View groups and posts below.
This post is from a suggested group
Seems to keep good time. I printed enough parts to make 3 clocks at the same time and this is the best one. The 2nd one I had a bit of an issue with the hands not moving but I may have ironed that out. My big skateboard sized bearings are hot garbage and like to fall to pieces. I need to find a good brand to replace them with. I haven't assembled the 3rd one yet.
This post is from a suggested group
I decided that SP13 will be it, and I now have the kit of parts (yes it took forever to get to the UK!) and am looking at starting printing. I'm in no rush and want to do this well, to the extent that I want to ask everyone's experience with plastics other than PLA. For example I have PC-CF (polycarbonate carbon fiber) with which I recently made parts for a CoreOne upgrade. I'm very impressed by that material; the CoreOne prints with it very well and it comes out so smooth and is inherently 'tough'. I've also got ASA. The PC-CF is black so does not lend itself to some aspects, but I'm seriously considering the gears, thinking that the hardness and stiffness might reduce friction. For the frame I might use PETG, but ASA is also a question, and both are stiffer and mechanically stronger than PLA (…
This post is from a suggested group
Hi Steve,
I am building a SP10, and I am seeing an interference issue when I try to adjust the time. It was not easy to see where it is interfering, but what appears to happen is that the little ribs on gear5_30 fall into the gear that meshes with gear5_15. I believe that is 6_25_8. I wonder if you have seen this. Possibly an error on my part. See attached video.
I have tried re-assembling a few times, and it is always there. Now I am trying out some variations on gear5_30 to eliminate this, but then I do see some slippage: while the second hand looks correct, the clock appears to run slowly. So is why I am thinking there is some slippage. I moved the shaft collar to get more spring force as a test, and that appears to be working.
I am going to try a…
Hi Dave,
I am not completely sure what is happening, but it looks like gear6_25_8 is interfering with the ribs on gear5_30.
On my clock, gear6_25_8 meshes close to the front of gear5_15, so it has plenty of clearance away from the ribs on gear5_30.
Try testing for end shake on both arbors. Push gear5 backwards and pull gear6 forwards. There should only be 1-2mm of end shake on each arbor. If it is much larger than 2mm, then the gears may be moving too much and causing interference with gears they are not supposed to mesh with. See if you can move the gears around by adding spacers to prevent the interference.
Steve
This post is from a suggested group
Hi,
This is my first post and my first clock build:https://youtube.com/shorts/0S7IOCwYK3c?si=sIRYi_Ioy__q2pka
First of all, it was amazing to get it working. The ticking sound is fantastic. It’s been running for about 5 days now. It’s hard to measure precision exactly yet, but it’s definitely within single digit seconds per day.
A couple of things I did slightly differently from the manual:
I printed the frame back standoff in ABS, just to remove any concerns about sagging and PLA brittleness.
I also discovered “super-bearings.” They’re slightly more expensive, but given how many hours we spend on these projects, an extra $20 doesn’t seem excessive:
The moon is indeed moving, I just didnt have enough patience to measure day to day shifts. Overall everythins works great, weight is 7.7 lb, could probably reduce it but too lazy to touch it :) Probably an overkill for a first project, but worked out great. Thank you!
This post is from a suggested group
Hi Steve,
I am about to build SP14 - the large moon phase clock.
When trying to set up gear 9, the M3x8mm screw in gear 9b_5 cannot be screwed in tightly enough to fasten gear 9_5 to the 1.5mm arbor. The thread in the gear is not stable enough. I printed gear 9b again with 7 perimeters and an infill of 40% (cubic), but that couldn't be fastened either.
Do you have any suggestion how to print gear 9b_5 so that the screw can be tightened sufficiently?
Kind regards from Germany
Bernhard
The first question is why your screws are loose and mine fit as expected? I use the default extrusion settings for generic PLA in PrusaSlicer. There are parameters for filament diameter and the extrusion multiplier, but I have never adjusted them. The results have been working well for me with several different filament types.
Have you tried different filaments? Gear9b_5 is small enough that it should be quick to test with other filaments.
Other things to try would be to experiment with the extrusion multiplier or the XY Size Compensation parameter.
Another trick used by woodworkers is to add a drop of superglue to the hole, let it dry, then assemble the component. This adds a thin layer of glue to make the hole tighter. The arbor hole might need to be drilled out again for the proper fit.
btw: what printer, slicer, and filament brand are you using? Also, did you need to drill out the arbor holes? Or were the arbors already loose right after printing? My CAD files always start with slightly oversized holes, but the printed result is always undersized, and every hole needs to be drilled out for the proper fit.
This post is from a suggested group
Hi Steve, I'm in the process of building the SP4B but am having some on going issues. I printed this as a 17 day clock, get about 8.5 min on the pendulum free swing test, and used about 7.5 lb of weight. All of my gears spin freely on the arbors and I'm using bearings everywhere I can which I cleaned out more than once with alcohol. When I first setup the clock it ran great but would stop about once per day randomly, it would re-start right away. Each day it ran less and less until it wouldn't run at all after a re-start During the trouble shooting for that I re-cleaned my bearings ( I used WD40 Dry Lube which seemed to gum up after a few days) but that did not solve the issue. I removed the escapement and let the weight free fall and in doing…
If the escapement stops spinning between ticks, the clock will likely stop running. The escapement interfering with the pallet also sounds like the escapement is not spinning fast enough. A deadbeat escapement has a very short duration to impart energy to the pallet and pendulum. The escapement must start rotating instantly.
Things to check are listed in the debug section of the manual. The gears spin easily on the arbors. Make sure they also spin easily after mounting in the frame. There needs to be a small amount of end shake or side play. This is especially true for the central arbor and the escapement arbor in this clock.
It is also possible that some filament types are stickier than others. They can usually still get them to work by lubricating the pinion teeth with dry lube or even lithium grease. Only a tiny bit is needed. I usually apply grease using a toothpick and wipe most of it off so only a thin layer remains.
17 day mode with 7.5lbs is fairly aggressive for this clock. Reducing to a shorter duration might be needed as a last resort. This will give more energy to help the escapement spin faster.
This post is from a suggested group
Steve has released the book we've all been waiting for on Minifactory: we immediately purchased it!
Now it's time to study.
Weirdly it does I can't download the PDF just gives a blank page might just be timing ill check again later. Excited to read this.
This post is from a suggested group
Just finished SP15 and it works great! Thank you for a highly thought out and engineered design.
Congratulations! If you’re as happy as I am, you’ll be delighted.
Mine has settled down now, I had trouble when I first assembled it. Stripped it down, rechecked all bore diameters & cogs for elephant foot etc, reassembled . I’ve been away 6 days, just got home to find clock gained just over a minute!
Should have done it right first time, or read Steve’s instructions fully!
This post is from a suggested group
The clock runs slow. I changed the jumpers from 0010 to 0001 as per the chart in the instructions. Now I can use the clock as a fan it is going so fast ok, sleight exaggeration, but not much. Although I do like how fast the gears are turning, but I would like to know how to adjust it for the proper time. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you
Does the second hand move at the proper rate? If the clock is losing an hour per day. then the second hand would only move 57 seconds per minute. That much of a discrepancy should be detectable with a stopwatch. If the second hand is accurate, but the clock still loses time, then maybe the friction clutch is slipping. This would indicate not enough pressure in the spring or friction in the minute and/or hour hand gears.
Also, is there a blinking LED on the board? One LED is always on indicating power. The second LED should blink if the RTC is tracking properly. A non-blinking LED indicates a non-detected RTC and the rate will be off.
One additional error occurred on my mom's clock caused by a bad 5V USB power source. 5V power would drop out every minute or two and the clock would briefly stop and have to start up again. This error was noticeable by the non-smooth motion on the second hand. The clock would also make a ticking sound when the stepper motors power up again.
Material characteristics for common 3d printing materials
https://www.simplify3d.com/support/materials-guide/properties-table/?