Alan's wooden gear clock page

Alan's Wooden Clock
Explanation page
updated Dec13

This page explains how my flying pendulum clock works - details of the clock can be seen HERE (clock 2)

The way a clock works is actually surprisingly simple:

Note - You can click on the images for larger versions

A weight hangs from pulley A which wants to spin it, but it is restricted to how fast it can turn by the escapement (in this case a flying pendulum) which is linked to this pulley via all the other gears.
i.e. if gear G is disconnected then all the other gears spin very fast until the weight hits the ground.

The escapement on this clock is set up so that it takes 20 seconds for gear G to make a full turn (i.e. one revolution), this is then geared through F, E, D and C so that it results in the bottom gear wheel of C turning once an hour - this is directly linked to the minute hand of the clock

Gears B and H are linked in such a way that it takes 12 revolutions of the hour hand to cause the final gear to turn one revolution (this is directly connected to the hour hand)

And that is all there is to it !

The gearing is simply:
    gears F are 5 to 1
    gears E are 3 to 1
    gears D are 4 to 1
    gears C are 3 to 1

This results in 5 x 3 x 4 x 3 = 180
i.e. gear G has to turn 180 times for the minute hand to turn once

Divide 180 by 3 as gear G turns 3 times in one minute = 60
therefore it takes 60 minutes for the minute hand to turn once

And there you have it :-)

Of course you can soon start adding features for a winding key, more accuracy, temperature compensation etc. etc. and clocks can soon get much more complicated than this, but a very basic clock like mine couldn't be simpler.

Where it gets difficult making a working clock is that because the gearing is so high, when you get to the escapement the force turning it is extremely small, so the slightest imperfection in a bearing or gear tooth will instantly stop the clock.

If you would like to show your appreciation for this info please feel free to buy me a drink:

Cheers :-)

Main clock page HERE

You can contact me on - alanesq@disroot.org

Back to my homepage