Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

Dave emails:  "Hi Clayton,

How are you, I hope you are well in your part of the world.

I received plans for the Celestial Calendar from you in March and I have finally finished the project. I know it has taken me a while to do but I made it my lunch time project at work so was limited to spending a maximum of one hour per day for 5 days a week. But at least it gave me something to do in my lunch breaks lol.

I've attached some photos for you to show you my interpretation of your master piece. I hope you like it.

Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

When I first saw a picture of the calendar my thoughts went straight to Victorian engineering. Big gears, crank wheels, levers etc. Well coming from England it's part of our heritage. So my calendar hopefully reflects that. You'll also notice I changed it from being a mechanical calendar and orrery to more of an astrological calendar. Planets moving in retrograde motion did not interest me so much (until I saw your calendar I didn't even know about retrograde motion lol). So I omitted the planet gears and added leap year and Chinese zodiac year wheels. I have made some other changes as I'm sure you will notice. I also made some of my own labels and indicators to correspond with the Victorian look. I added a little bit of Steam-punk too.

 

Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

Well it now sits in my dining room at home in prime position on the wall. My good lady loves it, especially the moon phase ball.

Celestial Mechanical Calendar by Dave Lee

 All creative and constructive criticism is welcome.

Take care and thank you very much for a brilliant set of well designed plans, you are The Man. 

Cheers,

Dave"

Aloha Dave, it was a real joy looking through the pictures of your unique and beautiful CMCO.  I always enjoy seeing the creativity that other artists add to personalize their projects and make them their own.

I noticed right away the moon ball with a personality, the beautiful lettering, the addition of a leap year wheel, and the Chinese Year calendar wheel.  Kudos to you and all are Very nice, but what I REALLY loved seeing is how you pulled all those together and really Steampunked your mechanism up!  That is a genre of art that I love, and your CMCO perfectly captures the essence of Steampunk.  Congratulation on your artistry.

I absolutely love getting pictures like these that show such excellent craftsmanship and innovative artistry. 

Thank you for doing the Celestial Mechanical Calendar Orrery plans so proud.

Aloha.  Clayton

Update 9/4/13-Dave sent us a video link to his CMCO:

Thanks, Dave!!  So cool to be able to see it in action!

Celestial Mechanical Calendar and Orrery by Dave Beran

Celestial Mechanical Calendar and Orrery by Dave Beran

1/22/13

 

Clayton,

Here are a few pictures of CMCO proudly residing in our entry way. It has been complete but required final disassembly for final sanding, varnishing and decorating. You will notice that the weight cord has been relocated. After careful hanging on the wall the weight would land on a chair we keep there. So I made a pulley, stolen from Simplicity plans, and a new mount to relocate the weight. Bev loves CMCO and we advance it together each morning.

I finished all wood parts, except gear teeth, with wipe on varnish and the orrery colors are Transtint dyes. These dyes are mixed with alcohol and color the birch very evenly. The paper parts are also dyed with a 'brown' I concocted from the dyes. I think it gave them a nice 'old' look.

I've had CMCO running in the shop since last March and would probably still be there if I known it would take two weeks to properly dress her up!

Oh, by the way. The thermometer next to CMCO read -23 this morning!!!

Dave Beran
Duluth, MN

 

 

 

Dave, I just can't tell you how much joy I get from seeing great craftsmanship ~ and especially when it is applied to one of my two All Time Favorite designs, the CMCO.

When I read that you and Bev advance it together in the morning, I was just totally filled with joy. What a great email!!! That was just so wonderful to read.

There is just nothing like seeing all that fluttering and gyrating going on with the simple unleashing of two levers. And to be able to look on your wall at a bunch of gears and see what is happening in the Cosmos is almost unbelievable (at least it still is to me).

Your CMCO really came out superb. Thank you for doing the CMCO plan so proud! And I really love the displaced drive weight. I think that looks wayyy better than my original design (I'm so glad that chair was there. Ha). Using one of the Simplicity wheels was brilliant.

Congratulations on a spectacular build, and thank you so much for the pix and totally wonderful email. You've made my day!

Enjoy!

Aloha. Clayton

Celestial Mechanical Calendar and Orrery by Dick Scarponi

Celestial Mechanical Calendar and Orrery by Dick Scarponi

"Dear Dr. Boyer--finished the Calendar-works great! Thank you! I will send for marble plans soon-I tried to send my email to moalawikai at yahoo, but it was returned saying you do not have a yahoo account-I hope this goes through. what is the best way to correspond/order plans?

Best wishes,

Dick Scarponi

Arrington,New Hampshire"

Clayton writes:  "Aloha Dick, congratulations on the completion of your Celestial Mechanical Calendar Orrery. You have accomplished a wonderful feat of craftsmanship because...as you mention...it 'works great!' (which is actually what it is supposed to do).

The CMCO really is an amazing celestial instrument. I love being able to sit in my office and by looking over at my wall, see what is happening above me in the Cosmos.

You almost got my tricky email right. Just one letter off. Maybe a Hawaiian translation will help. 'Moa' in Hawaiian means 'chicken'. 'Lani' is 'heaven', and 'kai' means 'by the water'. So the meaning of my email address, moalanikai, is Chicken Heaven by the Water. I'm sure you have heard my Kauai feral chicken friends in the background of pretty much all of my videos.

Congratulations again on the successful completion of your CMCO. That qualifies you for entrance into the Masochist's Club and for the Secret Path into the Masochist's Corner so that you can order the Marble Strike...but, hey, wait...this highly secret and important information may fall into the wrong hands! as this response may be posted to my blog.

I'll have to send you the directions for the Secret Path into Masochist's Corner in another email. It is, after all, an extremely exclusive club of elite and highly experienced woodworkers...and then there's me and Adrian.

Thanks for sending the pix.

Enjoy.

Aloha. Clayton"