Help defining/sourcing a mechanical "tak tak tak" sound

There have been some great ideas already but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. Something I thought about but haven't tried myself is to use the old baseball card in bicycle spokes technique. Replace the baseball card with any other object in order to get the tone that you want and you can "pitch shift" with the placement of object on the spokes. Maybe something like hard plastic will work well.

I don't know if this is too late but is this sort of sound your looking for? (I'll make it downloadable if you want it)

[soundcloud]stephensaldanha/machinery-metal-clings[/soundcloud]

Wind up walking toys are great, especially when you layer them. You get lovely high harmonics so they cope with being pitch shifted down really well. You can also overwind them in order to generate some extra clicks.

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Many cordless drills have clutch mechanisms that might give you that repeated sound you are looking for. At lower torque settings you can grab the chuck with your hand and stop it from turning giving you that repeated impact sound. Might be fun to experiment with a low battery as it may give you some frequency variations. As mentioned earlier definitely record at high sf so you can pitch it to your liking.

Why not find a huge wench or ratchet and get the tak tak tak from that? I'd look around at an old shipyard or dock to see what they've got there. Loading docks.

Or ask Tak (member of SSD) hehe.

You can get a more abrasive, motorized version of the "clac clac clac" with a toy remote-controlled car. Hold the wheel to prevent it from turning and it often makes a buzzing (potentially warranty voiding) "rrac rrac rrac" sound. It may not be quite what you're looking for, but it's another variation. Good luck!

_{(source: remotecontrolvehiclesonline.com)}

some High Impact Torque Wrenches have that same sort or fail-safe mechanism and it's much meaner sounding. I'd start searching there. You can likely go to a local auto garage and they'll make a whole bunch of noise for you to record for the cost of a cheap 12 pack of beer.

you can abuse a cheap printer by holding the ink carriage while its starting up and it'll do that. rec at 96k and pitch down to taste.

old metal projectors also have those kinds of noises in them.

Sounds to me like what you're looking for is actually the tape chassis flapping around inside the door of the player. Grab an old, unwanted cassette and try throwing it around. You'll probably even find a surface in your studio that is plasticky sounding enough.