K'nex Mini Grandfather Clock

K'nex clock with working hour and minute hand. Keeps time relatively well and automatically winds itself when the weights are low. Compact, accurate, and stylish :)

No broken parts. Only non K'nex things are a few $ of coin rolls for weights to power the escapement.

I will make a video of it soon but wanted to get the tutorial out first. There's tips on almost every picture for added context. let me know if you have problems with the clock build.

I definitely miscounted a few of these, and some parts aren't necessary. The the knex parts that matter most are the gears and wheels (obviously), 6 metallic blue nubs (like tan axel lock clips but with no peg), and 16 black half hinges (which you can make by destroying grey clips with a hack saw).

The funky:

4 end caps, 11 black clip/rod nubs, 2 female ball joints, 1 male ball joint, 8 metallic blue clips, 17 black half hinges, and 1 blue half hinge, 28 blue washers, 16 grey washers, $6.50 in penny rolls to make 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) of weight.

Moving parts:

Grey plug in motor, wall plug, and white gear (the screw needs to be pushing away from the motor. If its pulling towards the motor, you'd need to find a wall plug with the same numbers, but the polarity switched).

72 links (+20 an optional), 2 large wheels, 1 large rubber tire, 6 thin wheels, 2 thin rubber tires, 2 Large yellow gears, 8 medium red gears, 1 medium bevel gear, 5 small gears with locking clips, 3 small gears that have friction, 1 small gear that spins freely on a rod.

Connectors: 47 3d blue, 84 3d purple, 50 white, 55 yellow, 100 green, 28 red, 45 orange, 14 light grey elbow, 87 dark grey.

Rods: 10 black (some can be grey), 6 tan, 52 red, 55 yellow, 85 blue, 200 white, 129 green, 2 long flex rods (optional)

Base of the clock. Its symmetrical. The black half hinge and one end of the yellow rod are free for now.

Construct the front pendulum housing in the first two pictures. Construct the weight housing in the third picture and attach both housings to the base and each other as shown. The placement for the weights becomes completely encased, while the pendulum remains open at the front.

Construct the first picture and attach in the second.

Make the support in the first picture, and then construct the bushings shown inserted into the housing. Attach the three blue rods on the corner of each red connector to the back of the gear housing (last three pictures). Connect the blue rods that slide, not the rigid clipped ones (the clipped ones are just there for rigidity).

Make the two panels in the first pic, we'll be using the bottom one for now, and the top in a later step. As shown in second pic, attach the bottom panel to the 3 rods from the previous step, as well as the surrounding connectors. The axel shown is where the weight chain pulls down and powers the clock. It will just be floating there until we put chain link and the rest of the backing on.

All the gears (but not the white connector) should be locked on a tan axel. The green rods are 90 degrees apart and should connect under and inward.

Make the gear axel from the first two pics. It should spin freely on the white connector again. Last three pics are how it should look. Again the green rods will connect down and inward. The reason there are four red gears: you need 2 to pull the chain and at least 1 to step down from the motor. The step down was a failure mode once, so i added another gear to beef it up.

Mistake alert! That top gear fell out and i put it on backwards for the pic. The small gear should be facing the other side. Attach 72 links and make a loop as shown. (it goes through and over the hump from the small wheels from step four.) Turn the chain into a loop and stick a rod in it for easy access later when we add the weight cart and pully.

Throw a large wheel on there to prevent the chain from popping off the gear. (another failure mode...) The other panel from step 5 is ready to be attached

The cord comes up through the green connectors and inside the blue rods. It makes one revolution around the blue rods and is held there by 2 tan clips, 90 degrees apart.

Install the by connecting the orange connector with 2 green rods. When the lever is pulled down, it should push the plug into the motor and activate it in a later step. In the second picture and a red rod and a diagonal yellow rod threaded through the lever. Mostly done in the back now and well be looking at the front.

This step is where we use most of the blue clips (like locking tan ones, but with no peg). It's kinda of complex, but its just like making a chain link the old school way with white rods and dark grey connectors, however, the red sandwiched connecters face out, and the light grey ones face in. The comments should help a bit. I didnt get a picture but the tan rod sticks out the back of the wheel assembly enough for a tan clip to fit.

The whole thing is floating, it will get connected later. The tan rod is the hour hand which will advance in steps when a an lever hits each of the twelve teeth. A yellow gear will drive the minute hand while floating with no lock on this tan rod in later steps. (in case you notice there's a sleight mistake in the last picture.)

The small gear on this axel (the axel is dual purpose and hangs the pendulum while spinning the minute hand, the clips are there as spacers and shouldn't connect the red pendulum clips to the rod) needs to be somewhat sticky. Not too much though or it will be hard to adjust and set the clock, so a mediumly sticky small gear :)

The placing of the orange connector and the washers matters. We will fine tune them at the end. The black nubs are there to keep them in place, as well as provide a reference when fine tuning. The blue and green rods in the last two pictures are a rough guide for spacing.

The back houses some offset weight to make the ticking more precise/consistent. The clock speed is determined by the length of the pendulum, which is adjustable. Clip some flex rods to the middle white connector later if you want to style it (id recommend waiting till after you calibrate the length of the pendulum). Attach the four black rods to the four green connectors. The pennies are there to help balance and provide a steadier tic. The white rods flex out just a bit when the pennies are in place.

The top small gear is the input to the yellow minute hand gear. Place a slipper small gear on the right to take motion off the yellow minute hand gear and eventually get it to the 12 tooth cog.

This takes rotary motion and pumps it into the pendulum, which swings at a rate proportional length. Take note, the white rods on the floating white connector (the one with no greys) are rotated 45 degrees if you clipped a connector on. If you rotate them correctly, they'll contact the greys in pic 3 and help lock things up.

Put in the black rod from the back. It passes through the back half weight area with no clips or washers. When through to the front area, add 3 grey washers and a tan clip. Wiggle the escapement into place, hopefully without moving the the pendulums orange connector and washers too much, and add clips and a washer. We can now put on the face. Give the escapement a clockwise spin (looking from front) in the back to see how it works. It shouldn't be able to spin freely without being arrested by the pendulum.

Its crowded in there

Gears to take minute-hand input and output it to 12 tooth. No, that's not a fancy black orange 2 way connector . Requires a black nub clip and female ball joint.

This keeps the 12 gear cog from turning freely. It also restricts it to 12 positions

Bottom, then top.

This is the left side odds and ends. Picture 6 is only a grey connector and an orange, but is still important.

holds 12 rolls of pennies. The grey clips are intentionally asymmetric

Basket goes in the back of the clock. The yellow rods there are just to show orientation, and are totally not a photo mistake... Yeah those need to come off. my b. The wheels are asymmetrically placed, forward and back just like the weights.

Some (very essential) finishing touches like adding a motor. Next is a rod that pulls down when the weight gets low and this pushes the plug into the motor. Add an X to the back. This gear is the last one that connects the escapement to the rest of the motion. This is the easiest one to take off if you want to work on the different motions separately. (When you mess with something I recommend a flex rod through some white connectors underneath the weights. I've dropped things and broken the chains, the base, or both).

These are kinda confusing, start from the outer edge and work inwards, clipping green connectors on to the previous side, and then inserting red rods. Again, inspired by old school chains.

The two constructions in the first picture are identical/mirrored. The ones in the second are not

Fiddle around with the greens closest to the middle if they dont want to cooperate into the last picture.

Beautify!

20 greens and chains and four white rods, clipped on every 5th green. The 2nd and 3rd pic work if you have end caps (I'm waiting on mine in the mail.) If you dont have circular end caps, the red connector style will work as shown in the 4th and 5th pic, but the white rods are clipped into a slightly different spot on the greens and have to be offset while interfacing differently on the white connecters behind on the backing.

The black nubs are there to help "zero in" on the correct positions of the escapement, and to help hold them in place. The orange and light grey connector in picture three is there for reference on where those washers and nubs need to be. The nubs and washers on the last picture are hard to see. They are the ones from step 15 of the pendulum.

Move the minute hand clockwise until its at :40 or :45. Pull out the grey bevel gear and turn it clock wise until the cogs engage, then push the bevel gear back into place (you kinda have to pull on its blue rod at the same time). Now every time the minute hand gets to :45 the cogs will engage and flip the hour hand. Avoid moving the minute hand counter clockwise near the top of the hour while the stepper gear is moving.

Move the clock to the level surface where it will rest (moving it to different locations or tilts will change its timing a bit). Raise the pendulum by a cm to speed up the ticking, or lower the pendulum weight to slow it down. I like to time it against a clock in 15 minute intervals to get it into the rough position. It takes a few tries at 30 minutes or an hour to get it more accurate. Again, I found black nubs to help when calibrating to record the outer bounds when I'm moving it up and down to find the right timing. Additionally its helpful to remove the blue minute hand so you can more accurately gauge when the minute hand gear is truly at the top or bottom of the 30 minute interval (i left out some of the green rods to get a better view.) Take out any rods from the weights and chains. Plug in the motor and check to see if the lever is working for both for turning it on and off.

This is a rather complex build so let me know if you have questions or need help trouble shooting. One last tip: turning off the clock is easiest by sticking a grey rod through the weight chains in the back (just dont turn on the motor while its locked). Thanks for checking out my build :)