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Another Project for the Plywood Enthusiast — Parallax Forums

Another Project for the Plywood Enthusiast

User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
edited 2013-09-16 14:20 in General Discussion
I was impressed with the craftsmanship and overall appearance of this functional conversation piece.

Seems like a nice application for a Propeller or BS2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9LqIy6QcWI

Comments

  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2013-09-14 13:07
    Interesting, I liked the old time digital display via rotating wheels.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-09-14 16:49
    Never mind the Propeller or whatever. That things seems to be keeping time by itself with an escapement made of wooden components. Brilliant.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2013-09-14 19:41
    Neat clock. It's the wood that makes it good!
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2013-09-14 20:31
    I watched a documentary about the first accurate ship's clock (chronometer). Apparently one of the clockmaker's breakthroughs was using of a specific type of wood (I think from South America) that behaved as a natural lubricant to the clockwork. So apparently wood has a long history in clock movements.

    I liked the way he didn't worry about being a purist. A lot of the clock is mechanical but he's not opposed to using a few servos to move the hammer and a few other parts.

    I think it would have been easier to purchase a few walnuts to crack whenever his granddaughter came over but using the nutcracker in the clock is a lot more fun.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-09-14 21:50
    Heater. wrote: »
    Never mind the Propeller or whatever. That things seems to be keeping time by itself with an escapement made of wooden components. Brilliant.

    Right. But there were some ancillary functions implemented in other than wood - like the mechanism that raises the two weights - which could be controlled with a uC.

    Actually, if I were to make something like this, I'd use a wood pendulum but I'd keep it swinging by a tiny pulsed pull of an electromagnet. The pulse would be phase-locked to UTC. A wooden clock with wooden parts is great, but if it can be ultra precise too...

    Lignum vitae...that was the self-lubricating wood that improved ship clocks. That there was even a nuclear submarine that used Lignum vitae shaft bearings. :o

    I agree, erco, the wood is gorgeous! Baltic birch plywood with what I presume is MinWax walnut stain.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-09-14 23:25
    User Name,
    I'd use a wood pendulum but I'd keep it swinging by a tiny pulsed pull of an electromagnet. The pulse would be phase-locked to UTC.
    Yes. Wood or not I have often thought about building a pendulum clock like that.

    Back in the 1970's on a school trip to the Greenwich Observatory I was fascinated by an old pendulum clock they had there that was set up exactly as you describe. The idea has been with me ever since.
  • User NameUser Name Posts: 1,451
    edited 2013-09-15 12:31
    Yup. The Shortt-Synchronome - an outstanding design! IIRC, it was the first clock more accurate than the Earth's movement - and therefore able to measure the Earth's wobble. Not long ago I saw a great documentary that featured it. I can only wish I'd gone there on a school trip...
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-09-15 12:56
    I love the Shortt-Synchronome but I think my pendulum will have to sync with GPS or some such. Vacuums are a pain to manage.

    That does not look how remember the clock I saw, but it was a long time ago.

    If you ever get to London do check out the Greenwhich observatory, and the Science Museum, and the Kew Bridge Steam Museum and The National Museum of Computing and ... well, you are gong to busy...
  • Matt GillilandMatt Gilliland Posts: 1,406
    edited 2013-09-16 07:23
    I like it!....I mean I don't like it! ohhhh...I'm so confused ?!

    On third thought, I like DO like it :-)
    -MattG
  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2013-09-16 09:34
    Heater. wrote: »

    If you ever get to London do check out the Greenwhich observatory, and the Science Museum, and the Kew Bridge Steam Museum and The National Museum of Computing and ... well, you are gong to busy...
    As a kid I used to spend a lot of the school holidays there, I stopped going for about thirty years when I moved out of London but in recent years took my family there, have to say it had changed a lot and not for the better, a lot of stuff was just interactive PC's half of were not working, a lot of the old mechanical/electrical exhibits had disappeared which was a disappointment.
    One of my favorite exhibits of old was the periscope that you looked into in the basement to look over the above floors, was so disappointed to see it had gone, so I wrote to the museum curators who informed me it was now stored in their redundant stores and would I be interested in purchasing it!
    If I remember they wanted something like £12,000 for it!
    Apart from the money, where would I put it? (remember this is a family forum :smile:)
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-09-16 13:11
    skylight,

    You are seriously depressing me. Since when would a "science museum" be a display of PC's? I mean, what is the point of having a museum full of screens showing you stuff you can find on the net anyway?

    I was already dismayed years ago when I found the "flying bedstead" was no longer there in the aviation display. Seems it was moved to Farnborough a long time ago.
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2013-09-16 13:29
    Real interactive exhibits tends to break and require maintenance.
    SKILLED maintenance.

    A PC as set up in exhibits is usually 'armor plated' and the only thing tat can break is the keyboard, mouse or other input device. Or so they think...

    If I want to see lots of PCs gathering dust, I climb the stairs to the attic!
    (Spent most of the evening up there ostensibly to search for an elusive external SCSI CD-ROM I need to update my Logic Analyzer, but which ended up being a pure nostalgia trip... )

    Museums these days are all about the bottom line. And as that starts showing on the building and exhibits, fewer people wants to visit.
    A couple of years ago, on my way back from Thailand, I had a stop in Vienna(I planned my trip so that I arrived early in the morning and had all day) and yeah, I beelined for the Museum of Natural History.
    The old exhibits, up to the Planetarium, are great. The exhibit they were opening about parasites... mostly posters... Yeah, POSTERS!
    Most of the old stuff were labeled in both German and English, which was nice.
    Then I visited the shop...
    Not a single book in English!
    I had spent half the day there and hadn't taken a single picture because not only aren't I that good a photographer, but I didn't want to use the flash and annoy other visitors.
    And then I find that they don't even have a bl**dy book with pictures and descriptions of the exhibits that I could read...
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2013-09-16 14:20
    Gadgetman,
    If I want to see lots of PCs gathering dust, I climb the stairs to the attic!
    Speaking of which. Two weeks ago I was in Galway, Ireland, where I found the National Computer and Communications Museum.

    Oh my God. It was like a gigantic version of a teenagers bedroom from the early 1980s. A whole pile of Sinclair Spectrum's, C64's. Going back in time they have Commadore PET's, and even further to PDP11, VT100 terminals, teletypes and displays of old magnetic core stores. Down in the foyer is a PUMA robot arm. It was great.
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