Aero Clock

This clock was a fun challenge to build and run. Nicely engineered and overall a quality kit. Great for the tinkerer like me and attention to detail is very important. Take your time with this one because clockworks are a bit finicky anyway. All gears need to be clear of burrs and waxed per instructions. Wax all gear teeth and its sides that contact the frame. Use a birthday candle or candle wicks to wax inside small holes for wood bearings. It's important to get all the gears running free of any binding. You can over wax it though, especially the sensitive items such as the escape wheel and pendulum fingers. Buff or wipe the wax smooth after you apply it. Remove the pendulum and spin all the gears slowly by the weighted bag string to check for any binding. Listen for scraping noises. Bind free gears should work with about 2 lbs. of weight. I'm running reliable at 2 lbs. 6 oz. The manual say 3.3-4.4 lbs. which seems too stressful on the frame. Once the clock worked I lightly superglued all frame parts that supported the spool weight to the mounting holes. My clock is mounted 71" from mounting holes to floor. I'm also using a bucket of BBs because it's shorter than the bag by 9". That gives me an extra 4 hours of run time. The rate of travel of the weight is about 2.25" per hour. There is enough string on the spool to get 25+ hours before resetting the weight. The manual says 12 hours. The escape wheel is basically a seconds hand with an X on it which makes it easy for timing the clock. One revolution is exactly a minute. Use a stopwatch for initial timing. I found the upper pendulum weight is more of a course setting and the lower weight will fine tune it within seconds per minute. Moving either pendulum weight upwards will slow the clock and vise verse. You can vary the bag weight to get even more precise. So far I'm less than a minute off per 24 hours. Not bad for an all wood clock. The balloon also needs to be jam free and slightly heavier than the counterweight to overcome minor friction. I used all the counterweight disks but one. Any binding can stall the clock gears. The balloon drops on the hour. The clock will speed up slightly for a minute or so until the balloon gears reengage. So precise clock timing needs to be done over an hour or more.Of all the 3D puzzles I've built, this one is by far the best. It will test your patience and reward you when it works. I hope my tips and setup will help others. Enjoy!

My first 3d puzzle. It was very fun to build. When finished, it did work, although I had to add about 7 pounds worth of material to the weight and had to tweak the pendulum in order to get it ticking.Overall, It wasn't too difficult, but I ended up needing to watch videos to make sure I installed the wax string properly.I wouldn't trust it to accurately tell the time, but it looks awesome!

The media could not be loaded. Update 9/24/2022: It's been over a year and the clock still runs. Now that it's thoroughly broken in, I reduced the weight in the bag to about 2 1/2 lb. and it runs fine. I messed with the balloon mechanism and now it works much of the time. It's still lousy as a timepiece, and it still gets stuck occasionally, but I didn't buy it so I can get to appointments on time.=====================================================Update 10/31/2021: Almost three months later, the clock is still running. The short video was shot tonight. It has run pretty much continuously, except for the times I forget to wind it. The issue with the balloon still exists (see below). I solved the problem by disconnecting it. So the balloon now just hangs there, doing nothing. The clock is still not good at keeping time, but it happily ticks away with a pleasing tick-tock sound. I wonder how long it will last...=====================================================I've built several Ugears puzzles over the last several months. This clock went together as well as any of them, there were no missing parts, and it was fun to assemble. It's hanging on the wall right now, ticking away behind me as I type. It sounds like ... a clock. lolIt does not keep good time, though. It gains or loses several minutes a day. It's raw wood, so it's highly susceptible to temperature and humidity changes. The biggest problem is the balloon. About 30% of the time, when the balloon drops, the gear that is supposed to lift the balloon back up clashes rather than meshes with the driving gear, and the clock stops. Yes, I sanded and waxed appropriately, and tinkered and tinkered with it, trying to get it to reliably work. I gave up. So now I think of it as a clever knick-knack...But it's cool, I'm glad I got it, and would probably buy it again, even knowing what I know now. Just know you're buying a well-engineered puzzle that mostly works, and not a timepiece.

This is an excellent kit, and I had fun building it and putting it together. I have it adjusted very well, but I do have trouble winding it every day. The mechanism catches on the inside when trying to pull down the little car to wind the sandbag weight. It’s really finicky and I’m not sure what it catches on inside the drum. It’s really hard to get it to release to pull the car down so you can wind it. Has anybody came across this situation or has a fix for it? I’m at a loss. Thanks.

This is a fantastic product for those who seek challenge and are willing to spend some time and effort. Do not buy it for a kid unless you are going to help. When assembling it you must pay great attention to details, especially lubrication and smoothing critical surfaces. I found the falling ballon mechanics especially challenging to adjust. Took a week or so to make it work. This is not a design flaw, it is simply something that requires attention. The only design flaw in my view is the pendilum weights. Smallest incremental adjustment that can be made is approx 1 min/hr. To make it work accurately with 1 min per 12hr error it was necessary to use additional small (~1g) moveable weight. Also, I would recommend adding another finer sheet of sandpaper, say 800 grit. It helps in some cases.

Does not work. The instructions are impossible to follow half if them printed so blurry you can't see what to do. Put it together and took it apart multiple times still does not work. Defiantly not worth the money or frustration.