Pendulum Clock Accurate to 1/3 of a second.
Pendulum Clock Accurate to 1/3 of a second.
Published 2017-11-30T14:34:37+00:00
Update: Here is a video of the escapement design working: https://youtu.be/Ydga0vu-fp0
You can find more renders of the clock here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DAHduDe4tw8l_9lHR7u_CifAMECHqd8H?usp=sharing
This is a 3d printed clock, that prints in one piece for SLS 3D Printers. Designed specifically for the Sinterit Lisa, it fits perfectly within it's build volume and takes advantage of it's high precision to make accurate many toothed helical gears. Though I could not print it as I do not have access to an SLS 3d printer, I am fairly certain it will work as I have used tolerances proven to work for moving parts on the sinterit lisa, and have designed holes in the denser sections for ease of powder removal. I also know the gears will work as I checked them with Autodesk Inventors gear dialogue box.
From a mechanical standpoint it is based around a deadbeat escapement as described in Ward. L. Goodriches book the modern clock published in 1905. It is accurate to a third of a second and uses gears with a 20 degree helical pitch, making the gear movement smoother than normal straight tooth gears. Unlike similiar wind up clocks the rate of the clock stays consistent for it's entire wind time as unlike springs release rates the force of gravity is a constant, it will also last longer than a wind up clock as it has no parts under constant stress, and makes the nylon material unlikely to crack.
As it was designed to be 3D printed and it could be customized to however I liked I gave it an unconvential hand layout that I thought was cool, and I gave it a minimalist aesthetic to show off the gears, with the face marked with the radius of the hands and showing where they overlap and there start points. Finally I used a cool design where the entire outside of the clock is actually the weight system and therefore rotates, by marking this one could also display longer periods of time.
One final note: the only non 3D printed part in this clock is the M6 bolt that is used to provide mass to the weight, these are commonly available at hardware stores if you are looking to make one yourself.
This is an open source design as I have also uploaded the assembly files from Autodesk Inventor, so that people can improve it, you can download that here:https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz865qShcs9qTDcwdnpWd05PM00/view?usp=sharing (I couldn't figure out how to upload zips to MyMiniFactory).
This project was inspired by reading Longitude a fantastic book about the clock that won the longitude prize.
Remember to check the comments for up to date modifications of the design.
Date published | 30/11/2017 |
Technology | SLS |
Complexity | Easy |