In this part of the tutorial we put together the drive assembly.

Part 1 of this tutorial is here

Puncture one of your gears with the six inch dowel.

It doesn't have to rotate cleanly. We are going to glue it. But, try to get the dowel nice and straight. Once punctured you can move the dowel and lean it as needed so it is straight.

Now place that punctured gear onto the orrery box. Push the dowel all the way down then push the gear all the way down. Spin it to see if it spins on the box nice and smoothly; then glue it. Glue the gear to the dowel.

Now puncture your secod gear with the four inch dowel.

Now, place that second gear on the orrery box like this so it mates with the first gear. Put a little bit of space between those gears, about 1/8 inch. Don't have them touching. Then puncture through the box with the dowel just as you did with the first gear.

The important thing here is that you matched up the gears before you punctured the hole for the second gear.

Now test the gears to see how they work by rotating the one you just placed.

You can make adjustments at this point. You can open up this new hole a little bit to allow for some play when rotating. And you can sand paper the teeth on either/both gears for smoother action.

Once it is reasonably smooth you should glue this new gear to the dowel.

Next trace and cut out the crank disk. Puncture the two holes with your quarter inch dowel. Then glue the one inch dowel into the hole nearest the outside circumference. That is the crank handle.

And glue that disk down to the drive gear like this. Glue it down to the gear and glue it to the dowel shaft.

Once it has dried try cranking it. You can go ahead and make more adjustments at this point to get it to crank smoothly.

Ok, all the drive mechanism is done. Let's continue and start adding the stuff for the planetary objects.

Continue

Make a Wizard's Globe

Every wizard's lair has a globe like this. It works a lot like a gyroscope in that you can rotate the rings and the globe so it can be looked at from any angle.

Make a Wizard's Globe

Do you like making projects and exploring a variety of hobbies?

Sign up for my free newsletter. I give you regular updates on hobbies and projects you can make. it is totally free and I don't share your email with anybody.