Ikea's wind up alarm clock as a source for clockwork power?

[Herbert West]

Yikes! Glad you weren't hurt by your exploding clock man. Please be more careful!

Looks like we're on the same page re gluing on gears though. I can see using a single large gear to make a decorative pin, or military metal. Or attach a pair of metal wings to one to create a 'Flight Engineer' insignia for a costume. But that's really about the limit of my tolerance.

 "JGSGOIACIS" tops my list for best steampunk music vids ever.

[trampledbygeese]

Yikes! Glad you weren't hurt by your exploding clock man. Please be more careful!

They all exploded (well, a contained explosion within their cases - not certain the correct word for this) of their own volition with no input on my part.  In fact, all I do is wind my alarm clock each night (not too tight) and set the alarm.  I'm very careful with my clocks.  Even so, the ones with all metal gears only seem to last just over a year...at the most.  Electric ones usually break by the second day, so I suppose I should be grateful that mechanical clocks last as long as they do.  The Ikea clock lasted the longest of any so far.

I don't know what it is with me and clocks.  A few years back, I finally found a watch that won't break within an hour of putting it on my wrist.  It's an automatic (winds with motion) and for some reason, it doesn't mind me at all.  This makes me happy.

Maybe there is something off about my temporal biomechanics.  Is it possible that I'll accidentally invent a time travel machine or something and the clocks quake in fear of all the paradoxes that will be created with it?  Doubt it.  But it does make me hesitate to take up horology or to do too much with clockwork, just in case. 

[von Corax]

Yikes! Glad you weren't hurt by your exploding clock man. Please be more careful!

They all exploded (well, a contained explosion within their cases - not certain the correct word for this) of their own volition with no input on my part.  In fact, all I do is wind my alarm clock each night (not too tight) and set the alarm.  I'm very careful with my clocks.  Even so, the ones with all metal gears only seem to last just over a year...at the most.  Electric ones usually break by the second day, so I suppose I should be grateful that mechanical clocks last as long as they do.  The Ikea clock lasted the longest of any so far.

I don't know what it is with me and clocks.  A few years back, I finally found a watch that won't break within an hour of putting it on my wrist.  It's an automatic (winds with motion) and for some reason, it doesn't mind me at all.  This makes me happy.

Maybe there is something off about my temporal biomechanics.  Is it possible that I'll accidentally invent a time travel machine or something and the clocks quake in fear of all the paradoxes that will be created with it?  Doubt it.  But it does make me hesitate to take up horology or to do too much with clockwork, just in case. 

Seriously? I've heard of people who have that effect on computers and other electronics, but never on mechanical timepieces. (Has anyone ever described you as having a "magnetic personality?")

Completely (or not quite) off topic, but do any of the Professor Branestawm fans in the audience remember the story about the Screaming Clock? (Seems the good Prof. had left out the gizmo that resets the chime from "12" to "1", so after several days the thing was sounding one continuous chime.)

[trampledbygeese]

I do have a similar effect on certain fruit related operating systems - enough to have me banned from the computer labs in high school and university.  It comes and goes in waves, and I haven't tested my 'super powers' lately so I don't know if I still have as strong an effect any more.

The only other thing I've noticed is that flickering street lights either go solid on or off, depending on my mood.  Oh, and I do have a hen that crows for earthquakes.  So far her record is 8 out of the last 9 major earthquakes in the pacific rim.


But I digress.

Do you think a dremmel grinding disk would be the best thing to remove the shaft from a gear?

[von Corax]

Do you think a dremmel grinding disk would be the best thing to remove the shaft from a gear?

If you mean a clock wheel, then I would try tapping the shaft out first. Use a block of wood with a hole just larger than the shaft as a backing block, and gently tap the end of the shaft with a small hammer. If that fails you can dremel, but then you wouldn't have the shaft to use elsewhere.

[trampledbygeese]

I'll give that a try, thanks for the tip.

[SPBrewer]

IKEA really does have a cheap wind-up alarm clock.
There's a video.

At $6, that's a reasonable way to get a wind-up mechanism.  You can also buy "wind up motors" (the correct term is "spring motor"). 

Here's a video on phonograph spring motor repair, for a rather nice governed Victrola spring motor. There are also wind-up motors in the Lego family.

I want this backwards clock!
At a local auction one time, amazed at how high the bidding was going for an imitation Chronometer.
I finally said, "But it says Quartz on the dial!"
Bidders paused, looked at me for a moment, then continued to bid it up to around $200.00 !
They had no clue what I was talking about, but they had all looked up "Chronometer" on ebay with their cell phones.  I just had to sit back and smile.  They thought they were being smart by looking it up, but in reality had no clue about the difference between a real Chronometer and a quartz clock movement.   

At the auction, I'm known as the guy who likes the old radios and the old alarm clocks.  The rest of the lot bid like crazy for "Quartz" coo-coo clocks and "Quartz" anniversary clocks.  I know many of the 1940's and 1950's wind up alarm clocks have brass mechanisms in them.

They think I'm crazy, and I think they are crazy.   I get real brass mechanisms for 50 cents and they pay hundreds of dollars for plastic Quartz mechanisms made in China a couple of years ago.
I like our relationship!   

[Professor J. Cogsworthy]

Curses..... Foiled again.

I go back to get one to take apart only to find it has been replaced by a battery driven version.

[A. Pettyengineer]

Strange thing ...as to why Made in China is now Plastic it seems that there is a Tax disincentive to export out of China any product with a metal content of any Brass/copper so now the only parts in there clocks that is brass is the spring pivot wheel that goes back an forth as they have not been able to get a plastic 1 to work.
I have a friend in China and his bussines is getting things made for anyone and checking that they have made the right product before sending on.
So semiprecious metals are sort of off the list as far as the Government is concerned.