How does a display clock keep time if the gears are just decoration?

A standard quartz movement mounted at the centre drives only the hands and keeps the time. Its shaft passes through an oversized bore in the centre wheel so it never turns the gears. An optional second movement behind one wheel powers the decorative gear train on its own, so the heavy wheels never load the timekeeping movement.

What quartz movement fits this clock?

Any standard quartz clock movement works. Set the arbor bore in the generator to match the threaded shaft on your movement, and pick a shaft length long enough for the thickness of your dial and wheel stack.

What material should I cut the wheels from?

Thin stock, such as 3 mm plywood or acrylic, so the wheels are light and turn freely around the dial. Acrylic holds a crisp tooth edge, while plywood reads warmer on a wall.

Can I engrave numerals instead of tick marks?

Yes. The dial marks are on the score layer, so you can engrave them as they are, or export the dial and swap the ticks for numerals in the design editor before cutting.

Moving Gear Wall Clock

A laser-cut wall clock with exposed gears that really turn, driven by a quartz movement.

Settings

Preset

Start from

Planetary: one quartz movement drives the hands and spins the whole gear set together, no extra holes. Five planets orbit a 45 tooth sun inside a ring gear that rims the backplate.

What to build

Layout

Gears

Gear style

Planetary: planets orbit a centre sun inside a ring gear. Static: fixed wheels around a free centre wheel, turned by a second movement.

Planet wheels

How many planets orbit between the centre sun and the outer ring gear. The ring gear rims the backplate.

Sun teeth

Teeth on the centre wheel where the hands mount. The ring gear gets the sun plus twice the planet teeth.

Planet teeth

Face

Module

Tooth size in millimetres. This sets how large the whole clock is, since the ring gear and backplate grow with the teeth.

Dial

A ticked chapter ring with hour and minute marks.

Hands

Hand style

Style and fit

Wheel centres

Crossings

Crossing width

Rim width

Centre hole (movement shaft)

The hole in the middle for your quartz movement shaft. In the turning-gears style the centre wheel's own hole is made bigger than this so the shaft slips through without turning it.

Add setting gauges

A drilling template for each arbor distance, including escape wheel to anchor. Mark through the holes instead of measuring.

Backlash

Numbers

Your clock is 151 mm across (about 5.9 inches).
One clock motor turns the hands and spins all the gears together, so you only fit a single movement.
If the wheels get big and heavy, one motor can struggle. Switch to the turning-gears style to add a second motor just for the gears.

Vector Export

3D Print Design

Every part is extruded to the depth you set. Wheels want thin stock, plates want thicker.

Extrusion Depth

3MF preserves richer print metadata when your slicer supports it.

Generate a design to see the 2D preview

Generate a design to see the export preview

Inspirational Palette

556.9 x 175.5 mm

Examples

Laser cut. The dark walnut ring gear and cogs sit over a warm cherry backplate, turned by a hidden quartz movement.

Assembled moving gear wall clock with a walnut ring gear over a cherry backplate and black hands

Materials used:

TruFlat® Cherry Plywood for the backplate and centre wheel
TruFlat® Walnut Plywood for the ring gear and outer wheels

Set the module and arbor bore to match your sheet thickness and quartz movement shaft before cutting.

Laser cut spoked gear and matching pinion in cherry plywood with crisp involute teeth

Material used:

TruFlat® Cherry Plywood

Individual wheels cut clean with sharp involute teeth, ready to mesh around the centre.

How To Use

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. The Moving Gear Wall Clock is 100% free with no limits, no watermarks, and no trial period. Generate and download as many files as you want, free forever.

Free laser cut gear clock with exposed cog wheels that really turn, driven by a standard quartz movement.. Adjust the settings, preview your design in real time, and download a ready-to-make file in seconds.

It exports clean SVG files for laser cutting, CNC, and vinyl, plus STL and multi-colour 3MF files for 3D printing. Everything is generated instantly in your browser.

Laser cutters and engravers including Glowforge, xTool, LightBurn, OMTech, Epilog, Trotec, Thunder Laser, and any machine that accepts SVG or vector files. CNC routers and mills via SVG import in tools like Vectric, Carbide Create, Easel, and Fusion 360. 3D printers via slicers such as Bambu Studio, PrusaSlicer, OrcaSlicer, and Cura, with 3MF files carrying colour data for multi-colour prints.

You can use wood, acrylic, leather, MDF, plywood, cardboard, and paper for laser cutting and CNC, and PLA, PETG, ABS, TPU, and any filament your printer supports for 3D printing. The generated files are standard formats compatible with any material your machine can handle.

No account or sign-up is required for the Moving Gear Wall Clock. It runs entirely in your browser, your designs never leave your device, and there is nothing to install.

Yes. A commercial license is included, so you can sell products made with the Moving Gear Wall Clock on Etsy, Amazon Handmade, Shopify, at craft fairs, or anywhere else. Attribution is appreciated but not required.

Visit the MyLaserTools Learning Center for a step-by-step Moving Gear Wall Clock guide, plus material tips and file-format help for laser cutting, CNC, and 3D printing. The guides walk you through every setting and how to prepare your files for your machine.

Open the Moving Gear Wall Clock guide

About

This free moving gear wall clock generator draws a complete laser-cut clock two ways. In the planetary style a sun wheel sits on the movement shaft, planets orbit around it, and an outer ring gear rims a backplate cut to the same diameter, so a single quartz movement turns the hands and spins the whole gear set together.

The catch is load. A quartz movement is built to sweep light hands, so hanging a set of wooden or acrylic wheels on the same shaft adds weight and friction that can slow it, drain the battery, or stall it once the gears get big. That is what the turning-cluster style solves: fixed wheels surround a free centre wheel whose bore is oversized, so the main movement's shaft passes straight through to the hands without turning the gears, and a second quartz movement or a small motor behind one wheel drives the cluster through extra holes in the backplate. The two drives never load each other, so the gears can be as large as you like while the clock keeps perfect time. It is a decorative display clock, not a mechanical clockwork.

For gears on their own, including planetary sets, racks and non-circular pairs, use the Gear Generator.

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