Author Topic: Orrery plans - designs  (Read 13316 times)

Offline fixit

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Orrery plans - designs
« on: May 12, 2012, 01:31:03 PM »
Can any body help ?
I would like to have a go at building a ORRERY !
Could any body point me towards any plans/or advice on this.
I know they can be complicated but a simple one would be good.
Ive built two clocks so i have a head start (I hope)

Thanks  chaps

Steve
northolt,near Mc donalds, next to Pc World

Offline BiggerHammer

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Re: Orrery plans - designs
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2012, 04:36:35 PM »
I had considered it myself. Then sanity took over. Still a bit out of my league. found these plans online. Not built them myself nor have I given them a good going over.

http://brassorrery.blogspot.com/2009/09/orrery-instructions.html

hope you find this helpful.

Offline fixit

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Re: Orrery plans - designs
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2012, 11:24:18 PM »
Thanks for that  its the type and about the size/complexity that i think could manage without going mad
a good study to get my head around "what drives what" is the first thing i think.

thanks for the link

Steve
northolt,near Mc donalds, next to Pc World

Offline boatmadman

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Re: Orrery plans - designs
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2012, 09:33:11 AM »
I attempted one of these a few years ago from my own design, before I got a milling machine. Cut all the gears on the lathe -had to make a dividing head for that - assembled it ok but could never get it to turn freely enough. As I re call it had about 23 gear wheels on it of varying sizes, with 4 different shafts in order to get all the ratios somewhere near.

I gave up on it, I think it was as much lack of experience and as anything. I intend on having another go at sometime. I think I ditched my plans in disgust with the intention of starting from fresh next time.

So, good luck and keep us posted.

Ian
If it works, take it apart and find out why!

Offline El$syd

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    • Orreries, Tellurions and Antikythera
Re: Orrery plans - designs
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2012, 09:23:46 AM »
Have a look at ebay (UK), there are meccano orrery plans there and there are a couple of other people selling plans. I have looked at them in the past and bought some. They gave me hints and ideas as to what to look for, and mostly gave me ideas as to what I did not want to do!
Also have a look at my web site in which I list a number of orreries and tellurions. It might give you ideas to figure out what you might like to make.
http://sydor.weebly.com/index.html
A couple of years ago I bought a series of magazines to make an orrery and eventually also bought the follow on magazines to make a tellurion - these completed units are sometimes available on ebay from the original manufacturing company in India. Making these was great and taught me a lot!
I hope to make my own sometime - and would dearly love to make an Antikythera mechanism too.
But.... :proj: strikes

Offline fixit

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Re: Orrery plans - designs
« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2012, 04:35:40 PM »
HI  El$syd

           Thanks for your information .  I will scan fleabay as suggested and have had a quick look at your website   very interesting it will take me a bit of time to look at it all a bit more closely.
Also interested in your 'gear cutting' software so "keep it up" but no rush Ha Ha

So thanks again for your reply
Steve
northolt,near Mc donalds, next to Pc World