Home CRAFTS DIY Mechanical Counter from Cardboard

DIY Mechanical Counter from Cardboard

Advertisemen

Mechanical counters are digital counters built using mechanical components. Long before electronics became common, mechanical devices were used to count events.In today’s video I show you how to make fully functional mechanical counter from cardboard!

image/text credit: The Q

My counter contains 3 counting rotors but quantity can be easoly extendyd by adding another one middle rotor between first and last ones! All assembly guide you can find in this video!

This decimal counter works like most mechanical counters do, such as this tape counter from an old reel-to-reel tape deck. Before everything went digital, counters like these were used in a lot of devices including cassette decks, car odometers to utility meters.

Advertisement

Mechanical Counters typically consist of a series of disks mounted on an axle, with the digits 0 through 9 marked on their edge. The right most disk moves one increment with each event. Each disk except the left-most has a protrusion that, after the completion of one revolution, moves the next disk to the left one increment.

Advertisement