Knex Grandfather Clock

UPDATE: (11-18-15) -- • KNex Clock Update pre-...
K'nex grandfather clock. Stands 200 cm tall. Keeps near perfect time. Plays an eight note chime every hour. Main weight automatically self winds. Chime weight is manually wound through a ratcheting mechanism.

[@dancoulson6579]

I love K'nex for this kind of thing. It's not just a kids toy. It can be used to make things like this... It would be so funny if you were sat there, chilling with a beer. But then the pendulum snaped off, making the ticks super fast. It would be like takatakatakatakatakatakataka and the clock would go super speed :D

[@partystarter84]

This is amazing. Very well done :-)

[@michealbabbage8129]

A M O G U S

[@ATLAStheprotogen1]

Im building it

[@disclaimerthischannelisold8720]

Same

[@ATLAStheprotogen1]

How far have you gotten?

[@ATLAStheprotogen1]

Because I’m still building it

[@ATLAStheprotogen1]

@@disclaimerthischannelisold8720 would you like any images?

[@15knexlaz86]

Nice clock:) Did you only use knex gear for the mechanism?

[@smidge146]

Hey did you have an pictures of this online at all? I'm trying to build it from the video and I've completed the escapement, just need a few pics to finish it all :)

[@Basso-dmitrofundo]

Like you

[@alexenglish913]

$223 4e24 😭

[@mikeroe7942]

can you make it chime every 15 and strike hours too

[@Flower-3D]

Yes. I never built it to do that, but I had ideas.

[@PaperMegatron]

Did you finish the hour strike mechanism? If you did, I would love it if you were to give me an idea of how you did it. I have been having some trouble getting mine to work.

[@PaperMegatron]

I'm sorry, I would like to clarify. I understand how it works, but I am having trouble building it and having everything fit and work properly. I'm sorry if I am bothering you, but it would be highly appreciated if you were to help me.

[@Flower-3D]

Paper Megatron I have not finished it yet. Haven't had too much time; just finished up finals for school. As for the strike mechanism, I hope to resume progress after the holidays. What exactly is giving you trouble? I'd also like to share two tips that I believe made my clock possible; 1) For gear rods; that is, any rod that rotates, pivots, or slides; only use the hardened style Knex rods. The hardened Knex rods are black and tan (there may be other colors but these are the only two I am aware of). The black ones are identical to the full length standard grey rods. The tan ones are identical to the standard red rods. These rods are more rigid than the standard ones and are great for holding gears. They are less susceptible to bowing. Use these only for gear trains and save the grey and red rods for structure. 2) Remove all burrs and imperfections from connectors and rods (this made a big difference for me). An example of an imperfection would be the burrs found at the ends of rods that are left over from the molding process. These burrs can be removed easily with sandpaper. The issue here is that is causes rods to set in connectors crooked or at an angle which causes the structure to skew resulting in binding with the rotating rods.

[@PaperMegatron]

999jflower Hello! I'm sorry it took me so long to reply. I was on vacation. First, I would like to thank you for the tips you gave me. They were a huge help! I did not know about those hardened rods, and they were especially helpful for the weight- bearing parts of the gear trains. Second, I would like to tell you what has been giving me trouble with the hour-strike mechanism. First I tried to make it work similarly to how it works in an actual grandfather clock. That has a lever with a slightly curved piece of metal with gear teeth that resembles a half gear on the end of it. When the hourly chime stops, it drops onto a snail wheel that turns with the hour hand, and the elevation of the lever once it had dropped determines the hour. It is released by a piece that resembles a small hammer with just one gear tooth at the end of it, The piece releases the lever when it is pulled back from underneath the semi-gear-like end, and when it goes back, its gear tooth fits into the gear teeth of the lever, stopping it from being at the angle it was at before. when it is pulled back to a shallower angle, it also allows an axle with a larger, longer, fatter extension protruding off one side, and a much smaller, shorter, thinner pin on the opposite side. when this little structure turns, the larger part pushes the hammer back and the smaller pin pushes the lever up. once it is done with one rotation the hammer moves back into its place, holding the lever in its new position, one gear too higher. Also, with each rotation the axle also activates the hammer the sound the hour strike. this continues until the hammer reaches the bottom of the end of the lever, allowing it to stop at a steeper angle below the gear-like part of the lever. when this happens, the smaller pin is able to hit the hammer, and it gets stuck, stopping the rotation, and therefore stopping the hour strike. Phew! I tried to make a mechanism like that but I encountered many different problems. The main problems I was having was first that when the axle would turn, it would be able to raise the lever once, but after that it would slip before the hammer could hold it in place. This is because the medium- size gear I am using on the end of the lever has too much of a curve, so if it gets raised too much the small pin is no longer able to reach it. I could not figure out how to solve this problem. And that was it working at its BEST. It was also extremely inconsistent as the dropping lever would sometimes miss the snail wheel (which is cut from the same type of wheel you cut into a snail wheel), or it would miss the hammer by flexing to one side or the other. I tried fixing that by trying to make a "wall," extending from the structure of the mechanism, along one side of the lever. Unfortunately, the lever would get caught on this wall both on the way up and down. Furthermore, because of the curve of the gear used, it would also only work that one time if the lever is at a few certain angles. If the hour is too close to 12, so the lever is too low, the small pin would be behind the gear teeth. If the hour is too close to 1, so the lever is too high, the small pin would not even touch the gear teeth, because it cannot reach. So eventually I gave up on that design and thought of a different design. This design involves a significantly larger snail wheel made of k'nex pieces and a mechanism on a rail that drops vertically down onto it when released. it is raised using a chain in the same method as an elevator where the first gear pulley is on the dropping mechanism itself and the top pulley is at the top of the rail tower on top of the clock. One end of the chain is fixed in place and the other end is pulled to raise the mechanism. Once the mechanism is released, it allows the hour strike weight to fall, powering the hammers that sound the hour strike, all the while raising the dropping mechanism by turning some gears that pull the chain. once the dropping mechanism reaches the top of the rail tower, it stops the hour strike mechanism as the gears pulling on the chain would no longer be able to turn. That is how it would theoretically work overall. However, I have been having trouble with this mechanism too. I have bee having a hard time achieving stable movement from the snail wheel, because it is so heavy. I am also unsure both if the snail wheel would be able to activate the hour strike mechanism twelve times in one rotation, and if it would activate the correct number of strikes at the correct times. Finally, I realized one potentially fatal flaw in the design. The problem is: how is the dropping mechanism going to be released? If it is directly connected to the weight-powered mechanism, and the weight is holding the dropping mechanism up, and the dropping mechanism is holding the weight in place, how would it be released so it could drop onto the snail wheel? The only ways I could think of are either pushing the weight up, somehow separating the gears that pull the chain from the gear train and then connecting them back to the gear train, or instead of having a fixed end of the chain, have it be a continuous loop and have another gear that is connected to the chain that does not turn that is freed to release the dropping mechanism and then locked again. All three of these methods would have their own problems (especially the last one), the main one for all three of them being that they would require mechanisms that are tremendously, impractically, inefficiently, and probably unrealistically complicated. I need your help. How are you doing it? Is it similar to either off the two ideas mentioned, or are you using your own superior, ingenious design? Do either of my ideas seem feasible? Please tell me! I know this what a lot to read, so thank you for taking the time to read all of this!

[@knexator_]

:O Intructions?

[@Flower-3D]

maybe at some point.

[@knexator_]

Great! So much thanks!

[@BijBijTCG]

@@Flower-3D and?

[@koenberkvens3742]

nice one

[@BukuiZhao]

How did you build this

[@creationsbychristian]

how long will a wind of the weight last?

[@Flower-3D]

about an hour and twenty minutes

[@disclaimerthischannelisold8720]

Mine lasts for 8 hours

[@PaperMegatron]

How does the chime stop?

[@Flower-3D]

It uses a snail wheel. When the minute hand reaches 12, it lifts a gate from the snail wheel allowing it to rotate. The wheel rotates for one rotation and stops as soon as it contacts the gate with its flat edge. Its the small grey wheel (without the tire) in the lower right in the video at time 2:42. Its a standard small grey KNex wheel that has been cut such that it has a decreasing radius.

[@PaperMegatron]

Thank you very much!

[@PaperMegatron]

999jflower I have been trying to make my own clock, and I had no idea that someone had done it so successfully. Keep the good work!