Work continues on our new six planet orrery

It has been a month since my nephew Harry and I began working on the small batch of six planet orreries. We originally thought we would be spending a day a week making these but  yesterday was only our second day on project. I have been carried away working on a Six Planet Genesis which is taking up most of my time however I have decided to set aside more time for this going forward.

We have made a start with the gears. I began with making the tooling we would need in-order to speed up the gear making process. I turned a mandrill from steel that will hold several gear blanks for turning and teeth cutting.

Harry roughly cut the blanks from brass bar and then bored the centres. He then handed them over to me to turn to the correct diameter on the lathe.

We made enough gear blanks for four orreries, the pinion gears are yet to be turned but I can do this next week whilst Harry cuts the teeth. I am very happy with his work yesterday as it was stiflingly hot in the workshop and the sunshine was tempting us to down our tools and relax. We can enjoy a well earned rest today, it is Sunday after all. 

I will update you on the project next weekend.