LEGO Pendulum clock: can a LEGO clock run for a whole year?
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- Опубликовано: 29 фев 2020
- This LEGO pendulum clock has been running for about a whole year almost continuously. However, in the last few months, it has stopped often enough that I think it's time to take it apart and see what is going wrong. I can see some signs of ground up plastic, I think some parts have worn down.
Update: After a while, I redesigned the escapement to be a grasshopper design, which should wear out less quickly: • LEGO Pendulum clock wi...
The instructions for building the new version of the clock, and some tips to get it running well, are here: dsharlet.com/2017/11/04/practi... 
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Now this is what I'm looking for on my reccomend. Awesome
You were looking for a lego clock? bit weird but ok.
Yuh Boi do you not like lego clocks?
@@yuh_boi77 What's fucking weird about that?
Yeah bud! This is interesting.
nice profile picture
The wear can be heavily reduced by using lubricant. I recommend PTFE lubricant for your use case. It essentially doubles both as a protective coating and lubricant on LEGO parts. I personally use it on my vehicle MOCs. Should aid in the longevity of the parts. Simply buy a $4ish can of lubricant, reapply every month or so, and you’re good to go!
It's a good suggestion, but I'm hesitant to use lubricant because I think it might get messy, and it's just two small parts that wear out every 6 months or so, and they're easy to replace and not expensive :)
Dillon Sharlet Totally understand. Amazing creation! Always wanted to have a LEGO clock but afraid of the ramifications of maintaining the LEGO parts over a long span of time.
Does this product work in the bedroom
@@DillonSharlet Hi, there are PTFE or teflon "grease" that are not grease an messy :-) When wet ingredient evaporates particles still provide up to 5 time less friction, that is why they are called dry grease. Also type of silicone or PFAE grease and most synthetic hydrocarbons as well as mineral oils work well with plastic materials. Fore sure there is benefit in using specific one for specific plastic material. In general dry teflon (white) or silicone grease (transparent) work well for most. Keep up the good work!
Dillon Sharlet
You can’t expect to use zero lubricant. Especially with contact of similar materials similar. And more efficient would require less weight, and reduced forces on point of contact and axle rotation.
There’s is only 1 or 2 examples of any clock that runs absolutely dry.
Lubricant is a required component.
Oh, okay. You meant can Lego clock work for a year.
Here I thought you made it run a whole year with a single windup and was ready to call bullshit on that one.
Actually, 3 days is extremely impressive for a gravity powered kinetic sculpture! It really goes to show how Lego's have such an extreme level of accuracy that helps with energy loss.
@@RCHobbyist463 For Lego clock? Maybe.
Usually the best pendulum clock ticked were almost a month.
My grandparents had one and I most certainly don't recall them winding it that often.
But the point is that title is misleading.
you could technically build a clock with a 1 year wind. you would need a fair amount of weight and a long cord and need to reapply grease keep it lubed.
@@Reverend_Salem I'd say it'd probably be more of a weigh issue than having to have impossibly long chord. But it'd also mean that machinery inside the clock would need to be much more sophisticated as well.
Unlike most things with a question in the title, where the answer is no, you immediately answered in the positive and then went into more interesting content instead of leading up to a failure or disappointment. Bravo!
6:25 I'm fairly certain that piece would have disintegrated like that because the axel it's on is under the most torque (the weight pulling down on one side of the ratchet vs the gear holding it in place on the other side). Unfortunately the 1/2 sized bearings are quite fragile and when you twist the axle inside them, that leads to increased size of the axle, thus pushing outward against the bearing - resulting in cracks along the outside edge, and a stretching/'loosening' of the bearing itself, which is why it slid freely along the axle.
Great design and interesting insight on the parts wear.Thin bushings seem to disintegrate on their own, even without any substantial forces. As for pallets, there is no easy solution for their wear, apart from using grasshopper escapement (which pretty much eliminates contact friction).
That is a beautifully well-tuned escapement! Thank you for the detailed view of the mechanisms. As for the parts wearing down and breaking, perhaps you could use a 3D printing service like 3DHubs to print metal clones of the parts that wear the quickest.
the metal may wear adjacent parts faster. Then you'd end up making the entire thing out of metal eventually, which defeats the point. Another option would be to change the bearings to more standard horological point bearings
@@sayethwe8683 i mean, it could still be metal lego which would still be cool
I feel like he is trying to get the most mileage out of the parts provided for the engineering challenge less than trying to get his clock to last a long time.
congrats on your success! it's quite an elaborate piece.
i have a new knife edge design you might like: 57585 (axle connector hub with three axles) against 92946 (slope brick). the 120 degree angle between the axles of the connector provides the pivot point. compact and most efficient.
KEvron
Clocks often wear most on the 3rd wheel, at least that's the one I have to re-bush most often.
what a great little design, nice build :)
The internet needs more quality 👌 content like this.
can you put a chime that rings every hour and half hour that rings hours on it
how about you give it a try?
@@FunBoysGaming why don't you?
A chime would be interesting and fun to build, but I also like how simple and small this clock is now :) There are lots of more complicated LEGO clock videos on youtube that have chimes!
@@DillonSharlet its not much you just need a chime mechanism its another mechanismof wheels and levers and a hammer to strike gong or chime rod look a chiming clock up
I've used that one-way clutch as well in some of my builds. Amazing clockwork!
After seeing this I think I have figured out why our clock has 2 weights. Our clock has chimes, so I think that it uses one weight for the time, and when the time is at a certain spot it triggers something in the clock which activates the chime mechanism which is powered by the second weight.
Our clock sometimes stops randomly, and it has been running for almost 30 years. I think the same parts where the pendulum has contact with a gear is worn out after all this time. This has been a really interesting video to watch. Thanks for sharing!
This would be one of the greatest innovation a man could do
That was fascinating. Please keep us updated on your new designs for the freewheel. I've subscribed for future updates. :)
This felt so much like an AvE video I was expecting you to say "plastique" and curse at the camera for not focusing!
Love to build this myself, really good work you done here!
You have been blessed by the youtube gods, hope we get to see more great stuff from you in the future.
get some brass bearing and silicone based lube and service will be every 3rd year ^^ maybe get some of the gears made out of aluminium or brass too to reduce wear and tear of the most hard pressed points. 10/10 video,
now to find all my old lego again
Then it won't be lego, just will he a regular boring open clock.
He could use silicone based lube still with lego, as long as he doesn't use oil based lubes it should be fine, after all plastics are dissolved by oils over time.
I think the reason your seeing wear and tear in areas you don’t expect, like the bushing near the main drive gear, and not in areas that have a lot off weight on them, is the high weight area’s aren’t moving that fast, or that often. Where as the low weight area’s are moving fairly often and relatively fast.
Congratulations on a truly spectacular build. 👍
Let's face it, none of us looked this video up.
Good video though
It's not a surprising recommendation for me, though. RUclips gives me a lot of LEGO mechanic videos and I watch pretty much all of them.
i did
Actually I did search it. I search for lego pendulum clock tutorial. But nice video tho
This is insane, mad props to you dude
This is amazing! ....great work!
Those tiny bushing/pulleys (the 1 stud size) will over stress and break in a plus sign when there is too much force on them. They will literally twist themselves out of existence if they are crushed side to side while turning. The only thing I've found to fix that is to either over grease the axle where it goes in the hole, or to brace the bushing with a leather washer, because it's the friction against the hole that causes the tear out.
That's great! Thanks for sharing this with us.
what you built is just amazing
Wow, a good study of the effects of continuous use of the mechanical Lego parts. Apparently the Legos worth the price tag, I'm also impressed too. If you want to improve this design, and have a longer lasting clock, then you should replace all moving parts with metal parts. This should drastically improve the lifetime, and the weight. A case for the mechanical parts will help prevent damage from any accidents. This video was surprisingly educational and intriguing, and I praise it for that.
Amazing click you got there, really amazing what one can make with LEGO.
I’m sure this would be an AMAZING idea for lego Ideas!
Extremely impressive my friend.
A really clever build.
I think the reason why the main drive gear wasn't damaged is because it is much thicker and stronger than the 40 and especially 8 tooth gear.
this is really cool, I think you could make the gears that are worn down out of metal, and also do another video on the design process and let the comments section help you make it better
Interesting to see how that axel with the freewheel wore away. It seems to suggest there was some thrust force on the driven side pushing the bushing against the rod. I wonder if it's possible the freewheel produces this during normal operation or rewinding?
Nicely done.
While i was watching this something random started ticking in the background
I'd have to imagine that the torque on the axle is twisting it very slightly, and that that little bit of twist is pushing the bushing apart from the inside, as the edges are also worn down from the rotation, weakening it.
Loving the cLEGOck. Thanks for sharing.
Pretty cool clock. Hope you get a lot of subscribers!
Have you ever thought of using a turn table where all the weight is? I think it would’ve helped regulate a lot of the pressure on the tank tread wheel
When you want mom to buy you a Rolex but she tells you that there's Rolex at home
Rolex would be cheaper.
Excelent stress test for LEGO gears
Hey Dillon! This video was awesome. I cant wait to see more. Big Brain 🧠
Has the axle of the free wheel a support on the left side? (Where you have your left index finger at 5:02 ? If not, it's no wonder that the little bush got destroyed. If you already have a support there, you might replace the bush with the 4185 part.
I believe that bushing failed as it was the pinch point between the ratcheting mechanism and the support beam, so it is the only pinch point for the escapement mechanism aside from those small wedges used as escapement pellets.
i made it my own, now hangs in my room :D little tweeks to the design because i only had four of the big gears but still works xD
Good job, RUclips algorithm. You actually gave me a really good video
I wonder if you could machine metal replacements for the pieces that wear out fast.
The escape system means that despite the force of the weight, the rotation will be slow and pression will be applied slowly over time. The inner drive wheels are very slow and don't experience that much force, contrary to the pieces that block the rotation, that is where all the energy finally goes. Plus the wheels are quite stirdy or dense and the red little roof pieces are very light weight by comparison and are in place on a rounded stud giving them less stirdiness as well. And the blatant count you give is also the explanation, the escape wheel blockers are the most sollicited pieces.
Could also look into replacing parts with metal legos.
You should add some grease to all the moving parts, especially the high friction areas. If you do, you'll have to readjust the weight I imagine.
Industrial plastic gears are made of polyamide nylon. I wish Lego could make a kit with all the technic gears made from that (for the educational or pro builders). Yet even polyamide nylon needs a lubricant. You can see it inside toys, a white margarine like paste.
What? A whole year? Okay I need to step up my game, I made a weight driven pendulum run for an hour, and that was 3D printed... I'll be using this video to improve my design.
he resets it like every 3 days or so i think.
@@clishy1988 Still pretty good
Hi, this is a very elegant design. I have enjoyed studying the video to replicate the drive mechanism. I have yet to order the penny washers and pendulum rod. I have three requests:
1. What diameters - inner and outer - are the penny washers?
2. What length and diameter did you use for the pendulum rod in the subsequent grasshopper escapement?
3. Could you post a few pictures or a video of the hand mechanism/ construction. A view of the clock from the top and sides would be very welcome. Thank you, Steve.
Thanks for your comment, glad to hear you are building it :)
1. They are 13/32" ID, 2" OD. I would recommend just bringing a beam to the hardware store and getting the biggest washer with the tightest fit you can. The ones I use do scrape the beam a bit.
2. My pendulum rod is steel LEGO compatible axles I got from store.bricklink.com/eezo#/shop, which unfortunately appears to be shut down now. I think the pendulum length depends on drive torque and other factors, I've had to experiment a lot with the pendulum length, especially to make it so the pendulum bob screw adjustment is useful in both directions. The nice thing about those steel axles is they are a very tight fit, so the pendulum doesn't pull itself apart as easily.
3. The building instructions maybe will show you everything you need? dsharlet.com/file/grasshopper%20clock.pdf
got my answer in 17 seconds, thank you!
great design, looks compact and sturdy.
- the weight is made from metal discs? how much weight (and height)?
- what is the gear ratio from the great wheel to the escape wheel?
- it runs for 3 days?
Thanks for your comment!
The weight is large washers slid onto a 13 stud beam, so there are 11 studs worth of washers. It is 560g.
The gear ratio is 625:1 = 3:1 x 40:24 x (5:1)^3.
Yes, it runs for 3 days, the weight falls about 4.5 feet in that time. All this put together, the clock runs on 29 microwatts.
@@DillonSharlet thanks for the answers! the gear ratio is really in the magnitude of a commercial clock
I was thinking. They sell some pretty thin sheets of PTFE (Teflon). Looking at the dimensions without measuring anything, it seems axles are 4.78mm OD and the holes are 4.8mm ID. They don't sell anything that's 0.0003" thick. If one reamed out the holes to 5mm, one could buy a sheet that's 0.003" thick, cut them into strips to match the circumference of the ID and the width of the beam, curl it up, and stuff it in the hole, and still wind up around the same factory clearance. No mess of oils, and I honestly think it would last forever at the slow speeds things rotate. Plus reduce friction, because PTFE is very slippery.
This clock is nice. I want it
Could this just be beneficial wear-in on some of the parts? For instance on the pallets, the sharp edges are being worn down and as the surfaces are lapped together their contact area increases and their wear reduces dramatically in the absence of abrasive particles. What if you were to just readjust the pallets and keep using them? They might last longer than a year after this, or may even last indefinitely.
This should be an Ideas set, but with special metal pieces for high-wear parts
I really wonder if LEGO should start making some metal bricks for high wear devices such as this. I know many a channel that have used some third party metal axles and such, but it would be really cool if lego made them in house
I am actually using some third party metal axles for the pendulum in this build! This is an attempt to make the pendulum less sensitive to temperature.
How do I find the parts list so I can make my own.
Bricklink shows howany bits it uses but does not show you what they are
Amazing work! Lego should be selling this...
Ah! I love Lego contraptions!
Whet if you cast the parts in a metal/harder plastic and sold it as a kit
After watching this again, I bet the wear on the shafts of that one-way mechanism is because only one or two pawls is ever engaged with the tank-track pieces. Whatever is at the top isn't being engaged because of gravity. This would cause the shaft to cock up or down.
Could you face the pallets with something like super glue maybe ,, or a shim cut from a coke can glued to the wearing surface
Perhaps the plastic axle got twisted by the weight, and the force from all that slight twisting got transferred to the little bushing which just couldn't take the force of the twisting, and so it shattered. The other pieces are stronger because they have more material, so they could take it. Now, you may not see the twisting unless the plastic axle deformed beyond repair.
i am really impressed. did you design the Clock?
This is actually really cool
How hard was it to tune the period timing?
It was (and still is) difficult! After the initial adjustments, the only way to tell if it is adjusted correctly is to let it run for several days and see if it consistently runs ahead or behind, and even very small adjustments are significant.
Very interesting. How did it perform, did the time drift (compared to this kind of clock)? Did you actually use and rely on it as a clock? And did that red sloped brick not pop off even once?
It is usually accurate to within 1 or 2 minutes when I wind it every 3 days. I often look at it to see what time it is! The forces on those red slope bricks are tiny, they've never popped off :)
Get a tube of grease for plastics like the kind used for RC cars and Nerf mods and apply a small bit to all moving parts it should help it last a bit longer
So if it was a harder material but in the same shape, it would probably still work just fine?
Do you have a build guide for this? It seems like a really cool wall piece
www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/design.page?idModel=150303 has "building steps". They aren't quite as good as LEGO instructions but they should get the job done :)
Maybe add a little bit of very viscous silicone oil on all the moving bits?
I guess there will be even less wear
I’d buy this set
Didn't ask, but I'm glad I got an answer.
Really interesting, moar
could you publish some instructions on the clock ?
I find if you add some spray lube, It saves ware and tare
How good was it at keeping time over several days?
It would collect dust on the upward facing surfaces, too, right?
Did you use any lubricant?
Running dry would seem a bit short lived.
Would using escape palettes made of a hard smooth material like a brass be ok?
Sick
I enjoyed watching this video. Take my subscription to bring you up to 500.
increasing the size of the escapement surfaces might be smart
Can you make insttuctions or something for this build, i really love it
dsharlet.com/file/clock.lxf
he posted it in a reply a few days ago
You mentioned a rewinder; did you make a remontoir?!
I think the half-bushing broke because the weight caused some torsion on the axle.
If instead of attaching the chain at the bottom of the weight you put a handle at that side of the chain to keep it from running through you could nearly double the effective chain.
The loop is important though, it balances the weight on the drivetrain so the torque doesn't change as the chain passes from one side of the clock to the other :)
Great work, Dillon, and thanks for the .lxf file. Speaking of which, LEGO Digital Designer 4.3 says that 24 bricks couldn't be loaded; do you know why that's happening and/or which bricks those are? Also, it looks like you're using chain link part number 15379, but how many of them, and are there any other parts not showing up in said .lxf file?
I think part of the problem is that the LXF file is for an older version of the clock that used a differential and ratchet instead of the freewheel design shown here. The older design didn't use the tread chain links. There are some instructions for the updated version here: www.bricklink.com/v3/studio/design.page?idModel=150303
For the other parts that aren't loading... I'm not sure, I've been working with LEGO studio now.
@@DillonSharlet Dillon, I've finally built the thing! I'm so excited to get it working but, for now at least, I have removed all the flywheel stuff, since the 12 involved chain links (part #15379) were too often slipping right past the three underlying axle connectors (#32039), no matter the direction of spin of the main drive wheel -- forward or backward. (Desperate, I even reversed the "bite" direction of those three parts, to no avail.) Any tips? I am guessing that it has to do with the following...
Also, at about 2:03 in your video, it seems that you are putting a lot of effort into rotating the main drive wheel. I sure struggle with mine, even after minimizing friction here and there. On the other hand, turning almost any other gear (e.g., the gear closest to the floor) is much, mmmmmuuuuuuch easier, which seems strange to me. Long story short, it seems that when I find up the recommended 560 gram mass to attach to the big chain loop, I kind of doubt that the clock will work, especially since maartnnn 050 unsuccessfully went all the way to 600 grams. Was your version static right up until you added that final washer? Update: I am unsure of how much mass I have just now added (by way of thicker washers than you are using in your video), but the main drive wheel now moves surprisingly easily. So now I just have to add/remove one or more washers and play around with the escapement settings! (And get that pesky freewheel working.)
.¿ cuánto cuesta y dónde puedo comprarlo?
Just WOW.
perhaps oiling it will help protect against wear
Hey Dillon! I absolutely love your design I actually made the efford to build it according to your well made instructions! However, I cant get it to spin freely when I disengage the escapement! I put around 600 grams weight on the chain, even when I remove the top section (the section with the dials which connect to the differential gear) it just wont run! I wondered if you've had similar issues, i read that you use around 560 grams, aand when I try to spin the 40 tooth gear on the back of the model, it doesn't seem to need much force at all, Ll the gears seem to spin freely! Any suggestions? Thank you very much!
Edit: i replaced the 9L cross beams (ball joint recievers) left and right of the chain with 5x7 technic grey squares, maybe this is causing friction, it just doesn't seem that way!
Final edit: I checked every single gear for its looseness, turned out there was 1 bushing which lightly touched the technic beam, this solved the issue! It amazes me how delicate this built really is, which I absolutely love! Now I can finally start finetuning the time capture! Thanks again!
@Filthy Fox very nice! Enjoy the build! I'm converting mine to a table model, Which can run for around 9-10 hours!
Hi, with how difficult it is to move the main drive wheel with my hand(s), I too thought that no amount of mass (on the main chain loop) would ever get it moving. But 31 thick washers later, and the main drive wheel now spins freely!
where is list of all bricks needed?
If you replace the edges of the pendulum (the little red parts that wore down) you might get another year out of it again!
You might also consider replacing them with a different part and seeing if they last longer.
The bushing on the freewheel that broke - Thats a high stress part which is always moving and always changing direction.
How accurate was the time?
I think I'm just going to need to replace the two red parts every 6 months to keep it running well :) It's possible there is a different part that would work well, but these are pretty unique among LEGO because they reach a sharp point, which allows them to capture more energy than a more blunt part.
It's usually a minute or two off every time I wind it every 3 days. I usually reset the time every other time I wind it (so every 6 days).
@@DillonSharlet not too shabby on the accuracy there.
I didn't mean make it more blunt, I was thinking of using the edge of a brick with a flat tile on top of it, that way you still have the sharp point on the edge of the tile and the tile being thicker may be more resilient to this form of wear. Would also make for a smaller piece to replace.
This looks amazing! I would like to make one for myself, but I can't seem to get a part list out of BrickLink, Where could I get one?
Here are instructions with a parts list: dsharlet.com/file/clock.pdf
Here is a stud.io file which I think will let you make a wanted list on bricklink: dsharlet.com/file/clock.io
@@DillonSharlet AMAZING! Thanks so much!
@@DillonSharlet Hai what a brilliant build ,wonderful technical knowledge great job
I am interested in building this this links are not active.
Could you please share some recent part list to build this with instruction please
I am from India