My plan is to make it out of clear acrylic again, and have the face and hands opaque.
If I move the smaller outer gears together, I think the frame could be much smaller too. 
I might center the pendulum in the back and go a little more traditional with this one? (But if I did that I would want the pendulum arm transparent tooâŚ)
I like where this one is going, but I hope the theory works in practice.
That would set back the enjoyment of all those inner supports that would be hidden by the opaque face. I was seeing them interacting with each other in the different colors (and trying to figure how to employ LEDs without fancy elec-tricks)
I have been looking for a location to place the drive gear and gear down from the minute hand. The I noticed that I already have a gear-down for the hour-gear. Would I be crazy to attach the drive into that gear chain? It is already accessible and reducing rotations, and then I wouldnât have to introduce another compound-gear-assembly to the chain.
But I still need an easy way to set the time on the clock and that could complicate thatâŚ
I might try it anyway.
With the drive attached here the drum should rotate 9.6 times in 12 hours. I am not sure if that would generate enough torque to keep the pendulum swinging?
But it would also be all acrylic wheels and all axles would be brass, so I hope to have very little friction (lost power).
I am also playing with an idea of a modular frame. So that I might be able to tweak parts of the frame instead of the whole frame.
I have been looking at using the brass rods to hold the frame together also. Does anyone think it would cause an issue if I fixed the rod into the frame? The wheels are already designed to spin on the rods (not fixed to the rods).
I am looking at using a die and cast set to thread the rods and possible set them directly into the frames.
If you are pulling the minute gear instead of the hour gear you would need 60 times more length (but have a lot more torque)! Gear down to push the minute hand and you just have an extra hour hand 
Mostly the fewer gears the less friction. Or so my logic goes.
The minute gear actually makes a full rotation once an hour, so it would only be 12 times the length, not 60. But yes, that is exactly what I am talking about. I checked the gear ratios and if I attached it inside the existing gear-down, I would only go from 12 rotations in 12 hours to 9.8 rotations in 12 hours.
I think I just need to see how much friction is reduced by removing the last non-brass axles. Until then I really donât know how much I can reduce the torque to gain run-time.
Also, to allow for a shorter pendulum, I am planning a 72 tick per minute ratio instead of the 60 tick per minute expectation from the last design.
How about press fitting a brass ferrule to act as an axle bearing/sheave for the brass axles? Also could use nylon spacers (Home Depot has all sorts of sizes).
I am not sure I understand what you are suggesting?
It seems to me you are suggesting I keep the brass rods free-moving and not fixed? That I should not attempt to have the rods serve a dual purpose of brace and allowing the wheels to spin on them?
Nope. I was thinking that in the axle hole youâre making in each wheel you embed a brass ferrule (drill out the end if itâs not the last gear on the rod) that the axle will ride in (or use a nylon spacer). That makes the friction brass to brass and even should allow you to put a drop of oil or graphite powder in to lubricate the surfaces.
A âjewelâ in a watch or clock is a small shaped piece of sapphire with a tiny depression drilled into it that the gear axle rides in with a small cup on top that provides a micro-drop sized reservoir of oil to lubricate the pivot (and an even tinier hole joining the cup to the pivot hole). The ferrule could provide a similar bearing surface as the jewel does.
Ah, okay. Do you think brass to acrylic would cause extra friction? (or just more than brass to something else?)
Yes. I think youâre getting very fine striations in the acrylic cuts - at larger sizes you can often see that on the sides of cuts. For the brass axle, you can chuck it into a drill and spin the end in emery cloth going up through the grits to 6000 to really get a polished surface. You can polish the inside of the ferrules although not as likely as well as the rod because youâll have to do it by hand but I expect the surfaces will provide less friction than the acrylic to brass will. And like the watch jewel example, a bit of lubricant can be captured and further reduce friction - but be sparing with lubrication, the 2 biggest causes of mechanical watch & clock failures are dry (no lubrication) and over lubed gears. The amount of lubrication added to a watch jewel pivot cup is so small itâs hard to see - itâs applied with a very fine needle with the drop size controlled by the needle size, just what will form a drop on the end.
I got to thinking about these:
https://www.amazon.com/Leather-Rivets-Punching-Silver-Gunmetal/dp/B07SCJ17LX/ref=asc_df_B07SCJ17LX/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=343161308379&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12915297226249919438&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052965&hvtargid=pla-780245425402&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=69167794775&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=343161308379&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12915297226249919438&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9052965&hvtargid=pla-780245425402
Carefully matched to the size of your rods could provide the ferrules you are looking for.
These come in many grits down to pumice powder and great for the inside of stuff:
https://www.amazon.com/Rubber-Polishing-Accessories-Cylinder-Buffing/dp/B082F82Q29/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=rubber+polishing+points&qid=1622728233&s=hi&sr=1-8
You are correct. I have dialed in the power settings to reduce these striations, but there is always a big one were the circle begins and ends.
I have been trying to avoid brass tubes, but maybe it is time to fix the rods in the frame and insert brass tubes inside the gears? I do agree that should reduce friction even more.
I have also purchased some thinner acrylic for an attempt to make a smaller clock. I am still working out the details, and all this discussion with brass tubes may delay my attempt with a smaller gear-set.
Doing a little bit of research on brass tubing has me really excited to try this sheaving method on my gears! This could even lead to a new design model for me.
I got the brass tubes I ordered! Then I realized they were far to small⌠I was looking at âouter-diameterâ when I should have been referencing âinner-diameterâ. Rookie mistake I guess⌠I look forward to my NEXT delivery.
I may also tweak my existing design to use the 72 tpm (ticks-per-minute) as I have been running some tests and seems to stay running when set at that faster speed. That does not say it would still work with the gear adjusted or not, but I might still try?
I was reviewing my gear ratios on the clock (in preparation for adjusting them) and I noticed they are off! My clock is running 14% faster than it should be! That is probably my biggest issue with it, so if I can resolve it, I may be able to salvage my design.
(Two of my gears have 60 teeth when they should really have 64 teeth.)
I am really busy this week and I donât know if I will get a chance to design the new gears and actually get them on the clock, but I am going to try.
I know there are many kits. But, I did not want a kit; I wanted to make my own and share it with the community.
I like how they used a compound-pendulum off to the side like I do though!
I have seen many kits, but that was not one of them. Thanks for sharing!
Well, I tried designing a gear with 64 teeth and made it the size of the existing 60 tooth gear. I was hoping they would be close enough that it would work, and it did, at first. But now the clock is not working well at all.
I am afraid I need to fix this with a redesign of the gear-train that will result in a shifting of the frame also.
Keep the faith, I am still rooting for you. I admire your persistence.
I am really busy with the kids on summer break, but I am still trying to steal time to play with my clocks.
I feel like the new 64 gear should be working. I checked all the clearances and the teeth. Because of the kerf from the laser, there is a little wiggle room with the tooth differences.
I am planning on trying to oil the axles to see if I can smooth out the gear train.
I feel like I might need to get some cotton gloves or something for when I work on the clocks. I feel like oils from my hands are affecting the internals when I work on them.
