Five-Axle Stepper Motor Clock

thingiverse

I crafted this pocket-sized timepiece to fit snugly within a top hat, perfectly complementing my steam punk costume with its intricately visible gears. Although clocks are ubiquitous, accessing information on designing one from scratch can be surprisingly scarce, necessitating weeks of in-depth research and trial-and-error experimentation. This meticulously designed model is the culmination of my laborious efforts and entirely my own creation. I deliberately opted not to develop a movement mechanism, instead acquiring a stepper motor and corresponding hardware to drive it at 1 RPM, which in turn powers the second hand axle. If there's genuine interest, I'd be happy to share more specifics on the electronics; essentially, I programmed an Arduino to control the stepper motor. Standard skateboard bearings were employed for this timepiece, sourced from a budget-friendly vendor ($10 for eight) and boasting 22mm outer diameters, 8mm inner diameters, and 7mm thickness. This iteration boasts five axles, significantly streamlining the design by reducing the number of required gears. As seen in "break-in" mode on this video: https://youtu.be/JpaEKej01mE, a slight hitch in the gears is evident due to the 3D printing process. To alleviate these imperfections, I'm running the clock at an accelerated pace, anticipating that this will help smooth out the bumps over time.