Orrery Mark II

[Mechanism Man]

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,
Life has been a little hectic of late, so posting and checking of the all important forum has taken a back seat to the mundane tasks involved in 'making a living', and 'paying the motgage'. I'm still hunting for a way to generate my own personal 38 hour day, or even a method of going without sleep for the next 12 weeks... I may have caught up with everything by then... maybe...
Anyway, enough rambling, I just thought that this shiny new Chronoautomata off shoot could do with more gears - not sure if they are strictly steam punk gears - but they are definately gears. So here, for your delictation and delight are the first pictures of my near completed Mark II orrery. Complete with properly angled Earth, seasons, moon phases and all. More pictures very soon. But for now, send all critical analysis through the normal channels.

 

 

[Alain Raethorne]

My friend, you are truly some sort of god among us. That is absolutely breathtaking.

Also, those gears are made of wood, aren't they?

[Herr Döktor]

Oh, goody! Wonder'd what you'd been up to during the forum's downtime- excellent as usual, do keep us posted!

[Mechanism Man]

Yup, all wood, and I have the fret saw burns to prove it. There are about 1300 teeth in this one, all hand cut. My, how the winter evenings just fly by...

[Lady Penelope]

I can hardly wait to see it in all of its fully-functioning glory.  You're going to post video again, yes?  

[Mechanism Man]

Oh yes, but must go, lap top battery about to fail. Bugger.
Back soon!

[Narsil]

That is very cool indeed

[HAC]

Well done, that man!
Cheers
Harold

[rogue_designer]

Brilliant MM.

I still intend to own one of your pieces btw. The timeframe may have just stretched a bit out, is all.

Can't wait to see more.

[Rowan of Rin]

Your skill and hard work continue to amaze me MM. You should be ultra proud, I can't wait till I have the skill to complete such a task!

[Mechanism Man]

Aaaarggghhhh!!!!   You would have thought that after 20 odd weeks of hard work, planning, measuring, cutting and generally fiddling about, my little creation would be just about done, so why won't it bloody well work!!! @**###*!
My problem, dear friends, is the spinning Earth, or indeed lack of it. Unfortunately, it finally dawned on me that making the Earth spin on it's own axis at much above the moons 28 day orbit speed just ain't going to happen. Too much back pressure on the gear train when it's all put together unfortunately, so I'm going to have to settle on a slow Earth instead. Everything else works perfectly, but angling the Earth and adding bevel gears and other timing cleverness to keep the Earth pointing in the right direction throughout the year was just a leap too far. Darn. Never mind, still looks nice though, it's just my pride that's dented, and the awful thought of all those wasted hours cutting out and fitting 7 gears that will now be made redundant. Oh well, at least I know what doesn't work!
Now I have direction again I shall post some more pictures very soon, but for now, bed. Ahhh. Lovely.

[Herr Döktor]

Thank you for the update, sorry to hear that reality bites, and get a good night's kip, it'l look better in the morning!

[Mechanism Man]

Aaaarggghhhh!!!!   You would have thought that after 20 odd weeks of hard work, planning, measuring, cutting and generally fiddling about, my little creation would be just about done, so why won't it bloody well work!!! @**###*!
My problem, dear friends, is the spinning Earth, or indeed lack of it. Unfortunately, it finally dawned on me that making the Earth spin on it's own axis at much above the moons 28 day orbit speed just ain't going to happen. Too much back pressure on the gear train when it's all put together unfortunately, so I'm going to have to settle on a slow Earth instead. Everything else works perfectly, but angling the Earth and adding bevel gears and other timing cleverness to keep the Earth pointing in the right direction throughout the year was just a leap too far. Darn. Never mind, still looks nice though, it's just my pride that's dented, and the awful thought of all those wasted hours cutting out and fitting 7 gears that will now be made redundant. Oh well, at least I know what doesn't work!
Now I have direction again I shall post some more pictures very soon, but for now, bed. Ahhh. Lovely.

Please disregard last message - it was the work of a man at the end of his tether, and as it turned out last night, wrong! I thought that I'd have one last ditch attempt at getting it working, and in the process of disassembling everything to ensure that it all worked smoothly I worked out that the mechanism was missing a support bearing that might just help, and hey presto, half an hour later it was fixed! More photos tomorrow.
Just out of interest, I managed to keep hold of the first orrery for quite some time, but couldn't put off the inevitable forever and it arrived in the States with it's new owner this morning. He seemed really pleased which has spurred me on to get on with this one and finish it. I'm also looking into CNC cutting some of the parts (the gears mainly) after this next batch are done, so that's more research to be done.
Till next time....

[Herr Döktor]

There! Told you it'd look better in the morning! 

[Jemima Annabelle Clough]

Glad to hear that! I'll keep an eye out for the pics

[Mechanism Man]

Final mechanism assembly now almost done, so more pics on Sunday.

[Herr Döktor]

Tease.

Roll on sunday!

[Marrock]

I though the title said "Ornery", especially when I saw who had posted last before mine...

[Herr Döktor]

Oi!

[amateurhour]

You never sent me those plans so I could make an orrery Mech Man.

What's up with that?

: )

[Mechanism Man]

You never sent me those plans so I could make an orrery Mech Man.

What's up with that?

: )

Ah, hmm, yes, plans.....  Been a few problems on that front, namely working six day weeks and having virtually no time. Please accept my humble apologies for my empty promises.
Unfortunately, since changing my job recently life of late has been rather stressfull and hectic to say the least. In between working and seeing my long suffering family once in a while, I'm also trying to get some commissions finished before Christmas (sounds of nervous gulping...) - and these co missions have meant changing the original design somewhat which has caused more headaches than I care to mention. Add to this the fact that my internet connection has died at home for the past week stopping me from posting photos, updates etc. for you good people.....   
So, come new year my resolution is to sit down and get it all put down on paper. At the moment I have the gear ratios sorted, but as for actually producing proper patterns for the frames etc., I'm not even close yet. I've also got to record all the tube sizes and lengths, centres for drilling, order of construction and so it goes on. It's only been with building this new batch that it's dawned on me just how complex the darned thing really is to actually get running.
Anyway, back to the day job till 5:30, when it's home to cook tea and assist with homework. May get in the workshop by 9 if all goes well!
Photos soon - I hope....

[amateurhour]

take your time man, no worries. I was just messing around. I'd like to make one as a summer project.

[Miss Emilly Ladybird]

absolutely gorgeous...

[Mechanism Man]

Quick post from work (I'm just so bad...). In theory, my broadband should be back up in the next day or so after being kaput for the past 5 weeks - not that I'm annoyed you understand - so I should be able to post some more piccies of what I've been up to reall soon.
The first of the MK II's are now finished with the first one winging it's way to Bonnie Scotland tomorrow, with two more well on the way to being finished. I've also been beavering away on sorting out the gearing for a full nine planet orrery for lady in the U.S. (48 gears...gulp), so that should also keep me busy for a while.
Anyhow, as soon as I'm back in the land of the interweb I shall get some more photos up.
Must go, I can here the boss!

  

[Mechanism Man]

Now that my internet has finally come back on (thank you B.T., I love you...), here are, as promised, some pictures of the new one.
The big difference between this one and the last is that the Earth is now tilted, and continues to point in the same direction as it makes its way around the sun (that's what gives us the seasons, or so I'm told), and the Moon now rides on the disc below it giving it a 5 degree up and down motion as it orbits us - just like the real one. The big wooden disc under the Earth/Moon mechanism (you can see it best in the last photo) is a flywheel which keeps the movement of the mech nice and smooth. And the rocket? Well, that was added as an after thought, but looks brilliant in motion as it chases the Moon, just couldn't resist.
Hope you like it, all comments, good and bad, gratefully received.