The Ancient Invisible Fastening Pins of The Antikythera Mechanism

[@christopherbrand5360]

Absolutely riveting!

[@notfeedynotlazy]

You nailed the pun

[@brackpin]

You were fastened on that one.

[@TheChzoronzon]

This should be Pinned

[@rallymax2]

I don’t see the point.

[@LittleAussieRockets]

Had me glued to my screen

[@elfutbolphenom]

So good! I can’t wait for the next main channel upload!

[@dimachok]

5 minutes of cozy video = 3242739238473284 hours of work

[@nexpro6985]

The beauty of backlighting.

[@Malakawaka]

How I've missed your Antikithera videos. I love them always

[@tomkemp7566]

Great stuff Chris 👍

[@edgeblur]

Wish I could give this more than one 'Like'.

[@salamisalesexpress]

I noticed the leather washer to protect the drilled item from the chuck when it breaks through. Great tip!

[@JO-ch3el]

This is so amazing I hope to one day see the mechanism completed!

[@jimgoodwin6440]

Happy to see you're still working on this project. It's amazing as is your work.

[@markdoyle9642]

Stunning, Beautiful machine Landscapes and soundtrack, RESPECT! Thank You, Chris for doing such artistic work!

[@deshazo_henry]

I really enjoy how you use the visual and audio effects as a sort narration tool to move the story along in your videos.

[@leslieaustin151]

Always a touch of the wonderful seeing your work Chris. Thank you. Les in UK 🇬🇧

[@ConanBagley]

The craftsmanship you exhibit is scarcely seen anymore.

[@Danger_mouse]

There's 'next level' attention to detail, and then there's Chris at Click spring above that!

[@michaeldimmitt2188]

Beautiful to watch. I love seeing something done well.

[@WreckDiver99]

How many times when he touched that bracket/bar/strap did it move on him? If it was me? EVERY SINGLE TIME. The patience you show Chris is nothing short of amazing.

[@StefanAxelsson]

For me, it would move. And probably the one time it didn't I'd get so happy I'd jump in my seat...and move it. Also, found myself holding my breath not to disturb that bracket. :)

[@SmartToaster]

Absolutely stunning editing, I had no clue what I was looking at but went over to your main channel to follow along

[@rimmersbryggeri]

This riveting technique is so elegant.

[@JasonOvalles]

Brilliant montage! I feel like I knew what was happening without getting bogged down with details.

[@matthewsykes4814]

I am still in awe of your skills mate. I love watching you hide the pins in every build. I know it'a little thing but it looks amazing.

[@yeahboiproductions7065]

Beautifully done again Chris :) 👏

[@dansv1]

That answers the question I’ve had for a long time about the floppiness of the helixes.

[@SauronsEye]

The patience and perseverance of this bloke to do all of those rivets to that level can't be overstated and I have some perspective on this. I made an all metal screw driver in High School metal work. It was made of two main parts, the handle and the shaft. I connected them with a straight rivet in a hole that was counter sunk on both ends. I peened over the end of one end of the rivet and inserted the rivet into the hole, clipped off the excess on the non peened end and then peened that end as well. Continued to peen the ends till they fully filled the counter sunk holes and proceeded to spend hours filing down the rivet heads till they, "disappeared", into the surrounding metal. As you get closer to the rivet, "disappearing", the slower you need to go to not ruin your work and my effort was for just one rivet and I've never done it again and probably don't want to but this bloke...wow, so many rivets. I expect he'd be a lot faster than I ever was with my High School effort but I'm sure there were a few hours of work here. FOOTNOTE: I always wondered why we didn't just make the screw driver from one piece of metal on a lathe but my teacher wasn't very good at explaining what I figured out for myself many years later that the reason for making a two part screw driver and then making it look like it's one piece of metal was to learn skills of measuring precisely the diameter of the shaft and the hole it was to go into and then demonstrate our riveting skills.

[@KenFullman]

It's a lot easier with smaller rivits and a lot easier still when they're made from brass (instead of steal).

[@532bluepeter1]

The blade of a screwdriver also needs to be of a heat treatable steel unlike the handle.

[@YuriyKrivosheyev]

The most amazing thing is, thats about a backside! That “no one” will see ever. True Masterpiece approach. Thanks alot!

[@MyMiniHomeWorkshop]

You have the patience of a saint 👍

[@ChristopherHallett]

"OMG how is all of your work SO amazing?!?" Because Chris spends more time, care, and effort riveting a few brackets on than most people put into their ENTIRE project from start to finish.

[@AIM54A]

Amazing how well those pins just vanish.

[@vizionthing]

When your work is so perfect the shot looks like a 3D render! (4:35)

[@JaenEngineering]

One thing that stirkes me is the number of different methods used. This could have achieved using solf solder (which we know they had) with much less effort yet they went this route instead. Its almost as if this whole thing is less about the mechanism itself and more about practicing skills. A bit like how modern day apprentices are required to submit pieces to demonstrate they understand a technique.

[@vizionthing]

Imagine one day we invent a time machine only to find out this was some high-schoolers homework!

[@PetesGuide]

What is “solf solder”? I’m not sure if it’s a typo for “soft solder” or something distinct; Wikipedia makes no mention of it and I see it used on machinist forums but never see it defined.

[@Galerak1]

Maybe they realised that the localised heat needed to melt the solder would distort the spiral out of shape beyond tolerance. That's my guess anyway.

[@Halinspark]

Solder joints would stand out on brass. Something this elaborate is going to be expensive, and the people who can afford one are going to want it to look good. Especially considering it's purpose is pretty niche, so the people who even have a use for it are probably going to want people to know they have a nice, good quality one.

[@asicdathens]

@@HalinsparkExactly. This is the ultimate gadget for the gentleman of the Hellenistic period, like an expensive Swiss watch. Do you like blemishes on your $10000 watch?. Even back then luxury items were well sought. Jewelry from the antiquity is also exquisite

[@phatputer]

Well that was a lovely way to start the day, very relaxing.

[@scotthutson736]

It almost seems magical watching those pins disappear. Nice video, Chris!

[@meeponinthbit3466]

It is magic.... This dude is a friggin wizard. I'll never be convinced he's a mere mortal like the rest of us.

[@interstellarsurfer]

Beautiful work, as always. 👍

[@theoutbackshed]

Nice and precise work as always.

[@NV..V]

Antikythera Mechanism!!!!!! Yes - thank you.

[@KSCPMark6742]

Gorgeous as always. I was wondering if there have been any episodes demonstrating how the base material, such as sheets and rods was manufacturered?

[@briancavanagh7048]

I was wondering exactly the same question.

[@kristoferson_0423]

This is a clip channel. There are longer, narrated videos on the main channel about the Antikythera; The fragments playlist is more about the tools and materials that the original craftsmen may have had access to, while the main playlist is primarily about manufacturing each component and what methods the craftsmen may have known or used.

[@TheBoatPirate]

Dudes gonna get richer by being the master machinist that perfected the antikythera mechanism for the masses. ❤

[@Chr.U.Cas1622]

👍👌👏 again and as always. Best regards, luck and health in particular.

[@jmumbauer]

The quality of your work as well as the video productions are incredible

[@davelightfoot2913]

Love to see an update on the antikithern device.

[@ServantOfBoron]

I can't wait for the next proper episode of the Antikythera Mechanism construction

[@nateamus3920]

This short clip represents 14 hours per day for 14 days straight setting 18 brass rivets using ancient methods. Sisyphus chocks his boulder to applaud you, sir.

[@curmudgeon1933]

I count 36 rivets...i think Sisyphus would have given up and gone home. lol

[@SeagullWaterPurifier]

Beautiful work and love to see it progress every time and anticipating the next video yay 🥳

[@tophe57]

Bonjour. Je suis sincèrement admiratif à chaque vidéo. Bravo

[@oldschool1993]

King of Greece- " Hey when is the next full moon?" Technician- " Give me 10 years and I'll tell you."

[@Farmfield]

Just amazing. I wonder what more we lost to history, in regard to ancient clockworks. There's no way it was just used for this machine. Though surprising nothing like this has never been found in digs, like at Herculaneum...

[@BSpinoza210]

Sadly, most of the tooling he uses is susceptible to rust, corrosion, or the elements. Copper and brass can break down quickly, and forget about finding wooden tools with metal inserts. Also, there are probably a ton of undiscovered sites around the Mediterranean that haven't even been uncovered, or were built over to make way for new stuff.

[@fisharmor]

@@BSpinoza210 The mechanism he is reproducing was under salt water for 2200 years and was in good enough condition to figure out how it worked... I wouldn't call that breaking down quickly. The real culprit is the fact that the materials used have all been valuable since prehistory and remain valuable today. Saving things for historic reasons is a new concept, about a century old, and it's not even universal over the world - consider the Afghan Buddhas that were dynamited just recently, the effort to move Abu Simbel by literally rock-sawing ancient Egyptian statues in pieces in the 1960s, or the untold losses that happened as a result of the Three Gorges Dam. As another related example, if you study armor, you find that there are really few examples of extant armor prior to 1500 or so: so few that people who are into armor tend to know them individually. That's because the iron and the labor were both expensive, so anything roughly in the shape you wanted that was hopelessly out of fashion would have been sent to a smith to be made into a new piece. But as soon as armor stopped being militarily relevant, it stopped getting recycled into new armor and just sat around in armories for a while, and then it became more cost effective to just smelt new ore than to recycle it. But even as recently as WW1 people were hucking 16h century armor into the wagons that went through town during iron drives. The fact that the Antikythera mechanism was under salt water is likely the REASON we have it. If it wasn't lost then it would have ended up in someone's junk pile and less than a century later the owner would have noticed things weren't moving smoothly after so much use, thought "the calculation of the games isn't even right anymore, what a piece of junk" and sold it for scrap.

[@teeanahera8949]

@@BSpinoza210Rust and corrosion are the elements, O2 at a guess…. 😊 some copper and or brass/bronze stuff still survives from 8,000 years or so ago (& yes I just looked this up) so I don’t think they’re so lost or unable to survive down through the ages as you portray. “A famous hoard of copper prestige goods comes from the Nahal Mishmar cave in Israel where more than 200 such items were carefully wrapped in reed mats and buried in the Chalcolithic period, perhaps in the 5th millennium BCE”

[@Caldoric]

The devices could have been seized by conquerors or looters and destroyed/resold, respectively.

[@Druforithe]

looks so good!

[@GROWBY82]

Sehr nett anzusehen

[@jackalovski1]

Is that scotch-brite period accurate?

[@Halinspark]

The Scots hadn't been invented yet, but greek-brite is super hard to find nowadays.

[@heighRick]

Yes! ..sees Chris video, watches :)

[@herculesrockafeller]

Oooh! Antikythera content!

[@chandradharkoneti]

Hello, Chris. Any reason why you didn't place that corrugated strap in place and braze/solder the two plates together??

[@campbellwoodward3275]

So when are you able to upload more antikythera videos on the main channel

[@user-ve5ei2xe8h]

That's amazing! How did the old ones manage to get the cone taper on their drills and pins to match exactly?

[@GoblinKnightLeo]

My first thought is to create the taper, then use it to create a tapered hole in a metal block, then use the block to make pins. Of course, if the pins are even slightly malleable then that level of precision is unnecessary.

[@theselectiveluddite]

Using files (Chris demonstrated how the ancient Greeks would have been able to make them) and abrasive stones, it's quite straight forward making pins and broaches (the hand reamer with the little wooden handle Chris used to adjust the hole's shape). Old Horology books I've got cover filing up pins as a common task for holding various parts of old watches together. Only takes a few minutes per pin; less if it's something you've made 100's of :) Using similar methods I've made and sharpened broaches as well. It's amazing how basic a tool kit is needed to achieve fantastically precise work. Cheers

[@elterga6224]

YEAH BUDDY!!!

[@John-to2ki]

Where do you get your brass pins and reamers from?

[@cest7343]

Haven't I seen this I wouldn't believe my own eyes 😂

[@EleanorPeterson]

I can imagine the original Antikythera Mechanism constructor - working away on invisible details that he knew would never be seen or appreciated - wishing that Prometheus hadn't just stolen fire from the gods, but had also picked up the blueprints for some kind of magical 'seeing-inside-things-with-special-rays' device which would give people a proper understanding of exactly what he'd been getting up to. [☢️ 👀]

[@klausbrinck2137]

The "invisible details" that he knew would never be seen or appreciated, were very well seen and appreciated already back then, by many... People knew what to appreciate back then too, and this wasn´t an one-off, but just one of several identical mechanisms built... 2.300 yeard is a lonf time for other mechanisms to survive, let alone several of this same one...

[@mikebenza]

Why did you ream the holes in the plate and the supports separately? Wouldn't it have been a (barely) better fit to hold the pieces together, ream them, then fit the pin?

[@ChazzC]

How can you give two thumbs-up??

[@VladekR]

Just magic 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@LannyDAllen]

Amazing

[@ilikemorestuff]

Geology is cool, man!

[@ilikemorestuff]

ClickSpring was accepted into the Happy Tappers at the age of Yoda :D

[@sdrc92126]

I can't wait for the free giveaway at the end. Right? Right?🤞😁

[@adrianwilliams763]

Perfick. As usual.

[@Nobilangelo]

The original designers and makers would be astonished beyond measure to see this. So would the captain of the ship that sank with it.

[@GlutenEruption]

Is there a reason why the builders would have gone through all the extra effort of pinning those bridges to the dial plate as opposed to just soldering them (I’m pretty sure you’ve shown other parts of the mechanism that were soldered, right? So it’s not as if it wasn’t an option) It seems like soldering would bond those pieces together even more rigidly than the pins, and would take much less time and effort. The only thing I can come up with is solder might accidentally bridge the spiral? But soft lead could easily be filed away or removed with a scorper or something so I don’t understand the choice.

[@EngineeringCommonsLLC]

Maybe distortion of the plate from the heating? If the spirals were cut later in construction that could risk misaligning previously installed parts

[@notfeedynotlazy]

You must remember that, unlike today, it was MUCH easier to rivet than to solder.

[@Halinspark]

Keep the design looking neat? Solder joints would stand out.

[@cymeriandesigns]

My guess: it would have been difficult for the ancients to get heat only to the proper parts of the mechanism for soldering, and general heating would have risked distorting the larger structure. Or maybe riveting was just easier for them because maintaining precise position while soldering would be a pain.

[@Qfeys]

Does anyone know why the pins stay in place? Is it just mechanical stress, or is there some sort of cold welding going on?

[@doluggs]

pure friction. The pins are slightly conical - as is the file to widen the hole as needed. You can see that somtimes it takes only two or three strikes to acheive a solid fitting. The hammering / finalizing pulls the two pieces together and solidifies the joint.

[@peterestrada9420]

“I Can See!”, said the blind man…., when he hit the Pin😉😏 Love the Production’s & when do we get our: “Build Your Own”, kits⁉️🤨 For goodness sake, Take My Money, already 💵 🙏🤣

[@eotwh]

You might spot face, if your pump drill can be rigidly located.

[@doluggs]

Fascinating as ever. But it doesn't explain, how the old Greeks made the pins themselves. Sorry for reposting my question. Greetings from Switzerland - home of many beautiful mechanical toys.

[@rodneyrouchy7130]

Surely more accuratly built than the original

[@mmcconnell434]

Why do the pins need to vanish?

[@strangeplanet8313]

What wonder is this? Not the Antikythera mechanism, that is well known, but a new video about it - even rarer.

[@backi480]

or a simple Rivet

[@robbiekavanagh2802]

Could've called the channel "ClipSpring"

[@foadrightnow5725]

Hell, I would've just used some clear 2-part epoxy and called it a day! But not you...obviously! Outstanding work, as usual! How many man hours did this take? Cheers!

[@Caldoric]

What's an antikythera?

[@davidworks7758]

❤

[@josepharchuleta9809]

Ok But what dose it do

[@thelazy0ne]

Obvious use of super glue ☝️😌 at 4:59

[@dozer1642]

I feel like the Antikythera will be completed when the treasure on Oak Island is finally found.

[@michaelfach4922]

🤩❤

[@chrissavage5966]

Witchcraft I tell ya.....

[@rol3155]

"uses modern side cuts" *unsubscribe*...

[@TizonaAmanthia]

the heck is that?! organic carbohydrate foam skeletal remains?! ewww.