Wooden Gear Clock

Step 4: The Gear Train

Since the escapement gear rotates once every 60 seconds, we can make another axle rotate once every 3,600 seconds. This will be our minute hand. Then we can make another axle rotate once every 43,200 seconds (12 hours). This will be our hour hand. When we calculate this we will have a functioning clock on paper.

The spreadsheet shows the calculations of the gear ratios needed. I started with a 3 axle minute hand, but moved to a 4 axle to keep the size of the gears down.

To make a minute hand, you need a gear ratio of 60 between the Escapement axle and the Minute Hand axle. For an hour hand, you will need a gear ratio of 12 from the Minute hand to the hour hand.

The spreadsheet shows the formula and the calculations to get the number of teeth for each gear. By using the spreadsheet I was able to plug in different number of teeth for each gear and pinion to try to get the Gear Ratio needed.

Comments

[uthmod]

the link to the file is broken. It links to a .tmp file instead.

Nice instructable.

[its a lion]

Wow. I never realized how much went into clocks. Then for some reason I looked at an escapement today, and was sucked in. I have spent the last 6 or so hours reading everything that I can find about their construction. I found this after trying to get a detailed view of the gear train. This really helped me to understand it. Thanks. Nice clock.