View of the workshop (when in order). Its main tool is an old modified lathe with step-motor control, assembled from miscellaneous parts.
Cutting the larger wheels from bronze sheet.
Semi-automated cutting of a 32-teeth gear.
Screen from a BASIC program for carriage movements.
As soon as I cut the first gears for a Price model, I discovered more recent versions of the Machine. Some of them have been discarded since.
A lot of gears, many of which with nearly the same teeth number... trying to keep them sorted.
The eccentric pair for lunar anomaly, with pin-and-slot coupling.
The eccentric pair on the apsidal double-wheel. Three arbors are mounted coaxially; holes in the hollow ones should improve lubricant retain and circulation. An extra brass cylinder acts as a bushing, to avoid bronze-to-bronze contact.
Positioning the axles on a reference plexiglass plate.
Arbors mounted into brass bushings.
Bench-drill running tests.
The first assembly tests: painstaking "assemble-disassemble-correct-reassemble" sequences.
Finished Machine: front dial (zodiac & solar calendar).
Finished Machine: back dial (Metonic/Callippic and saros/exeligmos cycles).
On display at the Planetario di Milano (may 10, 2007); the crank handle, Sun and Moon are not visible because moving during the exposure. At the end of the lecture, participants were allowed to run it directly.