Clockwork Piston (Steampunk)

Make your very own steampunk piston out of a cigar box, clock parts, and spent bullet shells! Recycle your old clock parts to make a contraption that powers itself!

Step 1: Clock Guts

First off, find an old clock with easily accessible gears - cheap, busted clocks can usually be found at antique shops, clock shops and thrift stores. Carefully take it apart until you have it stripped down to just the mechanical housing (minus the pendulum, if it has one). Unscrew the housing and make sure to be careful that the spring steel doesn't unwind out of control - believe me, it hurts! I used tape to bind it so that it wouldn't feed out of the mechanism. Once you have the spring steel jammed, turn the gears around to see which gears move which gears. After a little time moving the gears around, you should be able to figure out which gear combination leads from ONE of the spring steel coils to the post (the longest gear where the hands of the clock face attach). For this particular clock, only 3 gears were involved - the spring steel unit itself, an intermediate gear, and the gear with the post (where the hands of the clock face attach). Remove all the extra gears and the second coil of steel. Once you have the proper gears isolated, screw the housing back together, making sure that the spring steel is still jammed.

Comments

[mvanderdeen]

So wud this be possible to solder well if u were using just a soldering iron and solder??

[bloodyblahblah]

maybe you could fit a saw blade on it and make a scroll saw!!!

[cutshopguy]

I really liked this. I've recently got into the steampunk/ cyberpunk thing and am currently working on a mechanical arm, so I know a bit about using lateral thinking to make something new out of "found" objects. I loved your piston and valve setup - one question, where's the intake valve and could you use this to do something useful, like say, pump water?

[greymatter21]

what exactly would this be used for?

[Schooniedude]

1.Can you explain to me what steampunk is? 2.That's pretty cool!

[MrGreggan]

My favorite explanation of steampunk: What the past would have been like if the future had happened earlier.

There are many examples of steampunk available, for instance... The movie version of Wild Wild West with Will Smith was quite steampunk. The Golden Compass. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Van Helsing.

Abney Park & Dr Steel are two of the best know steampunk musicians. The literature of Jules Verne and HG Wells often figure into steampunk stories and images.

More info can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

[sora]

its what people in the 1800 thought the future would be like

[Derin]

Steampunk can be described as making objects look like they belong to the Victorian era AFAIK.

[mikeread]

think of it as an antique 1800's millennium falcon...

[Schooniedude]

What is the victorian era?

[youknowwhoiam]

the 1800s, When Queen Victoria was the head of England

[thepelton]

The Victorian era lasted from about 1835 to 1900.  I don't know the exact dates, but around that long.

[thepelton]

If you care to be exact, 1837 to 1901.

[mrmad]

Steampuck is actually supposed to be what it would be like if the information age came during Victorian times.

[thepelton]

Just thought I should add that there is a website that can help you design wooden gears in almost any size, which seems like it could lend a lot to steampunk design.  http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html

[lemonybits]

wow that's awesome! I'm making a steampunk style movi and I'm totally going to make one of these

[Fenris The bbw]

That video was horribly violent. I laughed for like 5 minutes watching this.

[petrino]

AND THEN IT GOES! KABOOOOM!

[Foaly7]

I could build this bigger and use it in a piston-operated Legway. It's on this site but I can't link to it. The computer I'm on won't make links.

[A good name]

Would one of those cheap dollar store wood boxes work just as good?

[Rotten194]

As long as its about the same size, I don't see why not.

[heladoxa]

no

[octochan]

ooh, this thing is SO COOL. but shiny shiny clock guts like that are hard to come by, especially with such an awesome winding key. I do have some windup tin toy guts I think would work, and they're small enough for an Altoids tin.

[Mikey D]

Very cool. The video really made it for me. I thought this was going to be a slo-mo device (clock speed and all that) but it seems to really haull a$$. I chuckled when you mentioned putting valves in it so it could really work but after the vid, I think that might viable. Take it to the next level with some small reed type or check ball type valves and use the air flow to power another gizmo attached to the same surface of the box. Excellent job!

[Wyle_E]

If you're gun-shy or just have trouble finding appropriate cartridge cases, find a real (not the artsy-craftsy kind) hobby shop. They will have 1-foot lengths of brass tubing in sizes from 1/16 to 1/2 inch. Each size telescopes accurately into the next larger size. There will also be sheet brass, so once you learn to solder you can build all kinds of mechanisms.

[Thax]

Is there some sort of brass solder that you can use? I've only seen or used the silver stuff.

[heladoxa]

There IS a brass solder and the process is called 'brazing'. You need a lot of heat and a degree of skill. the way to go is soft lead solder and an electric soldering iron. Easy peasy. You can probably find how to do it on YouTube Good luck

[Wyle_E]

Plain old tin/lead solder works for brass and copper. It melts a lot lower than silver solder. There is also a 95% tin, 5% antimony solder sold for pure copper work; I've used that on copper, but I've never tried it on brass.

[agent harmsy]

LOL! That's awesome! Too bad i dont have any bullet casings. bloody aus laws :|

[imrobot]

Perhaps a bit fast for what I'm looking for, how could I slow it down?

[capjbadger]

Gear reduction.

[Holden_vy_s]

Casings, not shells.

[gover57]

casings ARE shells.. they are the "shell" around the powder. same as Round and bullet are synonymous for the peice of metal the is the projectile. Cartridge is what you call the whole thing, before it is fired.

[Holden_vy_s]

A "shell" refers to an artillery shell. "Casing" is the correct term.

[gover57]

a shell can refer to more than one thing, but when it is in regards to firearms, it is the same as a casing. yes, it can also mean the shell in artillary, but artillary is not the topic, the same as turtles are not the topic. I'm an avid outdoors person and hunter, owning many firearms, and have a lot of family in the military, so i think i have a little bit of knowledge in this category. If you managed to use the interwebs, you may have come accross a nice little site called dictionary.com; where it says that a "shell" is a "metallic cartridge used in small arms" or "a hard, protecting or enclosing case or cover." In reference with the "bullet" topic. You are correct that it is used in artillary lingo, but are incorrect stating it isn't used with firearm and bullet lingo.

[jaysbob]

well I'm glad to have learned that. that was really causing me some confusion when reading this 'ible. /sarcasm

[Holden_vy_s]

No problem.

[Valche]

"Pedantic" refers to this discussion.

[Gamer917]

good one

[recon506]

To expand on your discussion, please note that the author tells us not to solder bullets because the have "gunpowder in them". Bullets do not contain gunpowder. The have lead and sometimes a full metal (copper) jacket. What the author is referring to is the round! Wikipedia and Google are your friends.