Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39A with Challenger STS-6

[roma847]

Thanks John for watching,

the shuttle stack is another chapter, but has still to wait for a while ...

BTW, the shuttle has not nearly as much details as the MLP or the Launch tower.

[roma847]

Hello together,

despite the interesting divertissement by the Olympics the SSWS pipes were continued in the meantime.

Today, the second 9'' transition was scratched, which had to be bent again initially.

Although the processes are now already familiar, the difficulty is to make the transitions as identical as possible.

These are the individual parts up to the two rods for support pillar.

After the filigree U-shaped substructure has been scratched, the difficile assembly of the parts followed, which was quite stressful again.

And so the couple was complete,

and could be tested on the MLP.

Although the provisional fastening of the outlets with Pattex is also such a tiresome game of patience and does not long hold out,

for the imposing overall impression the effort is worth to me, which is why I have brought out the Rainbirds again.

So much for today.

[Mustermark]

Great job Manfred. Nice reproducible bending. And looking fabulous with the whole Rainbird ensemble.

[roma847]

Thanks Mark, I fully agree with you.

Hello everybody,

after the outlets in the SRB chambers except for the two 36'' feed pipes and the nine missing pipe supports are done, it is now time for the last two outlets behind and under the TSM's.

This initially affects the section behind the rejuvenation of the 24'' ring line to 16'' (Ø 2.5 mm) just before the corner of the TSM beside the SSME chamber to 12'' (Ø 2.0 mm), such as re-measurements have shown.

Source: NASA

On this pipe sitting eight small bent nozzles, which should have a diameter of about 0.5 mm.

Source: NASA

In order to adapt this outlet I initially have bent for simplicity a continuous piece of rod Ø 2.0 mm, ranging from the ring line to the end of the nozzle tube under the TSM, which is sitting on two support angles. This way possibly necessary corrections of position and mounting of the nozzles should be made easier, and only when everything matches this nozzle tube is cut at the last rejuvenation and connected to an intermediate piece with Ø 2,5 mm, which begins at the ring line (Ø 4,0 mm).

Here this continuous pipe is bent, which begins at the ring line.

And this is the first test that looks already times quite good,

although the tube seems to be a little too close to the TSM corner,

what I'll be watching in more detail once more.

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

meanwhile shape and seat of the nozzle pipe have been slightly modified, and for facilitating the tests I have tinkered a little TSM Balsa dummy to avoid unnecessary stress for the final TSM.

And hence to the tricky nozzles that had already made some headache a year ago dealing with the nozzle pipe on the rear wall of the SSME chamber.

Because my former manufacturing method of the individual nozzles in retrospect appeared as being too complicated, I have fiddled about another solution that should be less stressful.

While on the former almost twice as long tube (approx. 32 mm) were arranged six nozzles, on this tube (about 16 mm) under the TSM this time even eight nozzles with Ø 0,5 mm are to be accommodated, resulting in distances of about 1.4 mm.

For the marking and drilling I have benefited of a PE template (cmkkits.com) for 0.8 mm rivets, which was very helpful.

First I have pre-drilled with Ø 0,3 mm and then after that with Ø 0,5 mm.

The idea was to insert somewhat longer rods (about 7 mm, Ø 0.5 mm) into the holes, to glue them with EMK and thereafter to bend all together at one time under moderate hot air in the final form, and then to cut.

Therefore, the pipe had to be clamped again in a balsa corset, what has proven itself in similar form already several times.

The required clear height of the nozzle bows results from this close-up on the basis of the reference diameter of the nozzle tube (Ø 2.0 mm) to about 0.6 mm,

Source: NASA

which is why I now have clamped a corresponding brass rod with Ø 0,6 mm directly behind the nozzle rods.

And now the entire row could be bent, the Proxxon Gun in the right hand, and with Left the rods were carefully bent down with the balsa slat,

what has worked well straight away.

After the nozzle lengths were marked,

they were cut off on the steel ruler with the cutter chisel.

And then it looks like this.

And from this result, I am now surprised, because this was not necessarily to be expected.

Now I can calmy turn to the nozzle openings, which can tolerate a little bit tuning.

Tomorrow I will test this nozzle pipe on the MLP.

[Kallisti]

Hi Manfred - your use of emoticons from arcforums is triggering a phishing warning from Google on this page, I'd recommend not using it!

Specifically its the "not worthy"/worship icon in post 802 and the whistler at the bottom of 805

Edited August 19, 2016 by Kallisti

[roma847]

Thanks Kallisti,

have been removed.

[roma847]

Hello together,

and here are two images of today's try-on on the MLP.

This is all still pretty shaky, but otherwise fits quite well.

[Mustermark]

Great work. Small steps, even minute ones, towards completion...

[roma847]

Thanks Mark,

it's still a long, long way to the destination, but I will keep up step by step.

[RichO]

Beautiful work Manfred.

[roma847]

Thanks Rich for your compliment,

I hope your Crawler has won that competition?

[roma847]

Hello everyone,

meanwhile it went on with the other nozzle tube under the LH2 TSM.

At first it was drilled again,

then the 0.5 mm rods for the nozzles were inserted and glued with MEK.

Then again followed my standard clamp procedure for the bending process with inlaid brass rod.

The bending was followed by the reduction of the supernatants, wherefore the already finished nozzle tube was very helpful for measurements and therefore was clamped next to it.

Then the supernatants were separated on the steel ruler.

And these are the two nozzle tubes, left for the LOX TSM and right the new for the LH2 TSM, except for the mirroring almost identical twins.

And so it went on the fly to the 6'' outlets which run behind the two TSM's from the ring line, then under the SRB Blast Shields

Source: NASA

and end on the back walls of the SRB chambers.

Source: NASA

After the required dimensions were determined, then followed the bending of the rods (Ø 1,0 mm) around a corresponding template, which is by now become routine.

Now the appropriate length of the inclined portion only had to be found which one can measure unfortunately nowhere directly due to the oblique arrangement, not even from my little sketch of the true to scale side view.

So only remained Trial & Error with slightly oversize, what then looks so.

Although the bow is is indeed a little too wide and should become a bit narrower,

but from the arrangement it fits already quite good.

And the test fitting of the new nozzle tube right in the picture around the TSM dummy is also okay.

That's it for today, tomorrow is another day.

[Housesparrow]

How do you manage to bend styrene rods, without the rods flexing back again? (sry if this has been talked about already)

[roma847]

I had posted it at 18 May 2016 - 02:29 PM on p. 36.

I have bent the rods under hot air

step by step around a Balsa jig.

I hope this can help.

[fuzzoli]

This is an amazing build! It's gotten me to take my unbuilt model out of storage and start working on it again. Maybe I'll be finished by STS-1's 40th anniversary!

Which LED's did you end up using over in your earlier posts? You mentioned 0401 Golden White and Sunny White, but I've not heard of those terms. I've heard of Cool, Neutral, and Warm, and I can only find 0201 or 0402 LEDs listed at Digikey (http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/panasonic-electronic-components/LNJ047X8ARA/LNJ047X8ARACT-ND/2529246).

Based on 0402 LEDs, I'm guessing you're using something like 32 gauge magnet wire?

Thanks for the info, and keep up the fantastic work!

-Frank

[roma847]

Thanks Frank for your nice words.

What model kit and scale do you want to build, a shuttle stack or the entire Launch tower?

I have chosen for Sunny White LEDs 0402 with 0.1 mm magnet wire with a very high brightness level and extra-long connecting wires (about 350 mm).

Golden White LEDs 0603 are similar LEDs, a very strong warm white, even more warm than Sunny White, the wire length is about 160 mm.

Happy building.

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

today also the second 6'' outlet of the couple has been added, and the other two outlets for the right side I have also still bent. For the clamping rings I have wrapped lead wire Ø 0,3 mm around a 1 mm rod and then cut with a razor blade.

And even on these thin pipes there are the already known nipples, for which I will use Styrene rods with approx. Ø 0.2 mm.

Source: NASA

And here the pipes have been "welded" to the ring line and threaded under the Blast Shield.

This fits in so far as quite well into the picture,

now I have to fit in only the correct adapter pipe with the rejuvenation on 12'' (Ø 2.5 mm) at the end of the 24'' ring line (Ø 4,0 mm) and to cut the nozzle tube (Ø 2,0 mm) just behind the TSM corner, then the strand is finally complete.

Source: NASA

And how could it be otherwise, these rejuvenations stand on a short support, which is constructed similar to the two pillars under the 9'' transitions at the other end of the ring lines, and therefore they are also on the to-do list.

[noeyedears]

havent checked in for a while. WOW! that pipework is brill!

[roma847]

Thanks, I am glad that you like it.

Yeah, the effort with these tiny details is worth it.

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

nothing is impossible, and therefore I want to show you still on the fly my announced attempt with the nipple on the prototype of the 6'' outlet (Ø 1 mm).

The tiny hole on the bend I have predrilled with my smallest drill with Ø 0.2 mm. And then I have been amazed, as I have found in my remeasuring of the 0.3 mm rods that they are a little undersized, approx. Ø 0.25 mm, and accordingly might fit well.

After the little rod was glued with MEK and shortened, the outlet with the tiny nipple looks like this.

And so also this detail on the thinnest outlet has been mastered, especially as the clamping rings are far less problematic.

But Stop! Do you notice anything?

[Mustermark]

I noticed skill, dexterity and an attention to detail... and far, far more patience than I have. Was there something else?

[roma847]

Thanks Mark for yout nice compliments,

yeah, it's just a small mistake, but nobody has noticed it.

Only upon closer inspection of the image I have noticed two things in retrospect which require correction.

Firstly, one can clearly see that the orientation of the nipple (red) does not match with the intended installation position of the outlet on the 24'' ring line (green), what has to be initially escaped me out of overeagerness.

And on the other hand can be recognized from this photo that the bow is rounded rather like a crooked stick and has a larger opening angle than the previous. Accordingly, the rounding starts directly above the connection point on the ring line and not only after the vertical ascent like at my prototype.

Source: NASA

Since that is not so good visable in some photos due to the perspective distortion, I have twisted the following panorama image as long as until the best direct view of the two outlets has revealed, which is similar to the previous image.

Source: NASA

Therefore, new outlets were needed with greater rounding, on their highest points the nipples were inserted,

what looks much better now.

Here once more the comparison of the outlets, whereas the two new outlets (left) have their clamping rings already.

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

and now to the next step, the adaptation of the nozzle tube (Ø 2.0 mm) to the ring line (Ø 4,0 mm).

For this purpose, the tube was separated after the bend at the TSM corner because there the connecting piece to the ring line starts, which was bent from a rod (Ø 2.5 mm).

To align the course of the parts better before the final bonding, I have drilled the parts with Ø 0.5 mm and then inserted appropriate connection rods.

This allows plug together the strand, whereby the test-fitting on the MLP is facilitated and any necessary length corrections are possible.

And only when everything fits, the parts are then glued together.

[roma847]

Hello everybody,

yep, and this has actually paid for itself well.

And these plugged together strand I've tried on on the MLP, initially with the dummy TSM, because this is much simpler than with the unhandy real TSM. And lo and behold, a slight shortening of the intermediate piece (Ø 2,5 mm) was necessary actually,

so that the nozzle tube just so fits around the TSM corner and does not protrude too far.

But the acid test came then with the real TSM, and as I had feared, it was really quite closely at the corner,

as one can see here,

across the Firex line and below the ladder through, and left past on the angled nozzle.

Good that it was not tighter, but fortunately it has worked well.