Time Collector
A Kinetic Marble Clock
By Esteva, Sebastian · Paz Suaznabar, Oscar · Etcheverry, Bernard · Jung, Joelle
A 24-inch tall kinetic marble clock: part sculpture, part functioning clock. A wheel of marbles rotates through a gear train, with each marble eventually depositing into a collector at the base, marking the passage of time visually rather than with hands or numbers.
The project moved through distinct phases: heavy early sketching and ideation, force and load analysis with free body diagrams of the marble wheel system, three rounds of prototyping to validate the mechanism, starting with cardboard, then two rounds of 3D-printed iterations, then scaling up to the full-sized final design. We also ran finite element analysis comparing the old vs. new backboard design to make sure the structure could handle the load.
The Journey
From Sketch to Mechanism
Gestalting the whole mechanism on one sheet. The escapement regulating the circular motion, the actuator pin that starts and stops it, and the core idea: time read from the number of marbles collected in the disc, not from hands.
The first working version, cut from cardboard (escapement, belt drive, marble wheel and chute), to prove the motion before anything was printed.
The second round, 3D printed on a laser-cut backboard: a spoked marble wheel, a bevel gear pair, and the chute the marbles run down.
Free body diagrams for every stage, by hand: power source, actuator, a 40:12 gear train, escapement, pulley, and the marble receptacle. The driving weight’s 6.66 N leaves the train as 91.88 N, about fourteen times over.
Also See FEA Analysis
