Keeping busy this winter

Ingenious sundial. I don't know the location.

 

        One of the activities I wanted to return to when coming back to Illinois was my love of sundials. I finally got back to it after the holidays and I have just about finished the project. It did not go as planned and the image transfer was more labor intensive but I'm happy with the results anyway. 

A rather bulky diptych model I made

        As time goes on, I want to revisit and redo many of the configurations of sundials I have done over the years and improve upon them. 

South-facing dial configured for DST

        I often use a software program called Shadows to get me the basic design. However, a circle with lines radiating 15 degrees apart will get you there pretty well also. Just design the pointer to correspond with your latitude. Which is why I've had to start over again and again because of all the times we moved. 

Printed pattern ready to transfer to wood

Using an awl, I poked holes in the places the lines junctured

Then I penciled the lines in along with roman numerals and other embellishments

Prototype practice with the woodburner

Woodburning almost complete

Pyrography complete with a hickory stain applied. Ready for polyurethane seal

Finished product ready for mount. Standard time configuration

Mounted and functioning

        I had also planned on an Equation of Time table and a lunar shadow converter. But the image transfer for that did not go well and I decided less would be more. So I will mount this in the backyard somewhere and get nerdy watching the shadows go by. 

The EOT table

Lunar table for telling time

        Now that the horizontal is in action, I'm starting a new project. Something more ambitious: A 3-sided affair with a horizontal, south-facing vertical, backed with a north-facing vertical. 

Horizontal and south-facing

North face