Why lucky?! Because the machine is not alive.
But this does not mean the work was unsuccessful. The trigger to save and release the energy of the snail-spring would actually work (in theory :). Due to the crudeness of the construction the whole mechanics jammed easily (which means a chance of jamming of 100%).
Additionally I was surprised that I did not have to scrap my whole construction and start all over again with a new blueprint anytime during the workshop. The construction just grew and added up and still remained “functional”.
Below are several photos to show the stage of construction i reached:
I took the mechanism home for now, to analyse it a bit more. I’m planing to build not only the mechanism but the outer shell – which I couldn’t get even near to think about during the workshop – with the help of a 3D printer.
I will probably scrap the mechanism afterwards, unless I can find a generous buyer who’s interested in crude 2D mechanics to hang up his/her wall 😉
btw: I uploaded some pictures of the workshop to an album. Go have a look. Unfortunately I couldn’t capture all the projects because my card space was running out very quickly.