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In normal mechanical clocks and watches, there are two or more parallel plates, which hold the various gears in place. This design does away with these frame plates. I had made a small version some years ago, but when a bike shop in Silver City was considering some art piece for the place, I decided to make one out of bike parts. All the wheels, chains and rims are discarded bike parts. They are held together with bits of masonite, and I used ball bearings from skateboards. The shafts are 5/16 threaded rods, and there are a few small bits of copper plumbing pipe. | |
| Look ma, no frame! The whole clock mechanism is supended from one drive chain, and all gear wheels hang in more chains. The object at the bottom is a weight to keep the chains under tension. The clock face is suspended separately. All parts gently sway in the breeze. | 
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| On the top, the drive chain is driven by a small 1 rpm motor. | 
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| The bike wheel in the back is just a counterweight, and can spin freely | 
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| The gear wheels are mounted on the shafts with pieces of masonite and 8-32 bolts. | 
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| Here's the whole thing in action | 
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Update: in the pictures above, the face is suspended from a
temporary wooden
crossbar. In the
meantime this has been replaced by bicycle handlebars.
Also, on the face, I placed
markers
by the 12,3,6 and 9 o'clock positions.
The 12 is of course the
yellow jersey.
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More pictures
same, annotated
2nd place SF recycled art show
Make Magazine, Vol xxx, pg yyy, 20zz
Hubert Last modified: Sun Nov 26 14:44:36 MST 2017