UGEARS Aero Clock Wooden 3D Puzzles for Adults - Mechanical Wooden Model Kits for Adults to Build, Wall Clock 3D Puzzle with Pendulum Model Kit, DIY Miniature Kit Crafts Gift for Christmas

As I've said on other UGEAR models, these are made in the Ukraine, not Asia and well worth the extra money for quality and supporting the Ukrainians. I go beyond the directions and sand every piece. I also color parts of them with watercolor to make them more interesting. Highly recommend all UGEARS models. BTW: I'm 80 years old and used to make furniture. I can't do that anymore, so I build these models to satisfy my need to work with my hands (and brain). This one was the most challenging but a lot of fun. Once done, I held my breath waiting to see if it worked; and it did. I bought a good-looking "deep drop weight" that looks better than the bag they provide to run the clock. You can get the weight at Amazon. I used the 4 pound one.

Background: This is the second UGears model that I have assembled and just like the first one (Steam Locomotive U-460), the plywood quality felt very good and hefty and the engineering put into the model was very impressive. I purchased this clock thinking that all the lessons I learned from building the Steam Train would make getting this clock smoothly functioning in a jiffy. I was extremely wrong in this assumption. Assembly: My kit was missing the cardstock for the clock dials, but I contacted UGears's customer service and they mailed me the parts to me with no charge. Very nice! It took me 3 days to assemble since I spent the time to wax and sand for a soft finish on every surface (it is imperative that a 90 dollar kit should look and feel good). The build was very complex but satisfying to engage with. I however do recommend buying your own set of quality round toothpicks as I found the ones provided to be of quite low quality. Also, consider buying own your supply of paste wax as you will need a lot more wax than what the kit provides. The instructions for installing parts were clear, though I had to look online to understand some of what was happening when it came to the moving/calibration steps - the descriptions there were a bit lacking. Fortunately a QR code in the manual pointed me to videos that I found helpful. Tuning: It was daily process of fiddling with the tourbillon to figure out what needed sanding or further lubrication. After assembly without tuning, the clock would run for a minute at a time before seizing - which wasn't up to my standards. Learning how the mechanism works before fiddling with it and sanding down actual geometries is vital for not bricking this expensive puzzle. I did craft some parts myself, such as a cleaner pallet lever with lower friction gems and a longer guard pin essentially get near perfect performance. It runs as advertised now, keeping up power for 2ish hours before stopping. I am now extremely familiar with the Swiss lever escapement mechanism. If I had some final tips - it would be that friction is the enemy, and always know how things work before deciding to make permanent modifications. Conclusion: This is a very nice kit and the plywood is of good quality. Costumer Service was helpful in proving me with missing parts and had a fast response time. The toothpicks and wax provided are insufficient in quality and amount so it would be best to purchase your own. The Clock is unlikely to work well right after assembly and will require to be taken apart for further tuning. Perfecting the clock is time consuming process and requires a passing level of knowledge or mechanical intuition but doing so will result in a clock that runs as advertised. I recommend this to anyone with a passing interest in these sorts of things and the patience to back it up.

This is an amazing, well engineered wooden clock kit. It is NOT for people who don't have patience and a sense of meticulous order. I assembled the kit meticulously, sanding all gears lightly, and waxing with melted wax. Even so, upon assembly, I had to do a fair amount of lubrication (I used sewing machine oil, which I recommend). I spent maybe 15-20 hours assembling the kit and about 5 hours debugging running issues. I had to add an extra roller bearing to the orbital ring, there are two roller bearings, and the are both on one side, due to the force from the lower spring creating side loads on the upper ring to power the clock. I used spare parts (labeled +) which come with the kit. Note : there were only exactly enough tooth picks, no extras, and my kitchen tooth picks were not the same size, so don't mess up a tooth pick cut. Even with all this careful assembly and de-bugging, it does not run consistently. There is a very slight binding at the same point in the orbital cycle of the escapement mechanism, which I have spent hours trying to debug and I cannot solve it. So, take pleasure in the assembly, and marvel at the engineering, and accurate laser cut of the excellent quality plywood, but don't expect it to be a 24 hour clock. Youtube videos say others have gotten it to run 2-3 hours.

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.

I over-sanded the escape wheel and the escapement. As a result, it slips or sticks. I've requested replacement parts, but they haven't arrived as of this post. Will update when they arrive and are installed. UPDATE: COMPLETE FAILURE. The spring mechanism exploded and shattered the entire clock. It was unrepairable. A waste of nearly $100. DONT DO IT. UPDATE: 8/23/23 I received and installed the replacement escapement and wheel! Now it gets stuck even more than before..the escapement (the rocking lever that catches the teeth on the escape wheel) skips or slips amd locks up. I'm so disappointed. As a result, I've reduced my star rating to one star. While it's fun to assemble, it doesn't run. I'll continue to fiddle with it, but I'm not hopeful. 9/1/23 UPDATE: FAILURE. I received the replacement parts finally. After VERY carefully replacing the escape wheel, escapement and associated parts I was finally able to get it to run almost a full revolution. Further tweaking, sanding, waxing and adjusting got it to run, by hand, for half a dozen revolutions. I then installed the tourbillon in the frame, added the hold-down parts and unlocked the mainspring. Something gave and the entire thing spun itself apart and shattered. TOTAL FAILURE.

This is about the fourth UGEARS model I've built, and by far the most expensive and complicated. If you've built their models before, you know the routine: go slow, look at the diagrams _very_ carefully, and if something doesn't make sense or seem to work, take a deep breath and look at the diagram(s) again. They do a good job of illustrating the process. But, as I assembled this model I began getting increasingly concerned about the practicality of trying to make a complicated piece of machinery like this work smoothly when everything is made of wood. Wood isn't the most frictionless material around, and not the most accurate when it comes to critical dimensions. And, even though the kit does consist of very well-cut snap-out plywood parts boards, there are some pretty sketchy concepts involved in assembly, like using toothpicks for axles, and very unreliable methods for trapping the ends of the coiled springs that power the model - very easy to have them snap free under tension and render the model useless. If you need detailed written instructions, this isn't the kit for you; almost every step is presented in diagram form and you need to be able to interpret the visual data into usable assembly information. I did have to contact UGEARS' customer support to replace a missing part (I lost it) and to ask a question about assembly. They responded promptly in both cases. Long story short, got the model built, fiddled with it for a while to make sure parts were moving smoothly, cranked the mainspring as directed, something deep in the interior snapped and fell out, and this model will now serve as fireplace kindling when winter arrives.

Beautiful! Took a bit longer than expected to build but so worth it. Winding the strings I did have some issues so please be carful when assembling it. No issues with leaves breaking but take note they are thin so a light handed approach to building will help.

This is the second kit by this company, that I have bought. It is very well made, the instructions are clear and concise. Both items worked well after assembly. I will definitely purchase more from this company.