Orrery (kit?) from Japan

Jake von Slatt — Thu, 02/05/2009 - 10:24

I am not quite sure what is going on here, but as near as I can tell this is an offer for a beautiful brass orrery kit. An orrery is a mechanical simulacrum of the Solar System with clockwork designed such that the planets of the orrery move in the same relation to each other as the actual planets do in the Solar System

It appears from the google translated page that you will receive a different kit of parts each week until your orrery is complete.

It seems to me that we used to have kits like this here but they faded and disappeared sometime in the last twenty or so years, pity that.

[Thanks Jellyfish!]

new orrery kit

TechDante — Fri, 03/06/2009 - 16:00

its from the same people it focuses on sun, earth, moon orbit with the dates. most likely will last all of this year and from the pictures looks like brass/ brass plating (non moving parts like the solar system orrery)

this is the link
http://www.build-model-orbiter.com/orbiter.html

i would upload picture if i knew how sorry

Brass Orrery

steamdon — Fri, 02/06/2009 - 20:08

I have one of these and it looks fantastic. Just for the record it wil cost £301.49 to complete. I think it is great value.

i also have it

TechDante — Fri, 03/06/2009 - 15:52

i have also been collecting it but have been at university so have lots of issues to go back to in the holidays. it is expensive but well worth it in my oppinion

It looks very similar to this

AndyAtWorkshopshed — Fri, 02/06/2009 - 07:29

It looks very similar to this one which was on sale in the UK last year.

http://www.build-solar-system.com

All of those collecting magazines are poor value for money, £5.99 for 40 editions, which is approx £240 and not bad value for an Orrery.

Orrey

GuruRoo — Fri, 02/06/2009 - 02:36

I work with this company. Its a good Kit but you need every issue to make the machine. lol $20 a Cog? but to be fair its really pretty. I'll have to convince them to send me the kit for my hard work and glowing smile. hahaha I'll send a pic if I pull it off.

"we used to have kits like this"

Technogeek — Fri, 02/06/2009 - 01:06

There used to be a whole kit-building culture. Kit-form boats, planes, electronics (I really miss Heathkit)... and the hobbyist magazines, especially the electronics mags, often featured designs you could replicate and/or tinker with, optionally with places to order the harder-to-get parts. At the higher end, there was the Amateur Scientist column in SciAm, giving designs for building things like lasers completely from scratch.

About the only surviving version of this that I'm still aware of is the woodworking magazines and plan suppliers. Yes, you can still get stuff aimed at the real experimenter... but if you want to just buy something that comes with Really Good Instructions, put it together, and know that if you do the job carefully it will all work out properly, there's a real void.

I wonder whether the eminently hackable nature of software (and the fact that it's cheap to play with, after the initial investment, and was a highly marketable skill) sucked the life out of many other hobbies. One of the things I like about the steampunk movement is that it serves as a reminder that the old skills are still out there and still can do a heck of a lot. And it's fostering a reuse culture, which helps make up for the fact that materials prices have gone up a lot.

Adafruit and SparkFun

Jake von Slatt — Fri, 02/06/2009 - 12:18

Yes! I used to pour over every new copy of the Heathkit catalog but by the time I was old enough to afford the kits, they were gone.

Don't despair though, the Maker community is creating a demand and we have heros like Lady Ada of Adafruit Industries starting small business to serve them. SparkFun is another good example.

Controversy

sunadori — Thu, 02/05/2009 - 16:09

Hello. I enjoy this blog a lot, and want to contribute some (or a little).

The orrery kit is sold by a publisher who has tons of such magazines (e.g. magazine of building castle model, collecting minerals, fighter aircrafts model from WW2, etc... You name it.)

There was some controversies over the price and the quality of the kit in Japanese blogosphere.
In order to complete the series of magazine (and all the parts), you need to pay about $1000, while
some parts of the model is considered "cheesy" such as static satellites...

I think the brass finish the model has seems good though. ;)

Thank you for that

Jake von Slatt — Thu, 02/05/2009 - 20:36

Thank you for that information and the kind words!
Jake.

Model Solar System

TechDante — Thu, 02/05/2009 - 15:53

i am currently getting this magazine (get the final issue in march 09) it is wonderful and a joy to put together. will film the finished article when its finished. only problem is it that it will run off of the mains and not clockwork and that some parts are just brass plate but still nice to look at.

English version

Sir Robert — Thu, 02/05/2009 - 13:06

A google search for "brass solar system" revealed a version of the page in native English here (http://www.build-solar-system.com/solar_system.html). You can only order from the British Isles, Australia, and South Africa, though.