check the friction clutch. The debug video at th-cam.com/video/deW7OsjY-xQ/w-d-xo.html would also have some hints.

I bet it will look great. You can post pictures on MyMiniFactory or the web site forum at www.stevesclocks.com/forum

@@stevesclocks Be assured I will, everybody needs to see just how amazing your clocks are. I love the fact that, while the clocks are your design, we can make them our own simply by using our favoutite filament. When I have finished this one I am going to purchase your moon phase clock. I love your designs.

SP13 is the easiest to build and should be very reliable. Any printer less than 5 years old is capable of printing my clocks as long as the build plate is large enough. 220x220 can print all of my clocks. You can find the assembly guide with instructions and parts list at www.stevesclocks.com/sp13

@@stevesclocks thanks

I consider it to be a mechanical analog clock with digital accuracy. The mechanical portion makes all the noise and needs the smooth motion to make it quieter.

You may be able to easily get your old clock working again. In my experience, the most common fix is to clean the pendulum bearings again. Then check that all the gears still spin freely on their arbors. A tiny drop of lightweight oil on the arbors and lithium grease on the pinions may also help. For the easy build clock, make sure to use the "Rev 2" updated gears. It can still be downloaded from MyMiniFactory. This fix eliminates gear 3 pushing against the escapement.

@warrenreif5369 Generic RTC modules are accurate to about a minute per month. Precision RTCs add voltage and temperature compensation for an accuracy of about a minute per year. They only cost about a dollar more. The only time the clock loses time is when it loses power. Synchronizing to a global reference time adds a lot of complexity. It needs to connect to the reference time, and it needs sensors to know where the hands are pointing so it can bring them back to position. I have considered an alternate solution of using the Arduino Nano nonvolatile memory of recording each second that the hands move. If power goes out, the algorithm only needs to know how many seconds the power was out. The clock could run fast until the hands catch up. If power was out for 11 or 23 hours, then the clock would run backwards for an hour. Of course, there is also a trivial solution of making sure power never goes out. A small USB battery can power the clock for a week or two. Plug the battery into a wall charger so it stays fully charged, then feed USB power from the battery to the clock.

@@stevesclocks Thanks for the quick and highly informative feedback. I program C/C++ primarily in the Arduino world, so an atomic clock solution, similar to the real time clock implementation, seems doable. My thoughts on a "never let the power got out" solution was to mimic the computer back up approach where a battery is always providing power to the load (clock) and is charged at a safe, long term voltage when power is on.

@@warrenreif5369 Powering the clock with USB power makes it really easy keep power applied. The biggest challenge is finding a power bank that doesn't go to sleep. My 10,000mAh Anker power bank shuts off with only a single clock load but will run continuously if a few clocks are attached. A no-name 5,000mAh model will stay running for several days with one clock load.

The moon phase clock assembles really easy. I am looking forward to seeing the extra touches added.

@@stevesclocks Thanks for the encouragement. Just had so many things going on and I keep pushing this back, plan on starting this week.

I have been thinking about writing a book.

@@stevesclocks That would be an awesome book!

Which link is broken?

Some brass works great. And some brass is too soft. It is not always specified what type you are getting. There is no need to change it if your clock is working. Other builders using brass might not be as lucky. I specify music wire because it always comes in a fully hardened state. It will always be the proper quality.

The assembly guide can be downloaded from www.stevesclocks.com/sp2 This is a relatively old design. My newer clocks have much smaller parts lists. Assembly guides for all of them can be found at the same web site.

Its good to see you back. The moon phase clock is my new favorite. It has plenty of room to add customization.

It is a 3D printed design intended for each builder to print their own version. Links to the STL files are in the description. Any modern 3D printer with a large enough print surface is capable.

It can be downloaded at www.stevesclocks.com/sp13

Good point. Anything with a density near steel or copper can be used. Zinc in modern US pennies is around 7. Steel is 8. Copper is 9. Lead is 11, but barely worth the toxic risk. Sand only has a density around 2-3, so the weight shell would need to be huge to be functional. It would take 180 zinc pennies per pound, so just over $14 for 8lb of weight. This is probably cheaper than most other options.

It seems like there may be too much friction in the central arbor. The most common places are gear 6 binding where it passes through the dial, or the gear stack getting pinched by the frame. Check for a small amount of end shake on the central arbor. Trim the height of one of the spacers if needed. Frame pinch will steal a lot of the drive power. Then look at the escapement to decide where to debug next. If the escapement is sluggish, focus on gear train friction. If the escapement moves quickly with each tick, then double check the pendulum free swing test. Sometimes the bearings need a second cleaning. This clock has a lot of runtime options. 32 day mode will run with the largest drive weight, but the pendulum will have a very shallow amplitude. 8-10 day modes will be significantly easier to keep running, even with smaller drive weights.

@@stevesclocks Thanks. I did wonder about the entire arbor being trapped, but it felt like these was some play. The pendulum is free swinging for over 10 mins. The free run test was smooth and the stopping the escapement and letting it run again it was quick and smooth at all points. I'm running the 10 day option currently. Is there an updated consolidated guide?

@@tomsimmons4482 The latest assembly guides would be on my web site at www.stevesclocks.com/sp5

This design is completely optimized for 3D printing. I have considered selling a few fully assembled clocks. It would likely be a volume of 1-2 units per month. Selling it as STL files allows the design to reach hundreds of users. There are plenty of wooden gear clocks available from other designers if you want to avoid buying a Chinese pendulum wall clock from Amazon. :)