Build your own solar system!

Thanks. I will give that a go. I have to say that the tarnishing really isnt that bad unless you are are looking at the sun "point blank range".

I'm looking at it right now from maybe 2 feet away and i honestly cant see any tarnishing.

Thanks. I will give that a go. I have to say that the tarnishing really isnt that bad unless you are are looking at the sun "point blank range".

I'm looking at it right now from maybe 2 feet away and i honestly cant see any tarnishing.

I would still recommend a coat of lacquer to 'seal in' the shine.

I have a small ships bell outside my door and got fed up polishing it, I gave it a good shine on the buffer and coated it with car laquer (sp) I got from Halfords, 2 years and its still looking good and its outside so its another alternative.

I too am having problems with the gears binding after fitting the Earth/Moon gear. I'm a bit disapointed that there is no instructions in the book to give you help on what to do if this happens.

Bob

Hi, another newbie here.

I'm also having trouble with binding gears since I fitted the Earth/moon gear support (items 40, 41, 44). But in my case it really looks to me like it's the Engraved gear (36) that's at fault. This and the earth 11 tooth gear bind over roughly 180 degrees, but are fine over the other 180. (the whole system is OK if I remove the 11 tooth gear). When I looked more closely (with the 11 tooth gear removed), it's very obvious that the earth support location gets closer to the engraved gear as it rotates. With the earth support arm fitted, you can see it being pushed over ever so slightly over the binding area.

I believe the central hole in the engraved gear is offset by about 1/2 mm - not much, but enough to make the whole system bind over half it's circumference once the 11 tooth gear is fitted. (i.e. the orbit of the earth gear is not concentric with the engraved gear)

Any ideas how to solve? I was thinking of trying to either lightly dress the teeth on the offending side of the engraved gear with a needle file, or lightly dressing the outside of the earth spindle bush (44) - but I'm worried it'll either foul the whole thing up or the whole thing will go too loose and sloppy.

Has anyone else had this problem and if so, how did they solve it?

I had a similar problem with the moon gear arm. See my previous post on page 4.

The only problem I have encountered to date was the moon gear arm.

Having fitted gears 35 and 47, I found that the top gear (35) was binding on gear 34. I eventually had to resort to gently filing out the outer edge of the gear axle shaft with a half-round needle file to eliminate the problem.

I haven't received issues 8 to 11 yet but it would seem to me that the model is going to require a little bit of 'fettling' from time to time. My only advice would be (as you've suggested) to use a sharp, half-round needle file to dress the outer edge of the shaft.

I don't think I'd like to try dressing the teeth with a file. After all, they are going to be permanently on show.

Best of luck.

Yep, that's what I did in the end (on bush 44). Also made the hole in the bush into a slight slot, so as it rotates around it can move the eleven tooth gear outwards. it's a lot better now, and at least that way it won't affect anything else. Up to that point everything was fine anyway, apart from a bit of backlash in the gears.

Looking forward to lots of mods!! I also lost the pin off mercury (superglue to the rescue!)