Ipe Sundial

Very nice (and unique) project! It turned out really nice. Where is it going?

Wow very nice work

-- Don, Royersford, PA

I gave this one to my sister in Raleigh, NC. She put it in her garden. I’m making another one like it soon. The lettering was the hardest part. Any suggestion on how to do fine letter (~1 in.) without spending a lot of money on a CNC?

sweet

-- Wood and Glass they kick (well you know) Have a great day - Dug

Nice project! I also like the hourglass you posted in your projects. It seems like you are interesting in making projects “just in time”!

On the sundial, did you make it adjustable so it can be reset to/from Daylight Savings Time? I intend to make one as well and will include some feature so it can be rotated that one hour difference so it will work year ‘round. I can only hope mine comes out as nice as yours. Thanks for posting.

-- People say I hammer like lightning. It's not that I'm fast -- it's that I never hit the same place twice!

Thanks! If I go into business, I might use “Just in Time” for the name. But, given my speed and skill, I don’t think it would be a profitable venture.

I found that there is quite a bit of science behind sundials. To answer your question, sundials read solar time, not standard time. Solar time varies depending on where you are in a standard time zone (like EST). Obviously, it doesn’t account for daylight savings time. Lastly, it varies by the month of the year (i.e. the length of the day). My sundials are really made just for show, not accuracy. But I’ve found that they can be accurate within ~15 minutes if you rotate them once a month or so.

I recommend a few books on the subject (I bought all used):

R. Newton Mayall and Margaret W. Mayall, “Sundials,” 1973, Sky Publishing, Cambridge, MA (may be still in print by another publisher).

Rene R. J. Rohr, “Sundials: History, Theory, and Practice,” 1965, Dover Publications, New York.

Winthrop W. Dolan, “A Choice of Sundials,” 1975, Stephen Green Press, Brattleboro, VT.

There’s also the North American Sundial Society: http://sundials.org/ . They tend to be highly technical, but have lots of nice photos too.

Good luck with your sundial!