I spent an enjoyable few hours eading the whole of this thread together with the various linked material. One of the issues tahat stood out to me as to many of the contributors was the apparent contradiction between the precision which would have been needed for the gear-wheels and the lack of same evidenced by the ring of holes. I also noted the lack of clarity in the reason for the holes; where they convenient markers, did they have pins at some time, were they for teaching/demonstration purposes?
I went to bed mulling over these points. I considered the numerous devices made or commissioned in the past several hundred years which were in effect vanity projects – automata, orreries ( and dare I say, even model railway stock?) with little use value other than personal accomplishment (nice work if you can afford the time!) or something to spend an excess of income on (10,000 year clock?). Was the AK machine something like that?
I then thought of the number of well designed devices, tools, models made by competent craftsmen or CNC machines which a later user has 'modified' with somewhat less competence; surely we have all seen examples of that (I remember a Rolls saloon chopped back to a pick-up and pulling a plough).
So what I am getting at is, were the holes drilled by the original workshop or were they a later, less precise addition?
A bit long-winded, but perhaps worth considering
Further thought: the potter's wheel was developed 500 years earlier. No evidence has yet been found for lathe capable of metal operations but the inspiration was there. Absence of similar artifacts and the means of producing them is unsurprising really. As today, scrap metal would have been valuable, so remelt it if it no longer works.
Edited By ALAN MOORE 5 on 24/12/2022 15:24:26