Orrery

Anyone else thinking what I’m thinking? :smile:

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Yup…

That is NOT to scale, in either way.

Infuriating.

:stuck_out_tongue:

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Damn one more on the list

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I’ve been dreaming of a brass gear orrery for SO long…

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Mesmerizing and Amazing. I was thinking of this too as part of the many gear projects people are thinking of:

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I am in awe right now, and am wondering what Glowforge-friendly materials could be reliably used for the gears in something this complex. I am sure that acrylic or perhaps some other kind of plastic could be used for them, but I suspect there may be a fair amount of force on some of those gears, and I would hate to go to the trouble of creating all those gears and then have some little one somewhere in the middle strip in the first minute! I am definitely going to download his plans though!

Sorry guys, but I just had to do this.

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These designers seem to have gotten pretty far with laser-cut plywood gears. Ugears Kickstarter:

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I was thinking, we aren’t that good! Damn that is impressive… Astonishing 7 month build!

As this forum develops, I would not be surprised that we have a category specific to gears. There have been numerous topics and cross links.

A couple of places online suggest that Delrin would be safe for lasers. I have used before and tooled with my router to make mounts,trim panels and spacers. It is very durable and cuts/finishes nicely. It is not as brittle as acrilyc so would probably be a great candidate for laser cut gears in something like this.

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Another thing I just thought up would be to cut out multiples of your gear from 1/16 material ( nice wood or something ) as many as you needed to complete final gear thickness and use a make shift weighted press to bond/ strengthen all of the cut outs together with a clear epoxy or urethane resin. If you mixed the resin not too hot and coated each piece in the stack uniformly after curing completed it would be incredibly strong and have a nicer finish than a solid color piece of plastic.

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Although I’m not into ‘gears’ per se, I also found this to be fascinating and beautiful. I love stuff like this.

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Am I the only one that was fascinated by that rounding tool on the lathe around 5:20?

This whole thing was just awesome to watch!

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Stacking gear layers like this:

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I agree- the machinery was mesmerizing!!

The base idea reminds me of the insect models I put together in the early 90s that were basic wood cut outs. I think these guys must have been like that too and just “adultified” it. :smile:

Pretty sure we had the …cricket, scorpion, and a stegosaur model around one Christmas.

Acrylic ought to make perfectly good gears. Future experiments will show how small a scale is possible, if the drawings include compensation for kerf width. Look at Rowmark engraving acrylic with one of the gold finishes for the brass replica look.

That plans mind be helpfull.
Copernican Planetary Orrery

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