How to Make a Wooden Gear Clock
I Have Always Wanted to Build a Clock
One day I will find the time and the money to sit down and cut out the gears to make a wooden clock. I have done a lot of research on the subject and I am ready when I do find those precious resources. Take a look at the following and find all the useful information I have found.
Gears are very simple in concept, but the math link between them can be confusing. If you don't get the math right, you will not have a clock that tells the time accurately. I have spent countless hours filling many pages trying to figure out how a clock movement works.
I know this may not need to be said, but learning as much as you can about how to build a wooden gear clock is the first step to building your own. The process of making a clock work just right is a little tricky and will take some trial and error to make it keep time, but that is part of the fun of the project.
You may want to take a moment to flip through some books on the subject. You can either buy books from Amazon or your local book store, or you can do what I did and go to your local library and check out some of the books they have have on clock repair. Clocks have been around for several centuries. So there is plenty of information about the art of clockwork. It is so much fun to learn about the history.
You can also spend some time on YouTube and watch everything possible about clocks and how they work. You will be amazed at the amount of information available on some of these websites. I know I was.
Before men knew how to make gears and tension springs and other mechanical parts, they kept their time by the sun. The sun was very predictable and as long as it wasn't cloudy or the middle of the night, you could tell the time of the day by watching the sun and the shadows that the sun cast. (I believe people were able to tell time with the stars at night.)
I think people were very ingenious about using the sun to help them figure out when it was time to plant their gardens, when the worst storms of the year usually show up and so on. Some sundials were larger than a modern day home. Some of the ones that come to mind are Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids in Egypt.
I need my gears to show three different units of time. I could add on several more at a later date, but right now I want these gears to turn three hands: The second hand, the minute hand and the hour hand.
Here is what I need to figure out. Every time the Second hand rotates a full revolution, the Minute hand needs to turn 12 degrees. Every time the Minute Hand Turns a full revolution, the Hour hand turns 60 degrees.
So I can have all three wheels turning in the same direction I will need two more gears in between the gears turning the hands. Now I have to go figure out how to determine the correct gear ratio.
One day I will find the time and the money to sit down and cut out the gears to make a wooden clock. I have done a lot of research on the subject and I am ready when I do find those precious resources. Take a look at the following and find all the useful information I have found.
Gears are very simple in concept, but the math link between them can be confusing. If you don't get the math right, you will not have a clock that tells the time accurately. I have spent countless hours filling many pages trying to figure out how a clock movement works.
I know this may not need to be said, but learning as much as you can about how to build a wooden gear clock is the first step to building your own. The process of making a clock work just right is a little tricky and will take some trial and error to make it keep time, but that is part of the fun of the project.
You may want to take a moment to flip through some books on the subject. You can either buy books from Amazon or your local book store, or you can do what I did and go to your local library and check out some of the books they have have on clock repair. Clocks have been around for several centuries. So there is plenty of information about the art of clockwork. It is so much fun to learn about the history.
You can also spend some time on YouTube and watch everything possible about clocks and how they work. You will be amazed at the amount of information available on some of these websites. I know I was.
Before men knew how to make gears and tension springs and other mechanical parts, they kept their time by the sun. The sun was very predictable and as long as it wasn't cloudy or the middle of the night, you could tell the time of the day by watching the sun and the shadows that the sun cast. (I believe people were able to tell time with the stars at night.)
I think people were very ingenious about using the sun to help them figure out when it was time to plant their gardens, when the worst storms of the year usually show up and so on. Some sundials were larger than a modern day home. Some of the ones that come to mind are Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids in Egypt.
I need my gears to show three different units of time. I could add on several more at a later date, but right now I want these gears to turn three hands: The second hand, the minute hand and the hour hand.
Here is what I need to figure out. Every time the Second hand rotates a full revolution, the Minute hand needs to turn 12 degrees. Every time the Minute Hand Turns a full revolution, the Hour hand turns 60 degrees.
So I can have all three wheels turning in the same direction I will need two more gears in between the gears turning the hands. Now I have to go figure out how to determine the correct gear ratio.