Ball Bearing Clock

23

I could think of about a hundred ways to make a simpler clock, but this Ball Bearing Clock looks fantastic. Video after the jump.

 

"I though about building a clock with a pendulum activated by the fall of bearing balls. The first thing to design was the engine which was to sustain the pendulum’s oscillation: how to get enough energy from a ball to make this possible? The balls had to be heavy enough to run a stable course but their size obviously determines the clock’s size. As a trade-off between weight and size I arbitrarily picked a 19.8 millimetre diameter for the balls. I could picture the running clock in my mind, and I believed I could complete it in three months… The engine’s first prototypes were just unbelievable, at that time I thought that I needed as much gain as possible to achieve the largest possible amplitude: after a month of effort I had achieved a 60 centimetre swing with a 1 meter pendulum. That’s when I stumbled across an old physics book from 1894 which explained that the isochronism of oscillations is only true for small amplitudes, not large ones. A month of work for nothing. I was now left with the reverse problem to solve: achieving the smallest possible amplitude with 20-millimetre balls. It took me another month to design the final version of the engine. "

 

This article is sponsored by Shanghai Lily Bearing Manufacturing a Ball Bearing supplier.

 

 

 

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23 Comments


  2. OK, that is cool in the oldest-school way possible! Absolutely amazing!


  3. cool but why do you need somthing that big to tell you what time it is wht you can have a wristwatch that tells you what time it is to the exact billasecond and never goes off? its called a watch hooked up to the atomic clock? well anyways, very interesting and great job!


  4. that is so stupid its amazing what a kwl idea … shame about the noise and huge size ! but its still COOL !


  5. Fantastic. This clock is really amazing.



  7. Very cool! Those look like pinball sized bearings (1.125″) or so. I have a pinball machine and just getting six of those banging around makes quite the racket. I can’t imagine how loud this clock would be with them all slamming around on the brass bars/etc.







  14. Is anyone else reminded of the game “Mousetrap?”


  15. Hey Clark, I didn’t think of mousetrap. But now that you mention it I wonder where the falling cage is. 🙂



  17. This project must have cost a fortune. I’m used to all of my tinkering having to be done on a shoe string budget. Just kinda makes me wonder where some of these project get funded.



  19. I think youir ball bearing clock is great. I too have a ball bearing clock – bulk manufactor – and I have stripped one of the cogs and haven’t been able to find a replacement. The clock innards is made of black plastic for the ball bearings to run down on and is covered by a clear plastic top. There are three units to make up. seconds, minutes and hours. Do you know of this clock. It would be wonderful if I could get the stripped clog – made of hardened plastic – replaced. Keep thinking up new clocks, I think you are a genious.


  20. Hi Trish,

    Thanks but I have only featured it here, I am not the talented designer. Click on the link in the article to go to the designers site.


  21. thanks for that info. keep up the good work, kind regards, Trish


  22. Please could you help me. my husband would love to make a ball bearing clock. Is there any where i could buy akit of some sort? It is his 50th Birthday soon and this would be a great present. I would be so gratefull with any info.

    Regards Deborah

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