Can a mechanical clock be made on the Glowforge?

I was simply referring to spelling piece vs peace…
:innocent:

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As in “If you are just sitting cross-legged with your eyes closed an humming searching for your inner piece, shouldn’t you just be looking around where you had it last”?

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In an attempt to troubleshoot the issue with the gear-chain, I am going to temporarily move the weight.

This will greatly increase the torque in the chain, but it will also greatly decrease run time.

I believe the issue is with the minute-axle. This change should move the power to the other side of the issue. I am hoping this will allow the clock to run long enough for me to be able to find some “witness marks” to help me locate the actual issue.

Otherwise, this could help break-in the clock and help it function normally. (These are all assumptions at this point. I will hopefully learn more by this process.)

Edit: This is the result:

IMG_3239

I reduced the weight also. The power transferring to the pendulum is MUCH higher. It is making a much louder ‘Tick… Tock…’ now. So I will let it run and see what I can learn.

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I looks like the clock ran for about 5 and a half hours with the weight wrapped around the lower axel. (Which is longer than I expected, but I also realized the axle is much smaller diameter than the original drum.)

Unfortunately, with this temporary setup I have to disassemble the clock to rewind it…

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Found a way around disassembling the clock. I just removed the pendulum, then I was able to run the clock backwards until it was ready again.

I replaced the small weight with the original one. So it is quite loud and running at about 4X speed. Estimating it will take around 1 .5 hours to be done, and hopefully this will break-in the clock and not outright break it…

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Well, I was going to reinstall the original weight and drive-gear, but I found that the pinion on the minute axle had a broken tooth.


So I was going to cut a new one.

I went to clean my lens, before cutting the new pinion and found one of my head wheels broken… So clock progress is going to be delayed until I can get it fixed. :sob:

dang. bad luck.

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Interesting… they closed the thread and opened a “trouble ticket email service”. I thought they were the same process?

I have seen them close a thread because they were already communicating via email, but I have not sent or received any email from them and they already closed the forum thread?

If I do not receive an email from them in the next hour, I will follow up with them since they already closed my communication channel with them.

Ouch! :cry:

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I suspect that they will need personal information like current mailing etc.

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I did finally receive an email from them, and it looks like they did send the email before closing the thread. It just took almost an hour for me to receive that email (that was strange).

They confirmed my shipping address before sending the new part. So hopefully I will be back up and running after a few days waiting.

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Well, with my :glowforge: down, I decided to look through my cast-off parts to see if I could find something that I might be able to use…

I have several old pinions in there, but I need one with a cross-axle connector and a pin-hole.

I found several with pin-holes, but they were all for the brass axle. I did find one cross-axle pinion, so I might be able to drill a pin-hole…

Or, I will just wait for my part, repair my :glowforge:, and cut a new one…

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I just received a delivery for the new wheel!


I hope to get it installed this weekend. I have work today and plans this evening, so I will have to wait until Saturday to get my :glowforge: fixed… (I really just want to take off the afternoon and do this…)

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Well… I couldn’t wait.

I took off work a little early and starting going through the steps to repair my :glowforge: !

I was very frustrated at first. I couldn’t find a hex-wrench that would fit. I thought my 1/8" should fit, but 3mm is not close enough to work. Then I found an old bike-tool I had in the garage. I tried it and it fit!


Notes from the repair… that belt is a booger to work with! I was glad when I finally got it off, but even more glad when I finally got it back on!

The old wheel looks like it could be repaired (in a pinch). I would just have to be sure glue was sanded down.

(Now I have to get ready, before my wife yells at me…)

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Some more things I have learned:

Pay attention to the sounds that your :glowforge: makes.

A week ago, I noticed my :glowforge: was sounding slightly different. I just thought it was a sign that I needed to give it a good cleaning. I noticed that the camera was slightly off from calibration too, so I thought maybe grime was building up somewhere.

Nope – broken V-wheel on the carriage plate.

Now that I have fixed the wheel, the alignment issues are gone. I thought it would need recalibration or something, but they are just gone! And, my :glowforge: sounds normal again. All is right in my :glowforge: world again!

But now I am very concerned about those cuts last week… My new clock might be having issues because this broken wheel…

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While I was waiting for the replacement part, I started going through my scrap material. I found several pieces of scrap acrylic that I thought could be used for making gears.

So, the first things I cut once I was fixed were new gears out of acrylic!

I did notice that not all the acrylics were the same thickness. So this causes issues with getting the gears to line up properly. But, once I got it all together and and on the wall, it started running immediately.

IMG_3254

Later, the clock attempted to self-destruct several times, as the bottom red gear would slide out of alignment and the weight would bounce on the floor. Send the clock into a free-spin as the momentum would try to wind the clock backwards…

Luckily nothing broke during these attempts at self-destruction. But, I did take it down until I can properly wedge the axles to stay aligned.

I wish I had a video of the event. It was quite scary at the time, but also entertaining as I think back on it… (I guess it was only entertaining because no one was injured and the clock wasn’t harmed.)

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I think I mentioned this back during the holidays, have you considered barrel bolts, you can get them in either Nickle or Brass, could give it a touch of accent to the face as well.

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I am not familiar with barrel bolts, but I will look into those.

Right now I am just trying to get it functional. Though, I feel like it is really close.

Edit: (After a quick search.) I think those would be perfect if I could find the right size!

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I don’t know how many times @reynoso mentioned this (two or three at least) and I just kept thinking, “Yeah, I should try that” but never actually did it, until recently.

Now that I have switched the gears to acrylic everything is running so much smoother now (when it is lined up). There is more power coming through the gear-chain, so I could probably reduce the weight or add a pulley system (yeah, that sounds like fun!)


I have determined that I need a table saw! That way I could easily cut down materials. I don’t have a place for it yet, and I have not mentioned anything to the wife yet… so the idea could wither and die, but that is what I think I need! (well… “want”)

Edit: Looking at this one:
https://smile.amazon.com/DEWALT-10-Inch-2-Inch-Capacity-DWE7491RS/dp/B0842QDW95/

Any other recommendations?

I mainly want it to be able to cut down acrylic sheets…

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Been there, done that… :joy:

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