Back in January I visited Beijing and was invited to see a nice collection (see here). Gordon, my host, had been working on a different configuration of a Rubik's clock:


Gordon built this by hand with an X-acto knife and I figured I could repay his kind hosting of me by laser cutting his design.

After a long delay I was able to adapt his design for laser cutting and get to the TechShop. Here are the results:



The design adds some anchoring screws, side walls and cut outs for the moveable wheels. Here it is in comparison to the standard clock:



Unlike the original, the hexagonal configuration means the moveable gears are set in, not poking out of the body of the puzzle. This makes the cutouts necessary, but I wanted to try to expose them more. The resulting design is a bit odd, but a bit improved in that area. By shaping the body around the non-touchable dials the moveable ones are more exposed, but it becomes an oblong rounded triangle.
Visually I like the round with cut outs.


The round one goes to Gordon, but I'll keep the odd ball for my collection.

I never did print and cut paper inserts like the real clock, I should do that next.

A few years back at a San Francisco meet up (at Bram's work, I believe) a few of us were talking about other clock configurations.
What we were talking about then was a triangular configuration with three clocks to a side. Very similar to the hex configuration, with only one fewer clocks. I'll have to think about prototyping that now...

The location of the painted clock hands won't line up straight with the gearing when you change the angles. So for a true puzzle they would have to be repainted. You can get them pretty close though, good enough for a prototype.

Cool idea Gordon!

Dave

Wow! That's a beautiful variation, and I think, the first "mod" of a non-twisty puzzle!!

- Greg

I saw one of these that was sent to Smaz and loved it! i now love the additions you have made to it. I can't wait to get my hands on one! Very Pretty!

That looks really cool! Great work Dave. It's a nice variation of the traditional Clock.

Brilliant! This is how they should make all new clocks!




Pantazis

Any chance of setting up some sort of kit to make this mod? I have a good working clock and an old broken one that I could use for parts.

I recall in the past someone (Sandy maybe???) working on a "master" clock with 16, but if I recall correctly, there was too much friction for it to turn well.

-d

this is awesome
i like the unconventional "mods" like this (i know you printed it)

I've never used a clock before but this looks very fun. The second one looks like an egg.

Very nice! I still need to get an elemental in my collection. Great work Dave!

Chris

Very cool. The one with the notches going into the puzzle is definitely my favorite. It's great to see clock mods, since they're so rare but there's so much potential for them!

I will talk to Gordon about it. Although I made some design adjustments it is his idea.
Actually laser cut, not printed.

Dave

Thx Dave to improve the clock puzzle, that is quite impressive. Hope to see you in Beijing next month.

The one you saw is from a same person. Gorden.