[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxyQ3PFbK9Y]
[Clayton Boyer] took the electricity out of the useless machine, making one that runs like a clock. To this point, we’ve always seen these useless machine use electric motors. [Clayton’s] clever design uses a wind-up spring and a series of wooden gears to bring the fun, making it a great companion for the binary adder you built. The video above shows the inner workings and the design plans are for sale. We’d love to print out the parts or perhaps just laser-cut them from wood like the legs of this spider bot.
[Thanks llwynog]
sweet! xD
it’s getting hard to decide which one to build, the electric one or this one
Nifty! :)
“[Clayton’s] cleaver design”
Not trying to be a grammar Nazi here, but didn’t you mean “clever”?
Still has a carbon footprint – look at how your food gets shipped to you :)
I for sure like the clock work version more than the motor driven ones!
Did anyone else notice that he wound it counter-clockwise? Kinda bugs me and makes me want to build one just so I can make it wind the right way…haha!
@stephen
““[Clayton’s] cleaver design”
Not trying to be a grammar Nazi here, but didn’t you mean “clever”?”
Not trying to be a post nazi here, but didn’t you mean spelling?
@djrussell
I’m not trying to be a punctuation Nazi, but didn’t you mean to use apostrophes for the inner quotes instead of quotation marks?
This would be even better if the action of flipping the switch to the on position generated all the winding energy needed to run the box.
That’s amazing. Wish I knew jack about gear work, these things are completely beyond me.
Cool design, but I was honestly hoping “loses carbon footprint” meant that the act of hitting the lever powered the mechanism. This would make the lever stiffer (conservation of energy), but would make it much more “mysterious”.
@DarwinSurvivor
That would be a perpetual motion machine, which is impossible thanks to our friendly laws of thermodynamics.
I agree that would be great, though. ;)
im sorry but i have had enough with these useless machines … this is what like #10 here on hackaday … i get it there funny but god let it go
@unaboomer
No it wouldn’t. The second law of thermodynamics only applies to isolated systems. The human pushing the lever is imparting energy from outside the system, so the second law doesn’t apply.
@unaboomer
no, he means pressing the lever winds the spring/cocks the device. Not perpetual motion at all.
I like the electric version better, runs a lot faster. The small trap door and slow stroking of the lever back into place is just bizarre looking.
Well… actually. The LEGO version didn’t use electric motors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixx92NkO78w
used to have a tin money box like this when I was a kid (long time ago). You wind it up, put the money on the switch and a skeleton hand would come and retrieve the coin.
i need a cox baby bee 0.049 engine powered version
or hell…
maybe i’ll just go full size and use a lawnmower engine to power a TINY generator to power a motor for 1 of these :D
@Bob
Not trying to be a moral Nazi here, but don’t you have better things to do than correcting a correction’s correction?
@Mark My brother used to have the same money box! Scared the crap out of me as a toddler
someone needs to make a most useless rube goldberg machine
@Paul
Not trying to be an immoral Nazi…. Awww, forget it =)
If we added a plant to this machine, it would have a negative carbon footprint.
I admire that one which operates on clockwork mechanism. Simply for the fact that this one required a lot more hard work, creativity, and imagination. Great work1