Electronic “analog” clock

Not really “fully analog”, but getting close to it … With analog I actually mean a clock with a number-plate and hours/minutes arrows …  This is also one of those “could I do it ?”-projects. I wanted to see if I was able to mill gears with my Profiler.  The idea is to have “look-trough” clock, where only an hour- and minutes- arrow are visible on an acrylic plate. You would not see the mechanisme, and probably everybody would wonder how the arrows are turning, if that is the only thing you see on the acrylic plate …
I will reveal this “little secret” with some pictures 😉

Click here to download the autocad files
Click here to download the profiler CBR files

The actual clock will consists of 5 acrylic layers behind each-other. (with the number-plate attached, it will make 6 layers). The middle of the clock, exists out of a clear acrylic plate, with a hole in the center, surrouned by a milky-white border. On both sides of the middleplate, comes a gear in clear acryl. Both gears are equally large and do have an equal number of tooth. The gear in front, does have a small arrow, and the gear in the back does have a large arrow. (forming the hour- and minutes-hands) Around those gears, comes another milky-white border, and in the front and the back of that, comes another milky-white border, which “covers” the tooth of the gears. This gives the effect that you get a “massive” milky-white casing around the gears. On the bottom of this casing is an opening, to which 2 stepper-motors will be connected to drive the gears. Those stepper-motors will be hidden, along with the electronics to drive them, in a bottom-plate-housing.
Blue LEDs will be placed in special holes in the milky-white border around the gears, this will give the effect that the arrows will lit-up. The LEDs itself, and the wiring, will all be “hidden” for the “human eye”, and will be enclosed in the housing. Wires will run to the bottom-base-plate. On top of the front-layer, comes a number-plate. In the small holes, I will put 3 mm LEDs. Those will indicate the dots of the hour-markers. Because the number on this plate are “engraved” 1,5 mm deep, they will also lit-up by those 3 mm LEDs.

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