Spiral clock

This is the largest of all my creations. A clock on a pedestal, with a clock face that moves vertically up and down (see the videos below).

It wasn’t as simple as it might seem to get this to work – it turned out to be a lot harder to realise than my ‘sliding clock’ that moves horizontally back and forth.

The problem here was the weight of the (wrought iron) clock face and the elements with which it is attached, plus the friction that is created by the up and down movements. The relatively small electric motors I use are unable to provide the power to make that possible without some help.

So I attached a counterweight on the back of the clock that pulls the clock face up and lowers it down with a cable that runs over a pulley at the top of the case. This reduces the relative weight of the clock face to a level that the motor can work with, similar to the way elevators in buildings are set up, for example.

The actual up and down movement is caused by a transparent spiral element that, driven by the motor, ‘bores’ itself up through a hole in the top, and back down again. Like a corkscrew, really.