Can't get the "Plan B" arrangement to work mechanically. The small 5V steppers can not turn the clockhands reliably, depsite their 1:64 gearing. They miss steps (too much load). I have to much slack in the axies for the large gears to avoid getting in each others way. Everything could be fixed, I am sure, with a few more iterations, but I'd rather have my original steppers as shown in the first log.

The next day I will make a new shield with bipolar drivers and the same DS1307 clock. The printer is busy printing new gears - just one for each hand, as the steppers have a small gear. Mechanical slack will be a lesser problem as they gear down, not up.

(printer doing a quarter gear for initial distance and gear mesh mockup)