Home Shop Curta Calculator Episode 1
Channel: thecogwheel
Date: 2020-04-22

Join me as I venture down a road less traveled and begin to build a Curta mechanical calculator in a home machine shop.  The Curta is a device of mechanical marvel - over 100 unique part numbers and over 600 parts make up just one Curta.  The Curta can add, subtract, multiply and divide with a hand crank!!!  

This video is the beginning video in a vlog / montage style journey.  Tooling needs to be manufactured.  CAD models need to be constructed.  G code needs to be created.  A story needs to be told.  The Curta's brilliance emerged out of the ashes of World War II, quickly eclipsed by the electronics revolution.  But that revolution only hid the brilliance of the Curta and it's development story.  So let's retell the story from a machinist's perspective!

In this video I start by making up some chuck backplates for the rotary table.  The backplates were manufacturing out of older cast iron lifting weights and machined up very well.  

Follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thecogwheel or Twitter https://www.twitter.com/iamthecogwheel for almost daily updates and stay tuned for further announcements on how you can directly support and get involved with this project.  #curtabythecogwheel

Music for the video was created by Philter and was used with permission.  Many thanks to Magnus for allowing me to use this music.  Check out Philter https://www.philter.no.  Songs used were from albums Queen of Crows (Miyazaki Mountain) and The Classic Tapes (The Lounge and Bathtime in Heaven).  Also thanks to @TheJoyofPrecision for letting me know about Philter!

If you want access to the original drawings you can find them here: http://www.museummura.li