Self Build Orrery

[Mechanism Man]

A Mark II? All the planets? The local galaxy?

*faints*

I think that to start with Mark II will be remarkably similar to Mark I, but will take in all the little things that I learned along the way that will mainly make it easier to build. It will work just the same, but it should go together much more quickly, and require much less fettling to get it running smoothly.
That said, I have worked out the gear ratios for the other three planets (I won't forget you Pluto!)...  But oh boy, there's alot of teeth to cut...  Maybe in a few months when my technique has been perfected. But I think that animating the whole of the Milky Way may have to wait Rowan...
I also want to do some variations, some aesthetic, and some different combinations of which planets/moons to include, and which to leave out. But that's all to come.
Back to the cog shop!
Thanks, as always, for your kind comments.

[Stargate525]

well if you're taking suggestions, one that just accurately does the Sun, Jupiter, and all of her moons would be badass. (all 60 or so, if you can )

[Gazongola]

Euros? it's in pounds...

[Altaïr]

oh, and does anyone know of a website price-converter thing? there are so many people outside of the us that i really could benefit from that

Ahem...

Results of a Google search for "41 euros in US dollars"

"41 Euros = 63.2384 U.S. dollars
        Rates provided for information only - see disclaimer. More about currency conversion."

I'm tempted to go one better than the usual cliche and say Google is better than sliced bread- you can't do instantaneous currency conversions with a breadknife!   Sliced bread isn't all that, to be honest.

Note that this trick will work in all sorts of units, as well- see one gallon in teaspoons and one nautical mile in furlongs.  It doesn't understand stadia or bushels, but it's pretty good nonetheless.

Try "answer to life, the universe, and everything" in the Google search. 

[Altaïr]

well if you're taking suggestions, one that just accurately does the Sun, Jupiter, and all of her moons would be badass. (all 60 or so, if you can )

A to-scale orrery that includes the Sun will be 1. very large or 2. have very small planets. That would be one crazy-awesome jungle of gears.

[Alastair Smythe]

If you're looking for different variations, many old-school orrerys included the Gallilean Moons of Jupiter, because they were the first moons discovered beyond our own.

Also, including a high-angle comet might be interesting, but I don't know if it would ruin the aesthetic.

[tsjaikdus]

Having a few problems with E-Bay though, for some reason it's not saved my postal options - it should be available all over the world, but it's come up as only available and visible on E-Bay in the U.K., and as a local pick up only. It won't let me adjust the postal settings for the listing, I can't even contact E-Bay for them to sort it.

I've had the same issue. Contacted ebay and got a response, but that wasn't very helpful. Or I'm not that clever.

However, now it is listed twice (I cripled the first link because I think it's the wrong one)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wooden-Orrery-of-the-First-Six-Planets_W0QQitemZ180256733867QQihZ008QQcategoryZ414QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName&item=180252585404

[edit]apparently the first link is the right one -> link fixed[/edit]

[Mechanism Man]

Yes, I've now re listed it to make it visible world wide -  I think that the problems with the postal settings on the first listing were entirely self induced and down to my own finger trouble. This new listing is all fine and dandy with hopefully no major errors this time!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wooden-Orrery-of-the-First-Six-Planets_W0QQitemZ180256733867QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item180256733867&_trkparms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C65%3A12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

If you're looking for different variations, many old-school orrerys included the Galilean Moons of Jupiter, because they were the first moons discovered beyond our own.

Also, including a high-angle comet might be interesting, but I don't know if it would ruin the aesthetic.

I really like the comet thought, and have toyed with the idea myself for a while, but its a very tricky thing to achieve mechanically. They start farther out than the most distant planet, and eventually get closer to the sun than Mercury, so from a 'lets build it' point of view, I'd have to make it pass through the orbits of all the other planets, without it hitting any of them, or their support arms... Hmm. The only way it could be done is if it moved around above all the other planets, but that kind of defeats the object I guess. I shall keep thinking about it, 'cause it would certainly look good.
As for Jupiter's moons, there are several Meccano based orreries I have seen that use Jupiter as the central object, and then make the moons the sole subject of the movement. But I think that incorporating this into one of mine would probably be a little difficult....  Static moons anyone?