Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Man Builds 7-foot Grandfather Clock from Lego

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the snappy-timepieces dept.

Ravalox writes "Eric Harshbarger has built a 7-foot-tall grandfather clock exclusively from Lego. It keeps accurate time and needs no electricity; it needs to be weight reset every 13 hours. Other pictures include the gears, numbers, the face, and the pendulum mechanics."

11 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. server made of lego too? by deft · · Score: 4, Funny

    its just got smashed!

    --

    There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
    1. Re:server made of lego too? by skids · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's not down, it's just very slow. With 4cm logic, you probably only get about 0.002 hertz CPU speed.

      Hrm... 386 has about 275,000 transistors and looking at the
      gates
      I'd estimate that works out to about 10 legos a transistor.... That's one expensive server!

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    2. Re:server made of lego too? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why wouldn't it keep fairly accurate time? The physics of a pendulum are fairly well understood and gravity is reasonably constant. The plastic is much less subject to environmental effects than the wood and metal that clocks of this style were traditionally made of and LEGO's tolerances are a lot higher than was possible for many of those clocks.

      Part of the appeal of lego technic in particular is the large toolkit of compatible parts. I build a lot of gadgets and trying to mate the motor from a CD player with the gearbox off a toy truck is not as easy as it sounds. I'm no purist...if I am trying to accomplish a task, I will use whatever works. The nice thing about lego is that it is convenient and does work for many "human-scale" tasks. Also you can build with it in your living room which is especially nice for those of us without a workshop or garage.

      Finally, I'll bet it keeps better time than a clock built with an arc welder

    3. Re:server made of lego too? by R.Caley · · Score: 4, Funny
      It's not down, it's just very slow.

      It's not the CPU which is the problem, it's constructing TCP/IP packets out of Lego and squeezing them through the ethernet cable.

      They get stuck at every kink in the cable, and someone has to go and clear the blockage by hand.

      Mind you, packet fragmentation is far easier than with the traditional hand-whittled wooden packets.

      --
      _O_
      .|<       The named which can be named is not the true named
  2. Boy he'll be pissed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...when his (grand)kid shows up and takes the thing apart to play with it.

  3. wow! by ssand · · Score: 5, Funny

    what's next for him? A seven foot tall girlfriend made entirely of lego?

    1. Re:wow! by Besjon · · Score: 5, Funny

      No no, a seven foot tall girlfriend made entirely of lego would be mortally dangerous as it could lead to a crushed pelvis and death by snu-snu.

  4. For a while there I thought I was the only one... by tonyz2k · · Score: 5, Funny

    who had a House of Yes movie poster over my fireplace. Phew. (only on Slashdot..)

    --
    click here to incinerate homeless people
  5. All I can say by RealProgrammer · · Score: 5, Funny

    is it's about time someone did this.

    We should give this guy a big hand. And then a second hand. But then, he's probably got his hands all in place already.

    Can this run Linux? It would be a great NTP server.

    --
    sigs, as if you care.
  6. Ahh, back in the days... by skids · · Score: 5, Funny

    When "computer architecture" consisted of asking the question "how big a room do we need to hold it?"

    --
    Someone had to do it.
  7. Did anyone read that title as... by tekrat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Man Builds 7-Foot Tall Grandfather From Lego ?

    Now *that* would be impressive!

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.