CNC and clock building

[cjablonski]

Can't wait to see more k! Do you have any photos to share of its current state? Would love to see them

[Kayvon]

Sure. I try to take lots of pictures during the process -- I already have over a hundred -- then pare those down to maybe 20 pictures afterwards. Then I'll take a fraction of those for a build log on the blog. Here's the current state of things:

Current state

The brass has been measured and cut, too:

Measured, cut, and polished

I ground up some of that brass using the dremel tool and used it as an inlay on the clock's face:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcsFkfjMJws

Brass inlay

These are raw pics from the process. I haven't cropped them to size or even thrown out all the blurry ones yet. Better pics promised at completion.

[cjablonski]

It's really looking great! Watched the video too. You have made a lot of progress. You don't look too far from completing it. What do you have left to do before assembly?

[Kayvon]

I need to glue the face and hypocycloid gear to the frame, drill those, and add the arbors. I also need to work out why the hour gear sometimes gets stuck on the hypocycloid gear, which is my biggest worry at the moment. In running it through the motions, it'll sometimes completely bind, which would bring the entire clock to a dead stop.

I need to weigh down the ballast and set up the wiring and start running the gears through their motions. That's pretty much it, I guess. We're not too far from having everything assembled at this point, even if there's still a lot of tinkering to get it running smoothly.

[cjablonski]

What do you believe is making the gear bind? Is the tooth getting buried in the addendum?

[Kayvon]

No, it's the hypocycloid gear, so it's a just three pegs traveling around a weird squiggle. I tried dry running it last night, especially at an angle rather than flat, and had fewer problems. I was happy enough with the results that I gave it a quick 220 sanding on the outside and glued it to the frame.

This evening, I'll drill the center, test the arbor fit, and glue the face to the frame as well. I neglected to leave alignment markings on the face, so I'll need to figure out a fancy way of assuring the face is perfectly oriented. It'll be fun.

Getting to the end always makes me nervous. Even though I've done everything well, I always worry that I'll put it together and nothing will work.

[cjablonski]

K-the end of every clock build feels the same for me. Exciting, a bit fearful yet anticipating the final product, all the while hoping for minimal fiddling.

Nobody wants still art on thier wall

[Kayvon]

I spent the morning drilling, soldering, and assembling. It's really coming together now.

I also did a brief demonstration of the hypocycloid action of the hour hand. It's fun to watch. Take a look!
https://youtu.be/hUvz3xhvz7M

[cjablonski]

Really neat setup! Watched and enjoyed the video also ans subscribed looking forward to the next update!

[Kayvon]

And it's done. Granted, I'll be tweaking it slightly over the next couple months to get it to run more reliably, but it's running through the night now. Usually.

Full write-up with pictures and videos here:
http://perryprojects.blogspot.com/2017/ ... clock.html