My engineering hobby...

Creating off-the-wall electromechanical curiosities in his garden shed

Every spare minute of Andy Clark’s day is spent in the workshop at the end of his garden, making and repairing a variety of electromechanical devices.

“I’ve liked tinkering since I was young,” he says. “I started with Lego and Meccano. School helped as we had craft design technology classes, and I took a degree in electronics at Imperial College.”

Initially, Clark started on small projects and repairs, making tools and a Victorian flea chariot. He has moved on to more ambitious projects, including the Topsy Turvy Clock. What appears to be a simple mantel clock has its numbers in the wrong order. “There were challenges, and the software still needs fine-tuning, but the clock is working and it is possible to use it to tell the time,” he says.

Clark’s latest project is upgrading the internals in a ‘weather house’ – a chalet-shaped device that indicates the weather. “The ‘cat gut’ has been swapped with a microcontroller to read the weather from the internet. The simple beam mechanism has been swapped with a 3D printed version of the Watt’s linkage, so the figures move in a straight line,” he says.

Clark says his hobby gives him a sense of achievement as he learns new skills.
“I think any technical hobby is good experience for work. There have been direct spin-offs – security and operating system things that I’ve learnt.” 

• Do you have an interesting mechanical engineering-related hobby? Email liz.wells@caspianmedia.com