Welcome to "Building the HANS Electric Gear Clock"

This is the central location for finding information about building and upgrading the HANS electric gear clock.

 

What is the HANS Electric Gear Clock?

HANS is a wooden gear clock that was designed from the ground up to help you successfully build your first gear clock.

The instructions for building HANS are in the form of a book. This book consists of 136 pages grouped into 11 chapters. The book will take you step by step through the process of building a real working gear clock.

For more detail as to the actual contents of the book visit the "HANS Book Content" page.

Here is a quick overview of the construction process.

 

 

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HANS Design Highlights

 

Drive Motor

Many wooden gear clocks utilize a wights to power the gear clock. These present three problems.

• You have to wind the clock every day or two.
• They are inaccurate.
• They don't hold up over time.

The HANS electric gear clock utilizes an easy to obtain synchronous motor to drive the clock. This motor attached to the first gear, will keep the clock accurate to within a second or two each month.

 

Cutting Techniques

The gears used in the HANS clock can be made by tracing and cutting with a saw, or by using a set of templates and a router table.

 

Plate Design

The plates were designed so that only the arbor hole locations are critical. You are free to alter the plate shape as you see fit.

 

Drawings

Full scale drawing are included for all parts. Larger components like the clock plates are provided in sections, and are indexed so they can be taped together if needed.