Clockwork Motor Planning and Construction
All the clockwork motors I build are made from recycled bits and pieces mainly old clocks , its rare to come across two identical old clocks , so essentially each motor is unique with many different gear sizes and shaft diameters , springs etc... as a result each engine is cobbled together individually. The two pics on the top right show my motor build log , its critical that a detailed drawing of every single one is done before I start the construction , that way I can make all my mistakes on paper without stuffing up the finished unit. The motors simply store potential energy in the wound spring which is released through a set of step up gears , the rotation is then turned through 90 degrees via the crown gear (or contrate gear) to the propeller drive shaft. Usually the ratio is 80:1 that is to say that 80 revolutions of the propeller equals one turn of the wind key. These motors cannot be serviced once they are installed in a submarine (with the exception of U36, a wet hull design) so they must be totally bomb proof , touch wood I have never had one of my motors fail and they are used all the time because I play with them! because im a big kid!