Marble Strike and Westminster Chime by John Scheele
Hi Clayton,
First off, I would like to thank you for your beautiful designs and my new re-found hobby. When I was reading your book the beginning was so much like my story when I was a kid. I took apart everything mechanical including clocks which fascinated me the most. At eight, I saved up some some money and bought a plastic cuckoo clock at the local small town department store. Put it together and it barely worked. My dad sprayed some silicone on the gears and poof, they all melted. Go figure, it was never meant to work anyway. Still obsessed, I built a grandmother clock at age fourteen. Fast forward to fifty, I found your cool plans....enough of my story.
Anyways, I am just finishing up your marble strike with some variations of course ;-). One of my variations is a completely separate Westminster marble chiming movement. I designed it in the spirit of your marble strike so they would look good side by side and drive my family even more nuts on the hour. (BTW my wife keeps commenting that our house is going to become like Dr Emmett Brown's house in the first Back to the Future movie) How cool would that be?
Thanks again for your wonderful body of works (pun intended).
John Scheele
Marble Strike by John Scheele
Aloha John, with your interpretation of the Marble Strike, and this beautiful Westminster chime addition, you have created not one, but two mechanical marvels ~ and then got them to work in concert! Your work is spectacular and it's truly wonderful to see such a beautiful example of your artistic and creative genius. I was also particularly pleased to see how you incorporated so many of the Marble Strike design elements into your Westminster chime build.
Thanks for sending these pictures and video link of your magnificent achievement. Aloha. Clayton
Marble Strike by John Scheele
Marble Strike by John Scheele
Marble Strike by John Scheele
Marble Strike detail by John Scheele
Westminster Chime by John Scheele
Westminster Chime by John Scheele
Westminster Chime by John Scheele
Marble Strike and Westminster Chime by John Scheele
To see even more detail of John's Marble Strike and Westminster Chime, visit our web site. On the Marble Strike page, click on the link to our Marble Strike Flickr pool.
Clayton has finally released the Marble Strike Clock from the Masochist's Corner group of plans!
Marble Strike Clock by John Hilgenberg
Formerly, the Marble Strike was relegated to the spot on our website where only those with proven experience were given a key to be able to purchase plans. Plans in Masochist's Corner had no instructions or materials list--you were on your own--thus the requirement for previous experience. But by Clayton's admission, the Marble Strike was in Masochist's Corner NOT because of difficulty, but because he was too lazy to write instructions for it!
Marble Strike by John Hilgenberg
This week, Clayton mixed a little more regular cofee into his half-caf, and finally wrote instructions for it. The Marble Strike can now be safely unleashed onto the public!
You really must see what other clever clockmakers have done with Clayton's plan here: Flickr Marble Strike Pool Gorgeous.
The Marble Strike is also now available in paper plans by mail or dxf format via email. See our website for details.
Clayton emails a request to Rabbit: "Since your Marble Strike was featured on my blog on Halloween there has been a flurry of (well deserved) excitement over your beautiful machine. A couple of guys have asked if a video would soon be following.
Just thought I'd throw that out to you - personally, I'd love to see it in action, but no pressure either way.
Anyway, your Marble Strike is a totally striking machine (pun intended). Your work is always well beyond the capabilities of mere humans.
Congratulations on a magnificent creation."
Rabbit kindly responds: "thanks again for the undeserved praise. i feel famous, having made your blog!
unfortunately, my video skills are even worse than my photography... i should stick to woodwork. but, against my better judgement, i uploaded a pitiful movie, anyway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlJdfKYg6As&feature=youtu.be (Note from Lisa: this link takes you to the video shown above in the video player window) it shows one cycle of the remontoire, and an hour strike (preceded by the 'fourth quarter' bell). the sound, the lighting, the focus - all poor!
i'll try again at some point.
best regards,
rabbit"
In addition, Rabbit explains how his extraordinary version of the Marble Strike works. He first asks the rhetorical question...
"Howzitwork?
Well... it's rather complicated, but buy the same token, it is very simple...
Everything (the time train and two strike mechanisms) is powered by the 1" steel balls in the drive wheel. the weight of the balls in one side of the wheel provides all of the drive torque. It "rewinds" itself automatically.
The balls are pushed out at the bottom of their path. The mass of the ball on the off-ramp actuates a switch which starts the remontoire motor - a synchronous electric motor, mounted inside the base. The lower remontoire wheel picks the ball up, hands it off to the upper wheel, which deposits it in the on-ramp, to continue/repeat its journey. A cam on the remontoire drive wheel turns the motor off. (...two switches in series; one starts it, the other stops it.)
I must thank Steve Kretschmer for this inspiration.
The main drive wheel actually drives four separate gear trains - hours, minutes/hour strike, seconds, and escape. [this is a horribly inefficient way to drive a clock, but one of the design themes was, "make it as complicated as possible", and with the 'falling ball' remontoire, I could provide all the power it needs.] the drive wheel itself turns once every 15 minutes, so it actuates the quarter strike mechanism.
The minute train has its gear integral with the marble lift wheel, and is otherwise my own interpretation of Clayton Boyer's wonderful Marble Strike mechanism. The hour strike is Clayton's brilliance. His descriptions, and many other people's videos, have explained it better than I can.
The hour train is a "pointless" geartrain, consisting of several gears merely to translate the correct rotation to the place where I wanted the hour dial. The "hour hand" sits still, and the dial moves [the dial arrangement, and in fact a lot of the visual aspects, were inspired by Alain Saintangne's beautiful rendition of the Marble Strike.].
The escape train utilizes an appropriate ratio for the 1/2-seconds "shorty" pendulum - dictated by the "table clock" format.
It had to have a seconds hand, so a separate drive - a take-off from the escape train - does the trick.
The quarter strike is my own creation. It is a "passing strike" mechanism with two whistles and a bell - the proverbial "bells and whistles". A 4-tooth Geneva Wheel attached to the main drive wheel switches a 3-segment (6-lobe) cam every 15 minutes. the cam assembly either "makes" or "breaks" the fulcrum(s) to pivot arms which lift the (2) whistle bellows and/or the bell hammer. It toots the higher pitch whistle at the quarter hour, rings the bell at the half hour, toots the low whistle at :45, and does all three on the hour (followed by the Marble Strike hour count on the 'finely-tuned' wine glass gong).
'Simple as a mud fence, complicated as a watch'. I just love it."
Thank you Rabbit, for the video, the explanation, and for sharing your beautiful creation with all of us.
Marble Strike "Steampunk" by Rabbit (click to enlarge for detail)
The amazing Rabbit writes: "Rube Goldberg meets Christian Huygens - at Clayton's house, for a glass of wine.
- also known as "Steampunk" -
Clayton,
after all the work, and then all that staining, lacquering , painting, assembling, adjusting, adjusting, and adjusting - it works flawlessly. no jumpers, clumpers, stickers or stops; just clunks, dings, whistles, gongs, and a steady tick-tock.
this thing is absolutely insane! it's one of the coolest, and maybe most complicated clocks i've built. it's awesome to watch - and listen. if you pay attention, and count, you can tell exactly what time it is just by listening. it would make a great blind man's clock, but to watch it is priceless. it's always doing something.
thanks again so much for your inspiration....and plans!
- rabbit
p.s. gosh, i wish i could take decent pictures! these just don't do it justice. 'wanna send Lisa to Texas for some "glam shots"? i'll try again when i 'place' it. (where the hell am i going to put this?)"
Clayton writes: "Rabbit, your concept for the Marble Strike is absolutely amazing. It is going to take me a while just to figure out how you did what you did. I love that little glass ball in the extremely truncated pendulum.
All I can say is "Wow". What a complex beauty.
Glad to hear you had fun with it. It is obvious that you did - it's hardly recognizable as a Marble Strike!
Congratulations on yet another jaw dropper."
Note from Lisa: Rabbit, I did my amateur best with Photoshop Elements; hope you approve. Your clock is so gorgeous that the picture quality doesn't matter so much! Thanks for sharing. Oh...and about the "Where am I going to put it?" question--you'll have to learn Clayton's technique for sneaking things into the house while I'm at the post office.
Marble Strike by Leonel Leite (click on any image to enlarge)
Leonel writes: "Aloha Clayton,
I send you some photos in large size of "my" Marble Strike, so you can see in more detail what it took me a few months of work! ...
Give me your opinion about it.
I wish you continued happy holidays.
Aloha. Leonel"
Update 10-22-2011--Leonel has sent a YouTube video of his beautiful Marble Strike clock in action:
Clayton writes: "Leonel! That Marble Strike is absolutely beautiful! Wonderful work, Leonel. You have certainly done the MS plan very proud. Congratulations on creating such a wonderful mechanism.
I have just hung the clock at the front entrance so that as you enter the first thing visible is "The Clock!" In my haste I hung the clock and started it and took pictures...but forgot the marbles! As mentioned in an earlier email I elected to hang a stainless tube cut to a specific length to create the musical note "B".
I am happy with the tone and resonance and it can be heard throughout the house.
Woods used were Kamagong for the dark wood (similar to ebony wood) and Gmelina for the wheels.
I just received your plans for "Radiance" and my wife thinks I am nuts! She loves all of the designs but hasn't yet grasped the addiction that is wooden clock building.
Warmest regards,
Ed Poste"
Ed, you've done it again! You've created yet another spectacular clockworks. Your Marble Strike is a beauty, and your kamagong's figure is amazing. Beautifully done! I also like the brass arbor caps and I see you've done away with the marble incrusted counterweight for the daisy, and instead used a brass plumb bob that fits with your interpretation nicely.
Your work always makes me smile. Nice work, Ed.
You'll enjoy building the Radiance and it'll be an easy project after the Marble Strike. It's quite a simple build...it is the multitude of adjustments necessary to get her running properly that moved her into the Masochist's Corner. However, when she is running correctly, she's a mesmerizing sight.
Thanks for the beautiful pix, but, actually, I want to see more! Please send me more with the marbles included.
Marble Strike by Art Dimock (Click on picture to enlarge)
Art writes, "Dr. Boyer,
The Marble Strike Clock -- What can I say? Certainly not as pure as the #6 and nor as graceful as the Inclination, but a unique Rube Goldberg in disguise.
A little more challenging than my previous clocks but still a pleasure to build.The greatest challenge was finding twelve marbles that were nearly identical in size and roundness. After much sorting and sizing everything seems to operate reasonably well.
Another challenge is the humidity. The northeast U.S. seems like a rain forest this year and I have decided to wait for drier conditions to make any final adjustments.If I decide to make any more clocks I think it would be a good idea to insert brass tubing in the frame arbor holes to hopefully reduce friction and humidity problems.
Thanks again for professional grade plans.
Art Dimock"
Absolutely glorious! Your Marble Strike is a true beauty, Art.
You've added a lot of very nice touches, like the all wood counterweight, and I see you went with John's acrylic dial ring, and Landon's speed trap. Your woodworking skills are wonderfully displayed.
Beautiful work.
Yes, finding twelve marbles that are exactly the same is a lot more difficult than one would think.
However, about your brass bushing comment...you haven't been reading my blog, have you!?!? There's a ink to it on my mainpage (but I'll give you a hint... NO BUSHINGS!!!)
I don't know what it is right now with guys wanting to put in bushings, but I've recently gotten a rash of emails from guys wanting to add bushings. I've explained in my blog all about how bushings actually INCREASE internal friction. I'm glad you mentioned it before actually doing it.
Thanks for the wonderful picture. I love your interpretation of the Marble Strike.
For those of you who do not speak French (me included), here is the same email translated by "Google Translate." The translation is rough, but the happiness and enthusiasm come through:
