Eclipse Module: Moon Ball

This one plainly kicked by butt. The moon ball is half silver and half white, with a hole for the pointer along the seam. It rotates to show the moon phase (with all black visible being a new moon and all silver a full moon). I’ve previously done this with stainless and blacked brass, and it was very challenging to drill straight when the drill is in a hard material for half of a hole and a soft material for the other half. I went for aluminum and blackened brass this time to help avoid that. I made a half cylinder of each material, both pre-drilled to help guide the bit down the center later. I ran into many problems with the brass part popping off during machining or drilling. I had a wonderful run that got all the way to the brass blackening (the solution doesn’t react with aluminum so you can dunk the whole thing and only affect the brass), until the toothpick through the center swelled and split it in half. Thankfully it was recoverable and looks fantastic, but it was a painful road to get there!