Occupational therapy

[+bryand]

For a bit of light relief I decided to have a go at building an Orrery.
This one comes from Sweden, made by Induku. Instructions are well organised, well illustrated, thorough and in English English.
The most difficult bit was making the base.  It could really do with a jig for this because you finish up trying to hold too many bits in place before it clicks together.  
I failed with this, and spent an hour or two sorting out the mess later.

Then you get on to the main mechanism.  
What you are effectively doing is constructing a plywood gearbox.  
There's a reason why your car doesn't have a plywood gearbox, and you need to bear this in mind: 
there has to be some slop in the system otherwise it won't turn, but tighten it up to remove backlash and you either bind it up or destroy teeth.
I used a lot of paste furniture wax to lubricate things before they ran smoothly.

 

Scientific accuracy: 3/10
Entertainment value: 11/10
Pride at getting the thing to work properly: 15/10

Edited June 28, 2020 by bryand

[Bottletopburly]

👍interesting and something different.

[+Derbyshire Dave]

Fantastic Bryan. Well done you!

 

It reminds me of the famous paintinmg by Joseph Wright of Derby of people looking at an orrery

 

https://www.mediastorehouse.co.uk/science-photo-library/orrery-joseph-wright-6414509.html?nochkip=1&prodid=2&gclid=Cj0KCQjwoub3BRC6ARIsABGhnyasFpnqgMCRLwATg55s-oWl2lUp5Wwk_eoUarEPwifLd42ubYUrmQIaAnMrEALw_wcB

 

I've always found this an astonishing painting, the light source is hidden, but everyone just glows. Amazing to conceive painting something like that..

 

[+Glafnazur]

Very nice. I was looking at this the other day, I thought it might make a nice prize for the DDAS quiz in January presuming we're back up and running by then.