Orrery plans - designs

[fixit]

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

[BiggerHammer]

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.

[fixit]

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

[boatmadman]

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

[El$syd]

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.... strikes

[fixit]

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