If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably wondered why gear teeth are shaped the way they’re shaped. But we’ll go out on a limb and say you’ve never wondered why gear teeth aren’t shaped like pigeons, and what a clock that’s not quite a clock based around them would look like.
If this sounds like it has [Uri Tuchman] written all over it, give yourself a cookie. [Uri] has a thing for pigeons, and they make an appearance in nearly all his whimsical builds, from his ink-dipping machine to his intricately engraved metal mouse. For this build, pigeons are transformed into the teeth of a large, ornate wheel, cut from brass using an impressive Friedrich Deckel pantograph engraver. To put the pigeon wheel to work, [Uri] built an escapement and a somewhat crooked pendulum, plus a drive weight and dial. It’s almost a clock, but not quite, since it doesn’t measure time in any familiar units, and the dial has a leg rather than hands — classic [Uri].
It may not be [Clickspring]-level stuff, but it’s still a lovely piece of work, and instructive to boot. The way [Uri] figured out the profile for the meshing teeth by looking at the negative space swept out by the pigeon profiles was pretty sweet. Plus, pigeons.
“…you’ve probably wondered why gear teeth are shaped the way they’re shaped.”
So the touching surfaces roll rather than slide. You do npt oil gears in clocks.
I can’t quite tell if he’s been really clever and cut the gap between pigeons the right shape to roll with the meshing gear, or been really naive in which case there will be lots of friction and wear.
He’s an artist, so this thing will not be seeing production or continuous use so wear and friction are secondary to the aesthetic.
He did this well, funnily enough his skills have really improved over the last year.
Exactly. Especially considering his “clock” runs for less than a minute on a single windup, and seems to loose ::checks notes:: roughly a few hours every day.
He does try to shape both parts so they really function as ‘proper’ gear teeth. So while there are obviously going to be limitations with the pigeon shape I think as long as the load is kept against the back of the pigeon head rather than the beak its probably good enough to actually work just fine in a clock for a very long time.
Pigeon versus pinion. Which has the most teeth?
Well, pigeons have pinions, but no teeth.
You don’t need teeth to become a menace to society. Ability to poop on the fly is enough.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you don’t have the tools to make gears, maybe you can make a little birdhouse in your soul.
Ooh coo coo coo wah. Ooh coo coo coo wah. Pigeon precision.
Yep; Armisen is a prescient genius: https://youtu.be/GNpIOlDhigw
> cut from brass using an impressive Friedrich Deckel pantograph engraver.
No disrespect meant to Ari, but the pantograph steals the show every time it’s in frame. Of all the makers I see on youtube that mess with welders, lathes, ginders, and machine tools, that’s the only pantograph I’ve seen. It really is an amazing beast of a device.