roma847 Posted November 18, 2022 Author Share Posted November 18, 2022 Hi Theb, maybe I should greet you with Welcome to the Machine! in memory of a track from Pink Floyd's great album. Source: quora.com Wow, such an extraordinary compliment for my work I have never heard, but shows me your appreciation and enthusiasm. Well, I'm a bit too tall for a nanobot at 1,78 m, but at least ... what a nice joke! But I must confess, in order to get that level of detail at such a small scale you have to be pretty crazy already ... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard E Posted November 18, 2022 Share Posted November 18, 2022 On 11/16/2022 at 8:34 PM, roma847 said: wow, what a spectacular picture-book launch of NASA's SLS Moon Rocket with the Orion Spacecraft atop to its maiden flight Artemis 1 that leaves you wanting more. Your next project Manfred? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted November 19, 2022 Author Share Posted November 19, 2022 Hi Richard, well, as far as the SLS Rocket and the Mobile Launcher are concerned, I'm curious if and when the first kit will come out ... One should never say never. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted November 20, 2022 Author Share Posted November 20, 2022 Hello everybody, and from NASA's huge SLS Moon rocket back to my crafting table and to my little puzzle pieces. In fact, the smaller the pieces get, the smaller and slower the steps I take along inevitably get, but I have to get through that now. For the sake of completeness, I would like to add one small but important detail for the safety of the Can Crew, and these are these Grab rails here, which are next to each upper Door Actuator where members of the Can Crew could hold on themselves or buckle their protective belts. Source: NASA (STS-132) In order to roughly fit my scale (1:160), I used NiCr wire (Ø 0,15 mm) and tried to bend grab handles out of it, which wasn't that easy, since they should only be 1,7 mm long and 1 mm high, so they are tiny. For my first attempts I've bent the wire step by step over three 0,5 mm thick steel rulers. However, the first four bending attempts (left) were not satisfactory because the handles with 2 mm were too wide. For more reproducible widths of approx. 1,5 mm (right) I've later modified my bending technique. Here, however, a handle is inserted into the door as a test, which has not completely convinced me, as the handles are still on a narrow base plate (0,1 mm x 0,6 mm x 5 mm), which I initially wanted to omit. But with a brass angle (wall thickness 1,3 mm), narrower handles with a width of approx. 1,7 mm could be successfully bent, which I already rather was more satisfied with. But then I've still decided to try scratching the tiny plates and used my thinnest Evergreen sheet (0,13 mm) for this, into which I've drilled holes with my thinnest Twist drill (Ø 0,25 mm), in which the handle also has fit. First I've drawn the shape of the narrow plate around it, and carefully cut out. The remaining plates I've pre-drilled using the template, and then cut to the final shape. Luckily I only need four of these base plates. Now I have to see if I'm able to carry on during the Soccer World Cup as I've done before. We'll see ... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted November 25, 2022 Author Share Posted November 25, 2022 Hello everybody, from this disastrous false start of our kickers against Japan I had to recover ... I didn't get much further either yet, only the base plates for the grab rails on the doors are now glued with MEK. Perhaps the grab rails are painted before gluing. Next I took a closer look at the lower Door Actuator linkage and the Pneumatic Drive and determined the required dimensions for the scratch build, which again should become tricky. Source: NASA (STS-135) The brackets for the lower linkages are similar to the Access Platforms, only they are a bit narrower. In between runs the drive shaft connected to the Pneumatic drive, by means of which the lower linkages are extended to be coupled with the upper linkages in order to open the doors. In this photo one can see the entire arrangement again in the top view. Source: NASA (STS-114) Let's see what profiles I can use for the individual parts. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 2, 2022 Author Share Posted December 2, 2022 Hello everybody, just a quick reminder of the Challenger Rollout - STS-6 in the fog 40 years ago. Let's Keep the Legacy Alive! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 5, 2022 Author Share Posted December 5, 2022 Hello everybody, in order to understand the structure of the Door actuator pneumatic drive in detail and to be able to determine the dimensions of its individual parts, one cannot avoid looking at it from different perspectives with a higher magnification, e.g. as can be seen in the following images, Source: NASA (STS-135) here slightly larger, seen from the other side. Source: NASA (STS-132) This pneumatic drive is connected to the two screw jack bracket assemblies by the horizontal pipes of the pneumatic system, which extend forward and aft. When the door actuator system is activated in the horizontal configuration, the door actuator pneumatic drive pulls the screw jacks down vertically, tilting as necessary in their brackets, Source: NASA (STS-126) to clear the opening doors. Source: NASA (STS-135) Based on the determined dimensions, I've cut the corresponding individual parts, Source: NASA (STS-126) which can be seen in this image. The frame of the drive unit will be made from the smaller strips (0,25 mm x 0,5 mm), the longer strips (0,13 mm x 0,7 mm) should be used for the side retaining struts. To get an idea of the size of the drive unit, I added a cuboid of the appropriate size, but a few more details this White Box should get already. Let's see if and how I will succeed in putting together this puzzle work. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 6, 2022 Author Share Posted December 6, 2022 Hello everybody, first, I've beveled the strips (0,13 mm x 0,7 mm) for the lateral retaining struts at both ends with the cutter chisel, wherefore I used a small template, which had suffered quite a bit. Then the different length strips (0,25 mm x 0,5 mm) have been glued to form a frame, whereby first the longer strip (3,5 mm) was glued against the shorter strip (2,5 mm), whereto steel rulers served as a guide and for fixation. Then the second side stripe was glued, and finally the other narrow side, wherewith the first of four frames was done. And then the second frame was glued in the same way. Next, these two frames are glued together using four support struts (2 mm) to form a frame box. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 7, 2022 Author Share Posted December 7, 2022 Hello everybody, in order not to get out of practice, I also glued the two frames for the Door drive, which is sitting on the other canister side. Then I've started gluing the four short support struts (2 mm) onto the frame, which, as expected, turned out to be a tricky business, especially since holding the struts in the tweezers, as well as wetting them with glue and setting them down with pinpoint accuracy on the frame is quite stressful and can quickly go wrong. The position of the struts could then be carefully corrected as required yet. And then the remaining struts followed, whereby it is always important that the frame is firmly seated between the stops so that nothing can slip, which is why it has to be re-clamped again and again. And then most of it was done, and the result even exceeded my expectations, and is quite impressive. And also the test fitting on the lower frame looks good. But before the frame box can be glued completely, I have to add a few drive details, what probably wouldn't work afterwards. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adm Lord De Univers Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 Just staggering work Manfred, been away for a while and caught up with your build over today. As always, the detail is simply exquisite. All I can manage to say is ! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 12, 2022 Author Share Posted December 12, 2022 Thanks David for looking in on me again and the nice words. This skill has only developed over the years, and so meanwhile I trust myself that I can scratch build almost anything as long as I have good reference photos or even technical drawings and it doesn't get any smaller. But in the meantime I've already reached parts < 1 mm, as will be seen later next. It feels like if I really got into a detail rush, and am considering the Payload Canister as a kind of feasibility study. After that, I'll have to slow down me a bit more, especially since it's all very time-consuming. But stay tuned my friend, the show is going on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 Hello everybody, before I get to the details of the Door Actuator Pneumatic Drive which sit in and on the frame box, I first have glued the four short support struts onto the bottom frame of the second box. Doing it, picking up and securely holding these 2 mm long tiny strips is a special exercise that requires a lot of patience and two steady hands, since the tip of the tweezers just barely fits over them. And then you have to dip the tiny strip carefully into the blob of glue and place it correctly as soon as possible, which is why the frame has to be firmly fixed, that's the be-all and end-all of the matter. After that I've always still aligned the strips, namely from both sides, so that they stand vertically after gluing. And already I had twins. And so to the drive details which sit in and on the frame box, which I've puzzled my head over for quite some time to first understand their construction, and then to determine the dimensions of the individual parts on the screen and to scale them to my scale (1:160) using a reference measurement (blue), which is always very time-consuming, especially since you still have to determine dimensions from other image views. Source: NASA (STS-132) In order to preferably keep an overview, I have numbered the individual parts, Source: NASA (STS-135) an those would be: 1 Gear box, 2 Coupler, 3 Base plate, 4 Hydraulic cylinder, 5 Pneumatic pipes, 6 Horizontal pipes, which are connected to the Screw jacks. In the next image one can see three more parts: 7 Shaft, 8 Screw, 9 Coupler, which I want to leave it at for now. Source: NASA (STS-132) Then I started scratching the individual parts, the small white Base plate 3 (0,13 mm x 1,7 mm x 1,7 mm) was quickly cut to size. For the back upright standing Gear box 1 I used an Evergreen strip (0,5 mm x 1,5 mm x 3 mm), to the front of it I glued a black faceplate (0,25 mm) to achieve the required thickness of 0,75 mm. The Coupler 2 sits on the Base plate 1 and is a tiny cube (0,75mm x 0,75mm x 0,75 mm), whose dimensions I've corrected a bit again. This coupler is connected to the Gear box 1 by a Shaft 7 and still gets a small Screw 8 on the top. For the Hydraulic cylinder 4 I'll use a grey rod (Ø 1 mm), that sits on a Coupler 9, which might be connected to the gear box. As far as my interpretation of the individual parts of the Pneumatic door drive, however without claiming to be correct. Luckily it doesn't have to work. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 19, 2022 Author Share Posted December 19, 2022 Hello friends, Game over at the Football World Cup and congratulations to the new world champion Argentina and to Lionel Messi as the best player of the tournament, who finally crowned his career - credit where credit is due! And with that, back to normality again and with renewed enthusiasm back to my crafting table with the Payload Canister. Well, the smaller the parts become, the more difficult the entire handling during assembly and especially when gluing them. For a better idea of the Door Actuator Pneumatic Drive, I tried to make a 1:1 drawing with the dimensions of the individual parts that I had determined, whereby the minimum distances between them let hardly be drawn. But it didn't make me much smarter than before, except that everything is very small, what I knew already before too. First I glued the bottom plate (3) to the coupler (2) onto both upper frames. On closer inspection, I noticed that the part between the coupler (2) and the gearbox (1) is not a shaft (7), but belongs to the coupler, in which a shaft probably runs that connected to the gearbox. Source: NASA (STS-132) Source: NASA (STS-132) For this connector I used the Punch & Die Set in order to punch two mini cylinders (Ø 0,6 mm) made of Styrene (0,5 mm). In order to be able to glue these tiny ones onto the coupler, I had to carefully clamp the frame upright between two steel rulers, which also worked. The only question was how I could hold this tiny plug during gluing it to the coupler? Even with the sharpest tweezers that would not work, since the coupler there only measures 0,75 mm x 0,75 mm. That's why the only option left was the method I've already practiced, carefully prickling the mini cylinder with the tip of the cutter so that it gets stuck, and setting it down even more carefully on the coupler that was previously dabbed with glue, which at least worked for the first frame. As one can see in this image, there is another narrow cross brace directly behind the Gearbox (1), which is helpful for later gluing the upright gearbox and provides it with support. Source: NASA (STS-132) For this purpose, the frame was re-clamped again, after which this cross brace (0,25 mm x 0,5 mm) could be glued into the frame. To glue the gearbox, the frame must be re-clamped again, for which the two clamping rulers must be put under with a Balsa board (2 mm) so that the connector meets the gearbox ahead, what I've only tried so far. And this point is approx. 0,5 mm below the upper edge of the gearbox, what I determined from this image, among other things, which shows how I have to collect the dimensions for the scratch construction from different photos. Source: NASA (STS-135) During the same procedure on the other frame, the night before last, late at night (1:30 a.m.), the accursed mishap happened to me again that during pinching it between the rulers the frame suddenly jumped out of the tweezers and fell to the ground, what made my hair stand on end left because I suspected bad things. Since I unfortunately couldn't see no such thing when I first looked hopefully at the floor in front of me, I then again on my knees searched everything around the desk with the flashlight, but finally gave up in frustration, since I was fed up and finally wanted to go to bed ... The next morning it was time for furniture move about, for which I've pulled out the container and put the sideboard aside to be able to search properly again. Lo and behold, after I had picked up a few dust bunnies, my heart jumped for joy, because then my inflamed eyes discovered the midget for my joy. Then I also could glued the narrow cross brace into this frame. Now I can try calmly install the gearboxes into the two frames. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share Posted December 24, 2022 Hello everybody, and with this I'll come now to the gluing of the Gear box (1) in the narrow space behind the Coupler (2) and the cross brace, which I've been puzzling my head over for a long time broken how best to do it, among other things about how I can hold and act on the fragile frame in the most gentle way, because there is not much space for safe access. To do this, I first grabbed the frame with the tweezers directly behind the cross brace, have fixed the tweezers in this position with a clamp, and parked in such a way that the gearbox can be pushed into the gap with another pair of tweezers. For a quick sequence of steps when gluing, I grabbed the Gear box with the pointed tweezers and also fixed them with a clamp for quick access and put them aside. So much for the theory. Then I carefully dabbed a tiny drop of Revell glue into the narrow gap onto the cross brace, for which I always use an Acupuncture needle (Ø 0,2 mm), and immediately carefully inserted the Gear box into the gap from below with a lot of feeling and a steady hand in front of the cross brace and glued to it. There isn't much time for alignment and correction, but it's still possible. Then the coupling flange was still glued to the upper end of the Gear box with MEK. And that was it already, and I was finally able to let go of the frame and lay it down. I could be quite satisfied with this result, which is roughly what I had imagined. And with the frame laid on the bottom part, the first Door Actuator Drive is taking on more and more shape and I like it. And in the same way I glued the other Gear box into the second frame, which wasn't rocket science anymore once you know how to do it. Now I can tackle the two Pneumatic cylinders (4) on the underside of the frames. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 24, 2022 Author Share Posted December 24, 2022 Hello friends, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 30, 2022 Author Share Posted December 30, 2022 Hello everybody, I hope you tolerated all the culinary delights well and were happy about the presents. Now that the holidays are over, I want to get back to the crafting table and carry on a little further to finally finish these tricky Door drives. In the meantime, I've also gotten a little more clarity about the possible function of this special drive and transmission technology, what is always part of it for me. Doing it I found out that my Coupler (2) is a Bevel Gearbox, through which the shafts in the horizontal pipes (6) are driven, which are connected to the Screw Jacks, which are connected with the upper linkages of the Door Actuators on the canister doors, by means of which the doors can be opened and closed. Source: NASA (STS-135) Such a Bevel Gearbox has the following basic structure, whereby the implementation of a rotary movement of a drive shaft within an angle of 90° to an output shaft is effected by means of bevel gears. Source: drivelines.co.uk And this Output shaft is located in the horizontal pipes (6) on either side of the door operator and is connected at both ends with Screw Jacks. The lifting movement of the rotating spindle with trapezoidal thread is carried out via a worm gear, which is located in a gear housing, as can be seen in the image on the right. In the lower area, the vertical lifting spindles are surrounded by a protective tube and in the upper area they are covered by black Folding bellows to protect against dirt, which are folded when doors are opened and unfolded when doors are closed. Source: mechjacks.com Next I want to scratch the gray Pneumatic Unit with the dome-shaped Cover (4) in front of the Housing (9), whatever these parts may be called, which unfortunately I haven't been able to find out yet. Source: NASA (STS-135) Anyway, both parts in 1:160 are pretty small, but more on that in the next post. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted December 31, 2022 Author Share Posted December 31, 2022 Hello everybody in the old year, and so let's go right ahead with the midgets of the Pneumatic Unit. For the Housings (9) I've sanded two Styrene blocks (0,7 mm x 1,3 mm x 1,6 mm), and for the dome-shaped Cover (4) I did use a rod (Ø 1 mm x 1 mm) painted gray. The small plugs were glued on in the usual way by using the proven fixation between the steel rulers. The tiny Screw (8) on the Bevel Gearbox (2) I've hinted with a Fineliner (0,05 mm). Now the Housings (9) of the Pneumatic Unit still had to be painted grey, for which I've thought of a clever solution using a Paulaner Crown cap as a turntable with a tape strip glued on in reverse, which also worked fine. Now all I have to do is glue these things to the underside of the frame onto the rear Gear part (1), which should become pretty tricky, which is why I'm going to try that next year. So it's time to say goodbye for this year and I wish everyone a happy New year. Come across well and stay tuned! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted January 2, 2023 Author Share Posted January 2, 2023 Hello everybody in 2023, I hope you all slipped in well and are in good spirits. I also want to get off to a flying start and show how I assembled the Door drive, which consists of limply 20 individual parts if I counted correctly. Before assembling both frames, however, the Pneumatic unit had to be glued to the rear Gear part (1) of the upper frame, for which I had to come up with a special holding device again, so that the fragile assemblies do not break down. And for this, only a magnetic holder was possible, for which the free end of the frame behind the gear part with 1 mm was just enough, wherefore I also needed a spacer template. But then came the much more difficult exercise, namely gluing the upper frame onto the feet of this small table. As can be seen from the following images, everything only worked again using special clamping technique, by having the magic touch for this tricky job, and softly, softly, catchee monkey ... But it finally worked, although it was quite stressful because some struts had to be aligned and partially re-glued. And in the mounting position, the Door Actuator Pneumatic Drive looks quite passable. But now the lateral struts, which had been prepared for some time, still had to be glued at the back of the frame, here with the strut during a first fitting on the canister, which fitted quite well. Then the second strut was glued opposite, with which the first door drive was finally complete. And this is the final test fitting of the drive on the Starboard Side of the canister, which has withstood my critical eye. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theb Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 On 02/12/2022 at 00:03, roma847 said: Hello everybody, just a quick reminder of the Challenger Rollout - STS-6 in the fog 40 years ago. Let's Keep the Legacy Alive! One of the saddest days in my days when the Challenger was lost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theb Posted January 3, 2023 Share Posted January 3, 2023 (edited) Just out of curiosity but are you a surgeon in your day job. the precision is incomparable to anything other than surgery. 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻 if ever I need heart surgery or a brain transplant…maybe the latter, then I’m knocking on your door. 😎 I love German precision. It’s so,,,precise! outstanding work Sir. Edited January 3, 2023 by Theb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted January 3, 2023 Author Share Posted January 3, 2023 Thanks Theb for your nice comment and your enthusiasm for German precision. Although I have a doctorate in the field of superconductive materials and have worked in Materials research for years until my retirement, I am not a doctor or a surgeon, and therefore would advise you consulting a specialist if really necessary, but it's better if you don't need one of the gods in white and stay healthy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted January 5, 2023 Author Share Posted January 5, 2023 Hello everybody, and now the Door actuator followed for the other canister side using the same knitting pattern. With this the Port Side now also has its door drive. Next up are the bottom linkages of the Door actuators on which the Screw Jacks are mounted. Source: NASA (STS-135) They are similar to the adjacent Access Platforms in terms of the structure of the mount, but are much narrower and therefore a bit more complicated, as one can see on this section at higher magnification, Source: NASA (STS-135) which is also good usable for determination of the dimensions needed for scratch building, what is now my next task. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted January 6, 2023 Author Share Posted January 6, 2023 Hello everybody, and I tackled that right away, which resulted in the following dimensions. Source: NASA (STS-135) In order to keep track of it myself, I marked the determined heights and widths in color, especially since they also were determined by using different reference dimensions (blue). As reference dimensions I've used the dimensions of the Wall braces of the door actuators, which are identical to those of the Screw jacks. But that's still not all the dimensions I need. A few widths from a front view of the screw jack are still missing, which cannot be determined exactly from this slightly slanted side view. And for that this photo is a good reference. Source: NASA (STS-135) Determining the dimensions is always extremely time-consuming and a tiring torture for the eyes, but unfortunately I have to bite the bullet again and again , because unfortunately nothing can be scratched without dimensions. The Wall braces I've put aside some time ago already. Now I have to go through my stock and see which profiles I can use for the remaining parts. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roma847 Posted January 10, 2023 Author Share Posted January 10, 2023 Hello everybody, for the frame struts of the Screw Jacks I will use Evergreen Strips (0,25 mm x 0,5 mm). Since the frame is only 2 mm wide, the gap is 1,5 mm, which is why I need a total of 8 snippets of this length. Therefore I initially set the steel rulers exactly to 1,5 mm, but I was surprised that the resulting snippet was 1,7 mm long when measured with the vernier caliper. This fact is actually well known to me, but I fall for it again and again. That's why I gradually approached the final dimension of 1,5 mm, which led to this setting. Here is the result with this setting, with which I can now cut off these snippets. And in addition to the 1,5 mm short snippets, I have meanwhile also cut off the upper Frame struts 2 (4 mm). For the Vertical struts 1 (4 mm) I need the same length, which finally results in the total height of the frame being 4,5 mm. Source: NASA (STS-125) As one can see easily the squirrel feeds itself arduously ... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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