Orrery You Control

This is an orrery that has no motors or gears. You can rotate the planets to where you would like!

And if you would like to arrange them for any day past, present, or future, you can refer to this:

https://www.theplanetstoday.com

Wood balls. Purchase extra to be safe. I got them from Etsy and they came in sets of several.

[1] 3" diameter wood ball

[2] 1/2" diameter wood balls

[2] 3/4" diameter wood balls

[2] 1" diameter wood balls

[1] 1 1/2" diameter wood ball

[2] 1 1/4" diameter wood SPLIT balls

[8] 1/2" diameter wood SPLIT balls

1/8" round brass rod, 3' is more than enough

A small piece of thin brass sheet. Approx. 1/32' thick and 3" x 3" minimum size

Wooden bowl, for the base. Can be almost anything. This is the one I used:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GS8NW2

https://www.lipperinternational.com/products/bamboo-salad-bowl

5/16-18 threaded rod, minimum 6"

5/16-18 nut and lock washer. I ended up using a "jam nut" instead. It stayed tight much better than a lock washer

[16] 1" diameter leather washers. Actually anything you like can be used for these spacers

https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/129/3640/95576A030

[1] brass washer, larger than 1" diameter. This is the one I used:

https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/129/3623/95395A260

[8] laser cut pieces of any rigid material. I used .063 thick brass

These parts can be made in several ways, laser cut, CNC, or hand sawn and drilled (!!).

These are .063 thick brass. The 2 longest arms could stand to be a bit thicker. These are rigid enough, but barely.

The planet balls need to have a 1/8" hole drilled partially through. The exact depth doesn't matter as long as it is deep enough to grip the brass rod.

You need a drill press for this. You could use a hand drill but it might take a while to produce some with good, centered holes.

I don't have a picture for Saturn. That hole needs to be drilled at approx. 45 degrees.

Saturn needs rings. I cut a piece from very thin brass sheet with a 2' diameter hole saw.

Use super glue to attach the 1/2 split wood balls to the end of the arms. It helps to rough up the underside of the arms for the glue.

After the balls are in place, drill a 1/8" hole partially through, as far as you can. Actually the holes could go all the way through now that I think about it.

Drill a 5/16" hole partially through the sun ball.

Glue the threaded rod into the sun using wood glue. Alternatively, you could drill and tap the hole for the rod.

The length of the rod depends on what you use for the base. Cut to length during the final assembly.

If you use a wooden bowl all you need to do is drill a 5/16" hole in the center.

And glue a decorative washer on top.

This is easy. Thread the leather washers and arms onto the rod. 2 washers go between each arm.

Put the rod through the hole in the base and fasten with the nut and lock washer or a jam nut.

This step is a bit of a challenge. It takes some trial and error to get the rods the correct length.

Insert lengths of rods into the holes in the planets that are longer than required. Make sure they are inserted fully.

Cut the rods closer to the final length. This drawing shows the length for each of the 8. But they should be cut longer, and then shortened as required on assembly.

I was going to paint them in an abstract fashion. But I gave up and decided to leave them with just the nice wood grain.

I finished them with walnut oil. This oil (available in most grocery stores) is a pleasure to use. It is the only vegetable oil that drys on it's own. I once finished an entire walnut coffee table with it. (paid for by the National Walnut Board)

This is where you do a test fit and cut down the length of the 1/8 rods as required. Cut off small amounts until the planets are in a straight line.

Done. A few notes:

The method I used to affix the planet rods to the arms is not very durable. If someone is rough with this, they might come loose. A method that would be much stronger would be to braze the parts together.

If you check out my other Instructables, you will see that I made another orrery. That one is quite large and someone said it looked like a steampunk version.

Thanks for taking a look.