Laser cut gear clock - with ChronoDot!

Step 5 Building the clock

After you cut all your pieces, you will need to assemble your clock.  Start by hot-melt gluing the small triangles on the back of the stand as in the pics.  Next, take the small gears and press fit them on to the stepper motors.  You may need to ream out the hole a little with an awl or other pointy instrument.  Push the gears on in such a way that the gear bevels in toward the stepper.  When you cut something on a laser, you will notice a very slight bevel on the cut.  If that bevel is pointed in, then the outer ring gears have less of a chance to fall off.

Press the steppers into the stand.

Get some hookup wires that can go between the stepper motor and the Arduino.  It helps to use the same colors, but it is not necessary.   The wires are hooked up as follows:

Hour Stepper:
Yellow - Digital Pin 4
Red - Digital Pin 5
White/black - Digital Pin 6
Blue - Digital Pin 7

Minute Stepper:
Yellow - Digital Pin 8
Red - Digital Pin 9
White/black - Digital Pin 10
Blue - Digital Pin 11

Hook up the Arduino via a usb cable to your computer so it is ready to program.