Ken Condal’s fantastic orrery took ten months to build and contains 30 gears. He began his work by modeling the orrery in 3DS MAX, then milling out all of the brass gears in his workshop. He also created the planets on a lathe using exotic wood, like using zebrawood for Jupiter.
“Your Projects” is a column that features some of the awesome creations our readers have been making. These projects from our readers come from the MAKE Google+ Community and beyond.
Christopher Blasius of Holz Mechanik built this sweet CNC router out of wood, and anyone with a drill, a jigsaw, and a router or table saw can build it. I love the elegant and useful bellows system for protecting the guts from the omnipresent dust and wood chips! The X and Y are 300mm (about […]
UK electronic and mechanical store RS Components created this handy guide to operating a CNC in a safe manner, with a focus on operating a CNC you built yourself. Click the image to see it full sized.
Minneapolis ShopBot maestro Greg Flanagan made this 42″ CNCed representation of the moon, specifically a shot of the moon’s dark side. Greg used NASA’s GLD-100 lunar topographical map as a starting point, and the final piece is a gift to his wife Marie on their 5th anniversary.
This 3-axis CNC can go where 3D printers cannot.
Jeshua Lacock recounted his experience of casting metal parts directly from 3D Printed PLA with a fantastic photo-filled writeup and video. He prints the part with his Ultimaker and pours mold material around it before letting it set. After the mold hardens, it’s placed in his homemade furnace to melt away the PLA, leaving a beautiful female mold behind, into which he can pour molten metal.
