Previous posts have focused on the rocket that is the center column for our orrery. The one pictured here doesn’t have the bottom section with the fins, but our new one does. Now that the rocket has been carved and the holes bored into it to accept the drive tubes, it can be put aside for a bit and we move on to the next section – The arms.
The fins are finished! They were cut from solid cherry boards with my radial arm saw and trimmed up with my bandsaw. The blade on that could use some replacing…. Cherry is so hard that mostly the bandsaw blade just burns it while it’s trying to cut. Funny, burned cherry wood smells exactly like popcorn. Now I’m hungry!
Anyways, the fins were roughed out with the saws, but then mostly hand carved to shape on a flat belt sander. I often use the end of the sander to do curves and ripples, so used that to get the curve on the underside of each fin to match each other.
It’s finally stopped storming, so I can continue to work on building my rocketship today. Why does it matter if it’s storming? Some of my equipment (lathe, drill press among other stuff) is out on a covered deck. The covers keep them protected when it rains, but I’m not too good with my hands when it’s cold and wet. I have very low blood pressure, so if my hands get cold, they don’t work very well, and that’s not something you want happening when you’re working with a high speed drill press, or have a large gouge aiming at a huge piece of rapidly spinning wood on a lathe.
I'm a professional artist, working mostly in glass for the space industry. My partner and I create some of the most incredible glass sculptures having to do with rockets, planets, galaxies... It's an extremely fun career!
