I feel like, with making the first two "Introduction to Digital Computers" videos I've gained a superpower. And I've used that power to help me visualize and solve another problem I was having, figuring out the shape of spur gears (and eventually, internal spur gears, the next major feature I'd like to add to the... Continue Reading →
A second pass at my earth/moon orrery.
I've come to realize making something from scratch winds up building a bunch of prototypes as you both perfect the plans and figure out how to make the parts. And in my case, while the plans may be great--my ability to machine parts is... shall we say questionable? At any rate, I have a second... Continue Reading →
Finally, at long last, I got my two 52-tooth gears for my Orrery!
It took another couple of tries, and the trick for these gears was to get the outer diameter to within 0.002". Further, it required depthing the teeth to 1/32" == 0.625" (the precise measurement of the depth of the teeth) rather than cutting them a hair deeper. And I'm suspicious the Sherline divider may not... Continue Reading →
No, I haven’t forgotten about the gear cutting. I just haven’t been having a lot of luck.
It probably doesn't help that I have no idea what I'm doing. Though I do have all my fingers and toes. So there's that. So today, after getting the M3 to M2 adapter, the M2 to Sherline adapter, and hooking up the Sherline 4-jawed chuck to the larger 7" lathe, I went to round the... Continue Reading →
Another day, another four gears. And tales of woe.
So one downside of the superglue arbor is that you really need to clean up the end of the arbor holding your gear--and you need to apply enough glue to get the gear to stick to the arbor. More than once today I had wheels fall off the arbor--and that led to... well, complications. I... Continue Reading →
I may still not quite know what I’m doing–but at least I got a gear.
So I drew and cut out several blanks from the 1/8th inch aluminum (and I confess I had to do this several times, by the last blank I was very close to the line) using a scroll saw and a jeweler's blade. I then perfected them on the Sherline Lathe to the correct diameter of... Continue Reading →
I’ll be the first person to confess I have no idea what I’m doing here.
First, let me observe that I'm fascinated by all things which calculate. That means computers, of course--from a desktop computer to mobile devices to Arduinos and other 8-bit computers. But that also means wiring transistors which can calculate things, and that means mechanical calculators: Orreries, Tellurions, mechanical adders--all of these things fascinate me as well.... Continue Reading →
The Earth-Moon Orrery: another update.
So the biggest problem, apparently, when it comes to cutting gears, is just getting all the fiddly bits together to make your gear cutting system. In my case, I'm starting with a Sherline mill, and I'm adding a CNC rotary table, a 90 degree table, and a 1 inch arbor to mount the gear cutters... Continue Reading →
The Earth-Moon Orrery: a quick status update.
My ultimate goal is to recreate the 3D printed object in brass, creating a small little tabletop Orrery for display. That means, of course, cutting gears. So there has been a little bit of a pause while I order the correct things for gear cutting. Ultimately my goal is to set up a Sherline mill... Continue Reading →
The test print of the Earth-Moon Orrery
So after a couple of days of printing, and a little sanding, some assembly, and not a tiny bit of cursing, I have a printed orrery gear assembly for our Earth-Moon Orrery. It's a little stiff, but that's to be expected since I haven't perfected the gears through sanding. (That means carefully going through each... Continue Reading →
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