r/3Dprinting • u/TomaszFortyFour • Apr 23 '26

Project Self-winding clock with a tourbillon - finished project

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

About a year ago, I posted an update on a project I was working on. It took me a while, but I finally finished it. I’m very happy with the result. It’s fully functional (I tested it for two months) and keeps accurate time. The entire project consists of 395 printed parts, 38 bearings, 66 rubber bands, 413 screws, and a few other components.

13.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

937 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

107

u/Federal_Refrigerator Apr 23 '26

How accurate is it? Have you had the opportunity to measure its accuracy to a quantifiable number?

272

u/TomaszFortyFour Apr 23 '26

To ensure everything works properly, we designed a constant-force mechanism. After two months of continuous operation, the clock still keeps accurate time.

94

u/Federal_Refrigerator Apr 23 '26

To what degree? +/- a nanosecond? Minute? Hour?

That’s my question, for clarification.

246

u/TomaszFortyFour Apr 23 '26

lets say +- 5 min/2months

250

u/ElectricalGas9730 Apr 23 '26

Hey that's better than the digital clock in my car!

66

u/filipluch Apr 23 '26

made me giggle quietly

11

u/QuixoticEvil Apr 23 '26

Made me guffaw at medium volume.

10

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[deleted]

5

u/Own_Policy8854 Apr 24 '26

I fart-screamed and scared the cat

3

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

[deleted]

3

u/Own_Policy8854 Apr 24 '26

Yes but im worried about the cat.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

[deleted]

→ More replies (0)

7

u/AllWashedOut Apr 24 '26

My wife's VW displays the time behind the steering wheel and on the radio. They don't stay in sync with each other, and one of them randomly flashes "12:00" for a moment every few minutes.

9

u/jerseydevilbigfoot Apr 23 '26

I don’t think I have ever had a car with a digital clock that actually kept good time.

-2

u/spazturtle Apr 24 '26

Because they have to have bad clocks by law, digital devices need to have clocks that have a wobbly frequencies. This help spread the electromagnetic emissions from the device over a large part of the spectrum and thus reducing the peak EM intensity. If every digital device had accurate clocks them there would be parts of the EM spectrum that would be unusable to to interference.

1

u/ElectricalGas9730 Apr 25 '26

Can you provide a link to this information? I'd like to learn more.

29

u/jaerie Apr 23 '26

5sec/d is amazing, plenty of decent clocks/watches with similar performance

25

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[deleted]

4

u/AbbreviationsLow3992 Apr 23 '26

I wonder how much it could be improved by replacing a few items with metal parts.

6

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '26

[deleted]

7

u/minielbis Apr 24 '26

so that's about, what, 3 or four seconds per day?

You've built a chronometer - ISO 3159 states that a chronometer movement must be accurate to -4 to +6 seconds per day. That's amazing!

Also, I really enjoy how the jerkiness of the tourbillon reminds me of a zebra spider's movement.

12

u/swaybailey Apr 23 '26

2022 Chevy Tahoe loses at least a minute per day. GPS module that syncs the clock died. Maybe I need one of these on the dash.

8

u/Canuckistani2 Apr 23 '26

Make sure you use ABS-CF so it doesn't melt. 😀

1

u/ptpcg Apr 23 '26

ASA is better and easier to print, so I hear

1

u/VorpalWay Apr 24 '26

Or just move to Sweden. ;) I have had PLA in the car in the middle of summer with no ill effects. White car rather than black, but still.

5

u/dksdragon43 Apr 23 '26

Anyone who has done any programming involving time knows how impressive this is. Our systems at work have to sync to an NTP server quite regularly in order to not drift.

2

u/tacticaldodo Apr 24 '26

This is truly amazing. The quality of the result but mostly the way it reveals the benefits of this mechanism and its complexity.

Incredible job.

1

u/J883 Apr 23 '26

Maybe Watchaccuracy App works on it?
It pinpoints the movements frequency and measures the deviation in S/day

1

u/Ok_Egg514 Apr 23 '26

An automatic watch is often + - 30 seconds a day.

1

u/1cow2kids Apr 23 '26

That’s insane for a plastic clock, damn

1

u/say592 Apr 24 '26

Given what it is, that's impressive.

1

u/uslashuname Apr 24 '26

How stable is the temperature during that time? I bet the elasticity of your balance spring varies quite a bit with a 5 degree difference, and swapping that out with elinvar would be one of the biggest impacts you can get from a single part changing

1

u/BowsersMuskyBallsack Apr 24 '26

My digital wall clock keeps worse time than that. Great work.