UGEARS Wooden 3D Puzzles for Adults Aero Clock - Mechanical Puzzles for Adults, Wall 3D Clock Puzzle with Pendulum Model Kit - DIY Miniature Kit Crafts Gift for Fathers Day - 320 Pcs

This is an excellent kit, and I had fun building it and putting it together. I have it adjusted very well, but I do have trouble winding it every day. The mechanism catches on the inside when trying to pull down the little car to wind the sandbag weight. It’s really finicky and I’m not sure what it catches on inside the drum. It’s really hard to get it to release to pull the car down so you can wind it. Has anybody came across this situation or has a fix for it? I’m at a loss. Thanks.

This definitely is the most satisfying wooden model I’ve built so far. My clock can now easily run continuously for 12 hours, and the time is only off by less than 5 mins. Pretty impressive for this type of clock!It only took me ~4 evenings to build it, but after that it took me a week to troubleshoot the issues. In this review I’ll mainly talk about my lessons learned. Hopefully they will be useful to some of you.1. I used a thin putty knife to check if the frame is pressing against any gear (I think a long cutter blade will work, too). You want to reduce friction between all moving parts as much as you can. In my case, I had to loose up a couple pieces slightly so that all the gears can turn smoothly.2. When my clock stopped running, I checked the gears one at a time to figure out which one was stuck and how. In my case, at the beginning of each hour, after the hot air balloon descended, sometimes gear #133 stopped at a bad position. A couple minutes later, gear #63 would get stuck with gear #133.- I figured I need to move the fishing line connecting to the hot air balloon a bit to the left, so that gear #133 would stop at a better position after the hot air balloon descended. I added a paper clip wire to two existing holes, and that completely fixed the issue. See the attached picture.3. At the beginning my clock could only run for ~ half an hour. I thought it would be a good idea to add wood lubricant (for drawers) to all the gears. BIG MISTAKE! The lubricant is a little bit sticky, which caused my clock to stopped completely within a few minutes. It took me days to remove most of the lubricant. Use candle wax instead to lubricate gears.4. I filled up the sandbag all the way to the top. A heavier sandbag helps to overcome friction between the moving parts.

I completed it and couldn't get it to work after tinkering with it for a few days. I gave up and bought a simpler mechanical gear puzzle and based on what I learned from it I was able to revisit this clock and get it working. The instructions were very clear but technical. Would be nice if they had thinner sticks of Wax rather than one thick wax stick in order to wax all the tiny gears that they require you to wax. Had a couple of pieces nap on me but I was able to fix with super glue.

The media could not be loaded. I finally managed to make the clock work properly after five tries. I ended up with extra parts, so I decided to modify the clock with them. I also doubled the running time by using weight pullies. I adjusted the speed by changing the weight minutely. Adding 10 grams could mean up to four extra minutes in 24 hours! The clock now keeps time within a minute per day. I spent many hours on this and enjoyed every minute of it.Reducing friction is the name of the game for making mechanical anything. Using wax to lubricate the gear teeths is a must, but I also tapered the edges of the gears slightly - especially No. 20 (p. 6), No. 27 (p. 10), and No. 128 (p.47) - with a mini belt grinder so that they won't be affected as much by the inevitable warping frame due to the weight downward.

This clock was a fun challenge to build and run. Nicely engineered and overall a quality kit. Great for the tinkerer like me and attention to detail is very important. Take your time with this one because clockworks are a bit finicky anyway. All gears need to be clear of burrs and waxed per instructions. Wax all gear teeth and its sides that contact the frame. Use a birthday candle or candle wicks to wax inside small holes for wood bearings. It's important to get all the gears running free of any binding. You can over wax it though, especially the sensitive items such as the escape wheel and pendulum fingers. Buff or wipe the wax smooth after you apply it. Remove the pendulum and spin all the gears slowly by the weighted bag string to check for any binding. Listen for scraping noises. Bind free gears should work with about 2 lbs. of weight. I'm running reliable at 2 lbs. 6 oz. The manual say 3.3-4.4 lbs. which seems too stressful on the frame. Once the clock worked I lightly superglued all frame parts that supported the spool weight to the mounting holes. My clock is mounted 71" from mounting holes to floor. I'm also using a bucket of BBs because it's shorter than the bag by 9". That gives me an extra 4 hours of run time. The rate of travel of the weight is about 2.25" per hour. There is enough string on the spool to get 25+ hours before resetting the weight. The manual says 12 hours. The escape wheel is basically a seconds hand with an X on it which makes it easy for timing the clock. One revolution is exactly a minute. Use a stopwatch for initial timing. I found the upper pendulum weight is more of a course setting and the lower weight will fine tune it within seconds per minute. Moving either pendulum weight upwards will slow the clock and vise verse. You can vary the bag weight to get even more precise. So far I'm less than a minute off per 24 hours. Not bad for an all wood clock. The balloon also needs to be jam free and slightly heavier than the counterweight to overcome minor friction. I used all the counterweight disks but one. Any binding can stall the clock gears. The balloon drops on the hour. The clock will speed up slightly for a minute or so until the balloon gears reengage. So precise clock timing needs to be done over an hour or more.Of all the 3D puzzles I've built, this one is by far the best. It will test your patience and reward you when it works. I hope my tips and setup will help others. Enjoy!