The FIRST Clock - 3D Printed Ancient Sundial

Before digital and even mechanical clocks were a thing, we relied on the sun to guide us during the passage of time. The sundial is an ancient time-telling tool that preceded any modern clock or watch as we know it; It was the FIRST clock.

Below, I will show you every step needed to fully 3D Model and print a fully functional and aesthetic sundial, perfect for a history fanatic or time-geek alike.

Modeling:

1. Computer
2. AutoDesk Fusion (Or Inventor)

3D Printing & Assembly:

1. 3D Printer
2. Printing Filament (Preferably white)
3. Super Glue

Utilization:

1. The Sun
2. Compass

For over 3,500 years, sundials have been used to keep track of time using the power of the sun above us. Invented by the ancient Egyptians and improved upon by the Byzantines and Romans, the sundial remains as one of the oldest time telling tools and a marvel of human ingenuity. Changing dimensions based on hemisphere and coordinates, the science and math behind a sundial is truly amazing, and of course can help us tell time without any batteries or electricity.

Working by casting a shadow over a rod, the sundial amazingly provides real time updates of time as the sun rises, sets, and moves around, so long as your facing true North (Or true South if you're in the Southern Hemisphere). In addition to the shockingly accurate time telling, the sundial is a reflection of the culture it was birthed it, coming in different shapes and aesthetics.

Here I have presented a type of sundial known as the horizontal sundial, perhaps the most recognizable and easiest to use and construct.

To start, we have to make the base on the dial on which everything will be built upon or extruded into. This is the easiest step, as all you have to do is start a new sketch on the floor plane, and then create a circle that is 8 inches in diameter.

Once you have that circle, you can finish the sketch and extrude the shape up by a .3 inches, which will still keep it thin but comfortably holdable.

With the base of our dial done, we then need to create a raised lip around the circumference of the bottom. This lip will allow a casket for the shadow to sit onto, and it gives a good aesthetic when everything is not on the same level.

First start by creating a new sketch on the surface of your freshly extruded base. When this new sketch is made, then create another 8 inch diameter circle that lays perfectly along the circumference of your original circle. Once you have that, go ahead and offset that circle inside by a small factor (I only did .05 inches). The reason for this is to keep the lip rather thin, as if we made an extremely thick one it might interfere with the functionality and ruin the profile of our sundial.

With this closed shape, we can now extrude that shape up. Once you've selected the extrude command, make sure you only select the thin ring along the outside of the base, not the big circle in the middle. Once selected, extrude it up to your liking, although if your following me, I chose to extrude it up by .15 inches, which creates a noticeable divot without impeding the sunlight (Which is exactly what we wanted).

Now that we have the frame done (Otherwise known as the plate), we can move onto creating the numbers that will tell us the time when everything is said and done.

I will make use of the wrapping text feature that Fusion provides, and will start by sketching a circle inside the dish that doesn't reach the end (For reference look at Image 1). This is needed as to wrap the text, we need a shape for the text to sit on, and a circle makes the most sense for uniformity within the plate. With the circle done, choose the "Text" option and make sure to select "Path Text". With this option selected, you can select your path as the circle we had just drawn, and it will yield the result we see in the first image.

From there, you can play around with the size and font of the numbers, which I chose as roman numerals to stick with the classic look and design of a sundial. If you notice however, my numbers are positioned in a unique way, with there being 2 sixes along the bottom and the rest of the numbers not taking up the whole plate. This is intentional, and if you look at other horizontal sundials (Which this is a model of), you will notice the same thing. The reason for this is that as the sun approaches the dial around 6, the angle of the light creates a unique display different to the other numbers. The Romans had years of trial and error with this piece of technology, and found this to be the best array to use numbers.

Depending on the size and font of your numbers, your spacing will change, so be aware of each numerals position and create spaces in between accordingly (And make sure the 12/XII is in the middle).

With your numerals in the correct position however, you can finally extrude them. Typed text in Fusion is an extrudable shape, making it very easy to select the extrude command and raise your letters up, giving them depth. I recommend extruding them up half the value you raised the lip by.

Each and every sundial has a different look to them, some choosing to remain simplistic and some going much more abstract. For my design, I wanted to highlight the sun that would be powering our clock, and sketched a nice on in the middle.

Here, you could either free hand a sun design, or trace it on a canvas (Which I feel is easier and yields better results). If your doing the second like I did, go online and find an image of a sun that you feel looks good. Once you have found the image you desire, save it to the computer and go back to Fusion. Using the "Canvas" command, we can insert said image onto the divot of the plate, and scale + orient it to your liking. I would recommend a surface that has some space in the middle for adding directions, but it is up to you.

Once your canvas is inserted, start a new sketch on that same profile. From here, go ahead and trace out the image that you inserted, making use of whatever shape makes the process end up the best. In my case, the very wispy and curvy nature of the sun rays made me use the arc tool to sketch the entire thing (Except the circle in the middle).

Lastly, we can extrude that shape up by the same factor as you did the numerals, keeping a nice uniformity of depth within the plate (Look to image 1 for reference). On top of that newly extruded sun, I also drew a thin ring and extruded it up the same distance, separated the rays and the center further for the next step (Look at Image 4 for reference).

In the middle of the circle space of the dial, we are now going to put the 4 directions. Direction is very important on a sundial, as for the readings to be accurate, the dial must face true north.

Start a new sketch in the center of your circle, and using the text command, create a block that says "N" (Representing north). You can play around with your desired font and size, but just make sure you place it right under the 12 (XII). From there, follow the traditional array that a compass would have, but keeping the space in between them constant. Each direction (N, E, S, W) should be 90 degrees from the next, creating a diamond shape.

When everything looks good to you, you can go ahead and extrude said directions in the same way you extruded text before. In my case I chose to cut them into the shape below them instead of raise them, but the choice is up to you.

To fill in some of the empty space on the plate, I decided to add in some random shapes. To fit with the circular element I've used thus far, every shape I included also have curves to it. I felt this provided a nice commonality in aesthetics, but if you want to contrast the circular base with rigid shapes, you are more than welcome to.

To start I created the horseshoe-esque shape that separates the numerals with the sun. To do this I created a new sketch on the surface of the plate, and created a circle shape from the center that stops halfway between the sun and the numbers. From there I offset that circle out by just a little factor to create a ring. With this ring, on the bottom I arbitrarily sketched angled lines down that matched the width of the ring, and mirrored it down the middle so it was symmetrical. Lastly, I trimmed the intersection of the ring with the angled lines, and had the shape as seen in Image 1. I would then extrude that shape up by the same factor as my sun.

Within the empty space created by the horseshoe, I filled it by sketching out small circles, some hollow and some full. Again, the size and positioning of the circles was arbitrary, but filled in the space well. These shapes are meant to add flair to the design and don't impact the performance, so feel free to experiment with their location and dimensions. When it's to your liking, extrude it up or down as you see fit.

As the object that is used to cast the shadow and tell the time, the gnomon is one of the most important features of the sundial. The basic principle is that the gnomon is a semi-thick rod that is angled the same number as the locations geographical. This is where your sundial will differ from mine, and you can find the corresponding number to your location online (Be aware that the closer you are to the equator the lower your number becomes).

Once you have your associated angle, you can begin constructing the gnomon. I would recommend doing so by turning off the visibility of the body of the sundial you've made thus far, and then drawing a shape similar to that in image 2. Make sure the plane you choose to draw on falls perfectly in the middle of your directions, and that its facing North (Or South if you live in the Southern Hemisphere). There isn't any exact dimensions you have to adhere to, so long as the angle made between the plate and the bottom parallel line matches your specific coordinate.

When you gnomon is finished, you can extrude it. I chose to make use of the symmetrical extrusion feature to extrude my sketch out from both side the same amount, while retaining its central position. At this point I would turn back on the visibility of the plate body so that you see the body you're attaching the gnomon to. For actual 3D printing, I would print the gnomon separately so that there is less support to take out, but for the CAD model it looks much better hoisted on top.

(The thicker the gnomon, the bigger the shadow, so the less precise your timing will be. Take that into account when extruding)

At this point you have finished your designing of the sundial, and can fillet/smooth out jagged edges or corners as you see fit. I feel doing so makes the actual printed product much better to hold, and you aren't running the risk of potentially poking or cutting your hand (And it makes everything a bit more streamlined).

I used a simple rolling fillet on the shown areas in the Images above, and used a small factor of roughly .05 so that I wasn't cutting off too much of my dial.

The tool I will use for printing out my holster is the Prusa Pro HT90 provided by my school. If you want to gain some insight into the machine and how to set up/eventually print using the device, then these in depth videos should help:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKDgjboWxeM
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ_nqQsDSP4
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wq1Y9wZZOQ

I exported the exact model of the sundial directly from Fusion as an 3mf file, and in about 6 hours, had it completely printed out. The only note I'd make is the print the gnomon separately and lay it flat and then glue it on afterwards, to avoid any unnecessary supports

The model of the Sundial for you to play around with (Not useable on phone)

Now that both our plate and gnomon are printed, we can simply super glue the gnomon in the center, facing north as I am in the Northern Hemisphere.

To finally test it, first take out any means of finding true North, which I took as using the compass on my phone (Although you can use the North Star if you feel comfortable). Once I found true North as evident in the picture, I pointed the gnomon in the same direction (The angle I took the photo slightly skewed it but it was true North). If you did everything right, there should be a shadow that almost exactly matches what the time on your phone says.

If you look at the red circle, you can see how the time was 1:45 p.m. If you then look to where the shadow of the sundial left was, you will notice it is about 3/4 of the way between 1 and 2, almost exactly 1:45.

Fully designing, printing and using a sundial was an extremely fun process, and having it work in the end capped off everything very nicely. I hope this Instructable was a cool take on the concept of clocks, and taught you a little history about our first methods of time keeping. If you are ever in the forest and your phone dies on you, everything will be good, as you will have a trusty sundial to guide you in your timings!