Jump to content

Space Shuttle Launch Pad 39A with Challenger STS-6 (1:144)


Recommended Posts

Hello everybody on the 2nd evening of Advent, 

 

before I take off my Crawler glasses again, I took care of the dimensions of further components that I don't want to use from the Paper kit, but will scratch from Plastic profiles. cool.gif

 

For this purpose I've found a number of NASA drawings in the Yahoo-LUT-Group, from which I could take important dimensions, such as these here with the frame structure (Chassis Structure Lower Level) for the construction of the Underbody (Sheet 4):

 

PqxFJE.jpg
Source: savethelut.org (John Cato)

 

This initially concerns the dimensions of the green marked Wide Flange Beams in the Diagonal Box 3 & 4, which have the following dimensions,

 

Wide 18'' = 457 mm = 2,9 mm (1:160) 
Deep 24'' = 610 mm = 3,8 mm (1:160)

 

as well as the blue marked profiles with the following dimensions:

 

Wide 12'' = 305 mm = 1,9 mm (1:160) 
Deep 24'' = 610 mm = 3,8 mm (1:160)

 

Unfortunately, the dimensions of the yellow, light blue and red marked profiles cannot be found in this drawing, which is why I have to search through other drawings, which is a bit tedious. rolleyes.gif

 

For the blue marked Beams 40-58 I've found I-Profiles (4,0 x 2,0 mm) from Evergreen, which are very close to the original dimensions.  up039822.gif

 

The red marked outer Longitudinal Box Girders I have now found in the Sectional view (AD-AD, Sheet 34) in this drawing. 

 

TADEsC.jpg
Source: savethelut.org (John Cato)

 

Their dimensions are: 

 

Height 2' = 610 mm = 3,8 mm (1:160)
Width 1'-6,25''= 464 mm = 2,9 mm (1:160)

 

Since there is no such Box profile by Evergreen, I will use a Square profile 3,2 x 4 mm instead. huh.gif

 

That's it for today, the remaining profiles I'll still find as well.  up040577.gif

Edited by spaceman
Link to post
Share on other sites

 

Manfred,

This project and thread has taught me many things, too many to make

a complete list. Besides you being a Master Builder with no equal, it's

taught me that most if all things are possible if you remain true to the

process, and have all the assets needed in making the seemingly and

impossible... a stunning reality. "What a wonderful adventure so far!"

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Underdog for your great compliments, :worship:

 

and I'm happy that you also can get a little profit from my experience for yourself. :clap2:

 

You just have to hold on to your dreams and not be discouraged. up040577.gif

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...

Hello everyone after the 4th Advent, 

 

it goes on, and with that I come back to the Crawler drawings (John Cato) to determine the missing dimensions of the profiles that are required for the Scratch-build of the Crawler chassis. cool.gif

 

However, these drawings are not understandable straight away, what i.a. is due to the ambiguity of the English technical terms used for the different profiles as Trusses and Pipe Girders, which are by no means self-explanatory. rolleyes.gif 

 

So one can find terms such as Longitudinal Truss, Lateral Truss, Diagonal Truss and Diagonal Box, and then also still Beams in the legend. huh.gif

 

At that I believe that the term Truss not only means Girder per se, but rather the Truss structure which is located between the girders, as still will be seen from the drawings. 

 

Furthermore, it has gradually become clear to me in the meantime that not only the outer Longitudinal girders marked red in my previous reply (Posted December 7) on the lower chassis structure (Lower Level, Sheet 4) are Boxes, but that there are also further Boxes. 

In order to be able to recognize this, one has to look at the original drawing more closely,

 

NVyBK2.jpg
Source: savethelut.org (John Cato)

 

wherefor one has to choose a higher resolution,  what I did in the following excerpt, 

 

mDGGMg.jpg

 

and what should be explained in this further enlarged image section based on the different types of lines.

 

sfgEdR.jpg

 

In it one can see center lines in the middle of the Box profile (red) and dashed lines on both edges what indicates welded box girders with a rectangular cross-section, in other words square tubes, the cross-section of which was already shown in the last post in Sheet 34 to determine their dimensions.  

 

The Beam profiles (blue), also known in German writings as Double T-beams (I-beams), have double dashed lines belonging to the middle Web) of the profiles, which is concealed by the upper Flange[/ color]), for which one can also find the terms Wide Flange Beam or H-Beam in Anglo-American writings.  

 

This image shows once more the overall structure of the lower chassis level (Sheet 4) with all the profiles that are needed for scratch-modeling. up039822.gif

 

MohCK4.jpg

 

The upper frame structure (Upper Level) can be seen from Sheet 3 in the following picture and has a similar structure consisting of Box and Beam profiles, whereby I don't need to scratch this framework, because the space underneath is needed to accommodate the electrics/electronics of the current supply, what I have already explained. cool.gif

 

More important for scratch-building is the associated Side elevation of the frame structure Longitudinal truss with the Pipe Girders at the lower edge of the image, which contains some sectional views that are important for the further construction, which in turn can be found in other drawings.  

 

rCZbIA.jpg
Source: savethelut.org (John Cato)

 

The View H-H (green) refers to the already discussed lower frame structure Lower Level (Sheet 4). With View J-J (light blue) it is referred to the first of the nine lateral trusses (Lateral Truss No. 1) in Sheet 5, which I will go into later. 

 

Also important for scratch-building are the dimensions of the Pipe Girders, which can be seen from sectional views to which is referred in the following drawing of the Longitudinal Truss No. 1) in Sheet 32.

 

PcryAY.jpg
Source: savethelut.org (John Cato)

 

The marked Section AC-AC (yellow) can be seen in Sheet 34 and shows a cross section of the welded box girders (Boxes) of the Longitudinal Truss No. 1, which even differ slightly. huh.gif

 

dptCzX.jpg
Source: savethelut.org (John Cato)

 

In this sectional view, the Section BB-BB (dark blue) is marked through the Pipe Girder there, the cross-section of which can be seen on the right edge of the image, from which the diameter of this support tube with 12¾" can be seen, which corresponds to Ø 2,0 mm (1: 160), which for all Pipe Girders of the two Longitudinal Trusses No. 1 & 2 is the same.  

 

The same diameter is also obtained if the height of the Box profile (2'-0) is used as a reference dimension.  

 

With this I'm coming back to the already mentioned Lateral Truss No. 1) in Sheet 5 (View J-J), which can be seen in the following image and shows the structure of the front and rear of the Crawler chassis

 

9aYZPg.jpg
Source: savethelut.org (John Cato)

 

If one uses the height of the Box profile (2'-0) as a reference dimension in this drawing, the diameters of the vertical and slanted support tubes (8,6'') result with Ø 1,4 mm, which are also the same for all Pipe Girders of the trusses in the interior of the crawler, as I have learned from Mischa Klement.  up045518.gif 

 

With this I have now determined the essential dimensions of the profiles for my scratch-building of the Crawler chassis, wherewith I can let it go at that for the time being.  

 

And at the end of my crawler analysis, let's have a look at these three historical photos from the start of construction of the Crawler transporter CT-1 for the Apollo program in the mid-1960s, the crawlers of which were modified in the mid-1970s for the Space shuttle program. 

 

yGPVyb.jpg
Source: NASA

 

3DKi4E.jpg
Source: NASA

 

5wsS49.jpg
Source: NASA

 

So I can take off my Crawler glasses for the time being and take a breather until Christmas. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Oh my goodness ... this is going to be so-o-o much fun to watch come together!  :popcorn:

The level of detail you're planning to include, at this tiny scale, is already evident!

 

Manfred, I hope you'll have as Merry a Christmas as you can have with Good Food, Good Cheer and Good Health!

 

Here in our area, near Niagara Falls Canada, we've just been put in lockdown till late January ... so we will make the best of this situation ... and know that Santa will still visit our house! ( ... will Rudolph be wearing a mask ... with a hole in it for his Nose? )

 

All best wishes for a much better 2021!

Stay sane and keep doing what you're doing. This build of yours is a wonderful, positive distraction for us!

Pete

Link to post
Share on other sites

I love the way the Florida climate let them build this monster outside. If done in the UK you would have a mountain of rust and some drowned, cold metalworkers - apart of course from when they needed to work in enclosed sections and we would have had a heatwave that would have roasted them all.

Glad you've figured out all the terminology, Manfred. I assume that the trusses were manufactured in-situ from basic beam and box section elements. Perhaps the terminology reflects the structural calculations - i.e. maybe you can consider a truss to behave uniformly in the same way that you would a simple T section or I section. I trust you will be doing equivalent calculations for the styrene model? 😉.

 

Have a good Christmas/New Year. I look forward to the next episodes of miniature rocket science.

Link to post
Share on other sites
10 hours ago, K2Pete said:

Oh my goodness ... this is going to be so-o-o much fun to watch come together!  :popcorn:

The level of detail you're planning to include, at this tiny scale, is already evident!

 

Manfred, I hope you'll have as Merry a Christmas as you can have with Good Food, Good Cheer and Good Health!

 

Here in our area, near Niagara Falls Canada, we've just been put in lockdown till late January ... so we will make the best of this situation ... and know that Santa will still visit our house! ( ... will Rudolph be wearing a mask ... with a hole in it for his Nose? )

 

All best wishes for a much better 2021!

Stay sane and keep doing what you're doing. This build of yours is a wonderful, positive distraction for us!

Pete

 

Pete for your nice words and for your loyal company, which always again gives me strength to persevere and go on ... s-boese-wand02.gif

 

Indeed it is, everything looks so big during the analysis of the photos and drawings, but when I then start to rescale the details to 1:160, they shrink to a formidable "size" ... :gr_eek2:

 

Yep, one lockdown is chasing the other, it's a sad year that hopefully soon gives way to a better 2021, Healthiness F I R S T!!! :thumbsup:

 

With this in mind I wish you Peaceful and frohe-weihnachten-smilies-0004.gif and a Happy New Year. 

 

 

Edited by spaceman
Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, CaptKirk said:

I love the way the Florida climate let them build this monster outside. If done in the UK you would have a mountain of rust and some drowned, cold metalworkers - apart of course from when they needed to work in enclosed sections and we would have had a heatwave that would have roasted them all.

Glad you've figured out all the terminology, Manfred. I assume that the trusses were manufactured in-situ from basic beam and box section elements. Perhaps the terminology reflects the structural calculations - i.e. maybe you can consider a truss to behave uniformly in the same way that you would a simple T section or I section. I trust you will be doing equivalent calculations for the styrene model? 😉.

 

Have a good Christmas/New Year. I look forward to the next episodes of miniature rocket science.

 

Thanks Kirk for looking in on me again. :worship:

 

The Box beams were welded together on site, as I've learned from LUT Guru Mischa Klement, who knows the Crawler inside out like no other and has also studied this monster on site, as one can see here,

 

ab1wwW.jpg

Source: microartwork.com

 

IsUyYb.jpg

Source: microartwork.com

 

before he literally dissected it in his CAD program for his ingenious Paper kit (1:96) and dismantled it into approx. 11.000 individual parts. :o

 

Although my crawler has significantly fewer parts, but is nevertheless a real challenge. :thumbsup:

 

Also for you  frohe-weihnachten-smilies-0004.gif and neujahr-smilie-02.gif

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hello friends,

 

on this memorable day, I too want to start into the year 2021 with fresh energy and finally overcome my holiday fatigue. cool.gif

 

Unfortunately, the latest reports from the KSC say that the demolition and scrapping of the MLP-2 has been started there, as one can see in these photos, supposedly because the parking spaces are running out there. rolleyes.gif

 

That hurts me somehow, because this gigantic Shuttle vehicle has grown dear to my heart over the years of my project work. hmmm.gif

 

fgZjjV.jpg
Source: collectspace.com (NASA/Kim Shiftlett)

 

Cr77Ts.jpg
Source: collectspace.com (Kevin Keenan)

 

Well, that's the sad fate of a veteran of the Shuttle program when, after 28 years and 49 Shuttle missions, it is no longer needed and thrown on the scrap heap ... cry.gif

 

Even if the originals gradually disappear, but on the other hand, it's motivating me even more to immortalize MLP-2 as part of my Launch Pad Diorama and to keep it in dignified memory. up040577.gif

Edited by spaceman
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello everybody,

 

so, now I have to slowly pull myself out of my holiday hole by force to get going again. rolleyes.gif At that I first had to think myself about wherewith to start or what I had been doing on the side in the meantime and had not yet shown it. :hmmm:

 

And that concerned once again the production of the little lamps for the Crawler-Lighting,

 

up073884.jpg

 

for which we had thought of a suitable thin transparent Shrinking tube as a lamp body in a small ferrule in the old year. up039822.gif

 

And with the three patterns (Ø 2 mm) that my friend Arno (McPhönix) had sent me immediately, I started experimenting right away, 

 

KO27N4.jpg

 

by inserting two Pure White LEDs (0401) into the transparent and the white tube, whereat the overexposure in the photo again appears much stronger than one can actually see. However, at these first images, the current regulator of the current bank was fully turned up (8 mA), which is much too high, as we had already recognized at that time. huh.gif

 

rQ9R99.jpg

 

The red shrinking tube, on the other hand, is less translucent, which can be seen in these two images.  

 

fgp2Vi.jpg

 

S4hrJU.jpg

 

Then I've tried to shrink an LED into a piece of the transparent tube, whereby the handling turned out to be quite complicated when one considers that the actual lamp body at 1:160 should only be about 0,7 mm long.  analintruder.gif

 

To hold both parts was only just possible by using two tweezers, which were stably clamped onto a sheet metal sheet with two magnets, in order to then shrink the tube with the heat gun. cool.gif

 

8iQSk2.jpg

 

However, the result was rather underwhelming, as the LED was not shrunk tight enough and fell out again.  up043952.gif

 

Since that would have been a rather hopeless fiddling with the fidgety tiny LEDs 0401, I have discarded this variant as not reproducible and will now focus on encasing the LEDs in small ferrules and sealing with UV Glueup040577.gif

Edited by spaceman
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello everybody,

 

in order to get as close as possible to the dimensions of these Mini crawler lamps, I've then experimented with the small Ferrules 0,25 mm2 x 5 that I had gotten myself in the meantime. cool.gif

 

a0G7Tt.jpg

 

UdH0x7.jpg

 

fH3SoM.jpg

 

After I had cut off the small screen (Ø 1,5 mm) with the micro saw,  

 

i2Rdbw.jpg

 

I've threaded a Pure White LED (0401) and initially fixed its wires from above with a drop of UV glue. 

 

jf7w7D.jpg

 

Then in the lamp shade  across the LED a small drop of glue was then UV-cured, but that was still slightly spherical. rolleyes.gif

 

6X80TF.jpg

 

yNZUQW.jpg

 

For a better size comparison, the lamp was glued onto the side wall of the truck from the paper kit,

 

vzinJy.jpg

 

which is shining here quite strongly with full current of 8 mA.

 

PgRREu.jpg

 

Dimmed down to 1,5 mA it doesn't look so bright anymore. cool.gif

 

qEtBMw.jpg

 

After that, I just carefully dipped a new LED into a drop of UV glue and cured it in order to get a finer lamp body, what worked better in this way than with the first method. :thumbsup:

 

BxCo0D.jpg

 

The LED encased and sealed in this way can then be threaded into the (later) separated lampshade and finally attached to the top with UV adhesive,  

 

BUJa60.jpg

 

what should then result in a very well fitting Crawler lamp. up039822.gif

 

bUl1TJ.jpg

 

With this result and the improved handling, I can now look forward to the crawler lighting with a clear conscience. up040577.gif

Edited by spaceman
Link to post
Share on other sites

Hello everybody,

 

somehow I still can't really get away from the Crawler without having got an idea of it, how a Truck chain looks like consisting of my composited 3D-printed Track shoes (1:160)

 

up064857.jpg

 

which as is generally known to consist of 57 Track shoes. cool.gif

 

ZsJyc9.jpg
Source: NASA

 

Much more important, in addition to the handling of its assembly, was the question of whether and how well the chain would fit the paper kit templates of the truck body at all, especially since I have to adapt some of the truck parts anyway, what will probably should not become so easy ... :hmmm:

 

mq6tyY.jpg
Source: NASA

 

For the provisional connection of the chain links, I first had to cut short pins from steel wire (Ø 0,4 mm x 7 mm), which was not that easy to do because one cannot cut them with the side cutter simply off the wire, because otherwise they would fly away wherever else.  analintruder.gif

 

To prevent that, I had a good idea once again. :thumbsup: To do this, I've made a corresponding mark on a small Neodymium super magnet, let the side cutter be gravitated to it together with the wire, and then simply pinched off the wire regardless of consequences, :whistle:

 

hlgK7X.jpg

 

so that the pin was held tight securely by the magnet's enormous force. :banana:

 

T7ihRK.jpg

 

Before inserting the pins into the connected chain links, it was advisable to align the Pin Lugs with a drill (Ø 0,4 mm) and to make them smooth-running, which facilitated the insertion.

 

yOFtEU.jpg

 

5W2LvU.jpg

 

Since I had to deburr the pins on one side beforehand, it was quite a stressful fiddling until all 57 Track shoes were connected to one another. shocked.gif Next to it lie the two Main sprockets already.

 

cl6iTw.jpg

 

ZoUlAM.jpg

 

Here one can see the connected chain with the inserted Main sprockets, which is still tensioned on the truck after assembly by the so-called Crawler belt tighteners. huh.gif

 

OyDu1h.jpg

 

Then I just wanted to make sure whether or how well the 3D chain would match the 2D chain from the Paper Kit, which unfortunately, to my surprise, was not the case however. yikes.gif

 

yk3haf.jpg

 

There the good David Maier has actually only considered 54 Track shoes per truck chain in his Paper kit, up043952.gif what I should actually ask him. hmmm.gif

 

Once have become skeptical, I've then remeasured a few more places on his truck and came across further discrepancies that now make me very insecure about the dimensional accuracy of his Crawler kit. rolleyes.gif 

 

My disenchantment was still increased after I had checked the dimensions of his truck body and compared the center-to-center distance of the Main sprockets with the one in the drawing, which in the kit is 6 mm too short and is only 56 mm instead of 62 mm, for whatever reason, shocked.gif

 

i5p32p.jpg
Source: Library of Congress (HAER FL-8-11-C-32)

 

which can be clearly seen in this image through the paper truck body (1:160) laid on top, wherewith I now have a real problem and first have to put on the Crawler glasses once again. hmmm.gif

 

icLA7G.jpg

 

What calms me down a bit, on the other hand, is the fact that my truck chain with 57 Track shoes matches the drawing (1:160) pretty well, whereupon can be built up.  yahoo.gif 

 

nOv2US.jpg

 

But that wasn't still the last rotten egg in David Maier's Paper kit, because the dimensions of the Crawler chassis structure with 227 mm x 93 mm instead of 246 mm x 102 mm are also not correct, which would actually be a reason for complaint in normal life, but that doesn't help me too. cry.gif

 

VOsXdr.jpg

 

Now I need some good advice, which is why I have to come up with something else, :hmmm: and why I would be very grateful for any suggestions. up040577.gif

Edited by spaceman
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...