GIGANTIC BARN CLOCK TOURIST TRAP

**Joe Jones** · 03-03-2023, 03:00 AM

I have wasted a lot of time doing other things, but one of my "To Do" items is to build a gigantic working mechanical clock that wraps the entire exterior of my FrankenBarn. The barn is a metal building with 20-foot high walls, and measures 32' x 60'. I have been wanting to build something that will cause people to drive 100 miles out of their way, JUST to come and watch it in action. GIANT gears, maybe 10 or 15 feet in diameter ...huge linked chains on sprockets, mechanical levers, and pendulums, and rotating thingamabobs!

I have a 5x10 cnc plasma table, and a 5x10 cnc router table. I also have a myriad of tools, and a LOT of free time on my hands lately. I thought about just buying a 5 HP electric gear motor to start the project. The armature would poke out through a wall. Then the first gear or sprocket would be mounted to it. From there, is anyone's guess! I could add on components as they are designed and made. Everything would be made out of lightweight materials, or fabricated as hollow sheet metal components. The machine would have no real purpose. It would just be a huge mechanical do-nothing that would become a "must see" stop for people passing through Franklin, KY.

I have been trying to find the motivation to get started on this project. A good friend, a helper who is a retired Air Force Efficiency Expert was my dependable helper. Sadly, on New Year's Day of 2021, he had a massive stroke, and now he is unable to do much of anything. It is so difficult to find people you can TRUST. I have had helpers here before, only to discover my tools popping up at pawn shops and flea markets. Then the covid HOAX was thrown at us, and the whole world went crazy, being afraid of the AIR!

I just added an awesome 3D printer to my shop, along with so many other tools and machines. I am trying to learn Fusion 360 right now, so I can put this printer to use. It is not your ordinary everyday "starter" 3D printer, at a price of $15,000.00 with a build envelope of 600 mm cubed! I have so many things I want to do with it, but I have to get through te learning curve FIRST!

Joe

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**peteeng** · 03-03-2023, 03:50 AM

Well Joe - The first thing to do is make a huge CAD model of it and post it here asap. I usually start with hand sketches that get the juices going then migrate to CAD once a good direction has been found... Peter

**Joe Jones** · 03-03-2023, 02:05 PM

A CAD blueprint ... Yeah, in a perfect world ...

I am thinking that I can mount a motor with a main drive gear. Then design off of that, to make other components. Sort of like gluing popsicle sticks together! From the gear, with a tooth spacing of (n) I might drive a second larger gear. Attached to that? Maybe an arm that provides linear motion, like a train locomotive. The end of the arm might rock a pendulum with a toothed cog at the axle, and at the top of the pendulum? WHO KNOWS! It would be a giant DO NOTHING machine that I could build over the next several years, God willing.

Just look at how many people drive out to The Cadillac Ranch in Texas, just to see some old Caddys buried nose into the ground. Maybe the machine, which could be seen from the highway, might draw in some customers to buy something I DO make for sale.

I would use thin sheet metal (probably galvanized 28 gauge or??) to wrap cnc cut foam pieces. Sheet metal could provide certain contact surfaces. Bearings, pins, rollers ... maybe some timed (bowling?) balls rolling a dual round tube track from A to B ... A ball drops onto an arm with a trap bucket, and the altered weight would cause something else to happen.

Haven't you ever wanted ot build something completely ridiculous like this?

When I die, they can burn the whole thing to the ground if they don't like it.

Joe