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

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

the gluing of the small blocks for cladding the sides of the Door Latches (0,5 mm x 0,5 mm x 1,0 mm) was done on a steel ruler precautionally. 

 

First, two short strips (0,5 mm x 0,5 mm) were glued onto the base strip (0,13 mm) with MEK. 

 

 

 

Then the two strips and afterwards also the base strip were cut off, 

 

 

 

and the seven Latch plates were made in the same way.

 

 

Next followed the gluing of the base plates with the rod, as well as gluing on the Swivel latches.

 

 

 

After the Latch strand was completely glued, 

 

 

a test fitting on the canister was carried out which was fine so far as.  

 

 

When gluing the Latch strand onto the canister, I was able to use my experience in gluing the SSWS pipe supports to the MLP, when I ascertained at the time that one can also glue plastic with paper by using MEK, which I tried again to be on the safe side, as can be seen here at the glued Styrene snippet. 

 

 

The general advantage of gluing with MEK is based to its creeping ability, that one can position the part to be glued in place beforehand and that one needs only to brush its outer contour with MEK, what is completely sufficient and was the ideal solution for gluing the Latch strand onto the canister. 

 

After I had fixed the strand on the canister with tape strips and aligned it precisely, I first brushed all seven Latch plates with MEK one after the other, and then also the rod sections in between, whereby the MEK evaporates instantly without leaving any residue. 

 

 

Next I want to scratch the thin tube (Ø 0,5 mm) with the three Door Pull-down Latches, 

 

Source: NASA (STS-132)

 

and glue it onto the Port Side Door,

 

 

which should be quite tricky because the parts are so tiny and thin. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by spaceman

[CaptKirk]

With the greatest of respect Manfred, isn't "so-tiny-and-thin" your middle name? 😄 Surely it's just a matter of time before microscopic styrene pieces bend and stick to your commands? You'll be trying to make out you find it difficult next...

[spaceman]

Thanks Kirk for making a funny middle name for me,  that hits the nail on the head! 

 

... difficult ... That's it what I always try to convince you guys, finally believe it! 

 

Joking aside, these are really areas beyond good and evil,  in boxing one would say: Below the waistline! 

 

Sorry, but I can't stop trying to make the impossible possible, all just for fun! 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2022 by spaceman

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

and so now to this thin tube (Ø 0,5 mm) on the Port Side Door with the three tricky Door Pull-down Latches. 

 

As one can see, with the diameters the associated parts are getting smaller and thinner too, wherewith I inevitably reach the limits of what is feasible when scratching in my scale (1:160), wherefore I have to lower my sights regarding the attention to detail a little bit. 

 

The pipe itself is not a problem with Ø 0,5 mm, but at first glance the four Mounting Clamps with Ø 0,15 mm seem hardly be representable at least of plastic and difficult to assemble, as well as the rod systems of the three Pull-down Latches. 

 

Source: NASA (STS-132)

 

But don't be frightened! Well begun is half done. 

 

The following image shows the dimensions of the individual parts determined for scratching,  

 

Source: NASA (STS-114)

 

at whose sight I was quite disillusioned, because I immediately realized that I might have to leave out some of the tiny details. 

 

First I made the markings for the four clamps on the Evergreen rod (Ø 0,5 mm).

 

 

At the same time I've thought about what material I could scratch the clamps (Ø 0,15 mm) out of. However, since such a diameter made of plastic does not exist in hobbyist supplies, I had to come up with something,  and have immediately thought of hand broom hairs, which luckily have a similar diameter.

 

However, a first attempt by winding such a hair around a pin quickly proved to be unsuitable, since I would then have to glue tiny curls, which would degenerate into a hopeless disaster and I therefore rejected it. 

 

 

So it would make sense to bend the broom hair around the rod before gluing it, 

 

 

or even better, to stick it to the rod with Pattex Superglue before bending and bend both ends after fixing them beforehand. 

 

 

In this state it should be possible to carefully glue the rounded clamp onto the rod with MEK, after which the overhangs could then be trimmed off flush, which worked, as one can see here. 

 

 

And this is how I proceeded: 

 

- Gluing the clamp sections with UHU-CA,

 

 

- Turning around of the rod and pinching the overhang under the ruler, as well as bending up the other side of the overhangs and gluing the curves with MEK,

 

 

- Bending over of the overhangs and gluing with MEK,

 

 

- Fixing of the overhangs with tape and flush cutting with a razor blade,

 

 

 

- Removing of the ruler and trimming off the remaining overhangs, wherewith the rod with the four Mounting Clamps was completed.

 

 

- Fixing of the finished rod with tape onto the Port Side Door and carefully gluing with MEK, 

 

 

wherewith the first step was done. 

 

 

Even if the tiny clamps are barely visible, I know that they are there, and exactly as I imagined. 

 

 

Now only the Rod systems are missing, which one can see on this image, 

 

Source: NASA (STS-132)

 

whereby some of them are so tiny that they have to be simplified a bit. 

Edited September 8, 2022 by spaceman

[CaptKirk]

I swear that 1 cent coin is getting bigger and bigger...

[spaceman]

Hi Kirk,

 

the caliper rule is incorruptible and still shows the same size of my favorite. 

 

 

 

Therefore I come back again to the old saying in the Bible: Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.  

[southwestforests]

On 9/9/2022 at 5:36 AM, CaptKirk said:

I swear that 1 cent coin is getting bigger and bigger...

 

I see your point there. 😄

[spaceman]

Nobody is perfect! 

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

and thus to the leverage system of the Door Pull-down Latches. 

 

Source: NASA (STS-132)

 

The tiny Link joint (0,4 mm x 1 mm)  is connected at the rear end with a short Joint rod (Ø 0,3 mm x 0,5 mm), which is sitting in a bracket, and at the front via a Lever arm (0,15 mm x 4 mm) with the long tube of the Port Side Door.

 

Since such short parts can hardly be handled and glued,  one has to start with longer parts, 

 

 

and can only carefully cut them to the final lengths after the glue has dried.

 

 

And that is what it looks like, if it is successful. 

 

 

 

The rear mount of the Joint rod is also articulated mounted, but so tiny that I could only indicate it with greatly simplified parts. 

 

 

The gluing of these tiny things was done with different glues and was the expected stressful matter,   

 

 

where to my horror one of the three Link joints jumped out of the tweezers and couldn't be found anymore,  which is why I had to scratch it once more. 

 

 

But with that, these three rod systems are done and in place, although they can hardly be seen. 

 

 

On the opposite Starboard Side Door there is still this small Leverage,

 

Source: NASA (STS-135)

 

which is connected to the end of the Torque Tube, 

 

Source: NASA (STS-124)

 

what I would like to try at least. 

Edited September 11, 2022 by spaceman

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

while I was looking at this image, I noticed this long steel cable to the right of the Torque tube,  which is attached by a hinge to a strut and runs across the entire Starboard Side Door, 

 

Source: NASA (STS-135)

 

where it is locked in a bracket. 

 

Source: NASA (STS-135)

 

At first I couldn't explain the meaning and purpose of this steel cable, but I want to try to find out somehow. Maybe someone of you knows wherefore it is good for ... 

 

And then it was down to business, because these linkage is really tiny. 

 

For the left part of the linkage, which is connected to the end of the Torque tube, I cut narrow strips of Styrene (0,13 mm), 

 

 

which I glued onto both sides of a rod (Ø 0,25 mm x 2,5 mm)  to this small fork as the right part, which then were reduced to approx. 1,5 mm which was quite stressful to handle.  This tiny part was so light that it stayed stuck to the tweezers for the photo. 

 

 

The joint of the strut attached to the rod I indicated with a tiny eyelet made of Lead wire (Ø 0,3 mm), which I 'rolled flat' by twisting back and forth under a steel ruler to Ø 0,2 mm, wherefore some preliminary tests were required. 

 

 

 

The final eyelet then looked like this, 

 

 

which I threaded and glued onto the rod in a rather hairy action. 

 

 

 

Then I carefully glued the linkage onto the door with CA/MEK, 

 

 

and let everything dry. 

 

 

Next comes the lateral strut, which reaches from the rod joint (eyelet) to the attachment point of the steel cable.  

Edited September 17, 2022 by spaceman

[spaceman]

Hello friends,

 

meanwhile I found out what this steel rope was all about, which sometimes sagged down a bit, like in this image. 

 

Source: NASA (STS-101)

 

And if I'm interested in a technical detail like that, then, as is well known, I get to the bottom of it. And through my Swedish friend David from NSF (DaveS) I met a member of the then Can Crew whose explanation is as amazing as it is simple. 

 

"That cable what we tied off to for fall protection when we walked down the door in the horizontal configuration to verify the latch’s we’re closed properly prior to ratcheting into the closed position." 

 

After all, the Transporter with the Canister had a height of approx. 28 ft, and from there one shouldn't necessarily be able to fall off it. 

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

in a time full of interesting soccer games, I want to get back to you quickly so that I don't lose the thread myself and get completely out of step. 

 

I'm still dancing around on the Payload Bay Doors without a Safety rope,  what needs to change immediately. But these mini-struts took me some lot of effort, which is why I finally wanted to get this over with. 

 

From this perspective als well as at high resolution, one can still see the details best. 

 

Source: NASA (STS-114)

 

On the one hand there is the lateral strut already discussed next to the rope holder, which I tried my hand at first and even managed the small wire to be inserted between the rope holder and the turnbuckle, made of a tiny lead wire (Ø 0,2 mm x 0,5 mm), but please don't ask me how ...  The result is already invisible to the naked eye, but I know, as always, that it's there ... 

 

Now only the rope sling is missing, to which the rope will later be attached. 

 

 

And here this strut made of Styrene (0,13 mm) is now mounted, which one can just barely make out. 

 

 

The thin wires ordered for this have also arrived in the meantime. The upper roll is the steel wire (Ø 0,1mm) shipped from China, and below are two NiCr wires (Ø 0,1mm/0,2mm) - Made in Germany.

 

 

I proceeded in the same way for the rope holder and the turnbuckle on the other side. 

This time I glued a short NiCr wire (Ø 0,2 mm) between the two Styrene strips of the holder. The overhangs of the parts that are needed for handling are important. 

 

 

 

For the turnbuckle I prepared a Styrene rod (0,4 mm x 0,4 mm), using an Evergreen strip (0,5 mm x 0,5 mm).

 

 

The shortening of the connecting wire between the bracket and turnbuckle to approx. 0,8 mm was a delicate procedure, for which backup tapes were helpful so that nothing could fly away. 

 

 

Bending the loop of rope from NiCr (Ø 0,2 mm) into a small eyelet was a stressful fiddling too,  but finally worked after a few tries,

 

 

as well as the gluing on the turnbuckle.  http://www.raumfahrer.net/forum/yabbfiles/Attachments/up045518.gif

 

And then the same procedure again on the other side. 

 

 

 

 

The rope is only glued in later so that it is not damaged when assembling the small parts that are still missing. 

Edited October 5, 2022 by spaceman

[karl h]

you are nuts, Manfred 👍

Edited October 6, 2022 by karl h

[spaceman]

 Karl for looking in on me. 

 

I've heard such nice compliments quite a few times and can already classify it correctly.  Stay tuned.

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

here the Safety rope made of NiCr wire (Ø 0,2 mm) has been put on at least as a test.  

 

 

With gluing the cable onto the door, I will wait until the upper linkages of the Door Actuators are glued onto both doors, 

 

Source: NASA (STS-132)

 

Source: NASA (STS-125)

 

which I have now planned, but for which I first had to determine various dimensions again. 

 

Source: NASA (STS-125)

 

In the closed state of the doors these linkages are folded and are only folded out to support the opened doors, as can be seen in this image. 

 

Source: NASA (STS-101)

 

As one can see from the small dimensions, it's again about tiny parts, whereby the two outer sickle-shaped holders seem particularly tricky, whose shape I first drew in order to create a corresponding template for scratching. 

 

As one can see in this image, these holders are extremely narrow at < 1 mm and also very thin (0,13 mm), which are probably difficult to handle.   

 

On the upper Evergreen Styrene Strip (0,13 mm) the contour is pre-drawn and the lower bow has already been cut out, which was still reasonably easy to do.

 

 

 

Cutting out the upper contour, on the other hand, will become a stressful affair,  because one can hardly hold tight this narrow sickle in the tweezers.  

 

 

For gluing the linkages between the lateral holders I thought about a Balsa jig,  the top of which I filed to match this lower contour. 

 

 

It doesn't matter how, but first I need a total of 8 such holders for both doors. That's why I transferred the lower contour 8 x to a Styrene strip,

 

 

and carefully cut out with nail scissors. And I now have to transfer the upper contour to these parts and cut them out, file them out, or whatever ... 

 

 

Maybe it will be advisable, to glue the sickles to a bulged Styrene strip, 

 

 

then glue in the linkage parts and then glue the holders made in this way onto the doors. 

 

It may all still sound pretty bold and adventurous, but somehow I'll be succeeding already ... 

Edited October 12, 2022 by spaceman

[crowe-t]

Very well planned out Manfred.  The small details look amazing!

 

Mike.

Edited October 12, 2022 by crowe-t

[spaceman]

Thanks Mike for your nice compliment. 

Sometimes it's to tear one's hair or like herding cats,  but it's still fun. 

[CaptKirk]

This production line of 8 pieces rather reminds me of RichO's creations!!

[spaceman]

OMG Kirk, I think that this is a rumor. 

[CaptKirk]

Soon you'll be casting thousands of track links...

[spaceman]

But not in this life anymore ... 

[spaceman]

Hello friends,

 

after carefully cutting out the holder,  I held it in tweezers and carefully smoothened it for a while at the top side with my finest TAMIYA Diamond file for photo-etched parts, measured its height again and again and compared the contours with the STS-132 -Photo, 

 

Source: amazon.de

 

until I was halfway satisfied with this prototype, which differs pleasantly from my first guinea pig (above). 

 

 

In order to make my work easier when making the remaining 7 holders, I've bored a small hole (Ø 0,3 mm) at the location of the upper leverage axis, which I can now transfer to the rest of the holders and then pre-drill, which will hopefully make marking the upper contour easier.  

 

So far for the theory, let's see if it works like that. 

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

since the one-off production in this way is a bit too tricky and time consuming and the shape of the parts is also not very reproducible,  

 

 

 

 

 

I switched to a kind of small series production.  To do this, I drilled through a strip at the linkage axis (Ø 0,3 mm) and then this strip with 7 other strips, with the lower contour cut out,  as well superimposed as possible and clamped in scissor tweezers.
 
Then I carefully drilled through the entire bundle and pushed a steel wire (Ø 0,3 mm) through the hole, whereby the bundle is at least fixed to the rod axis. 

 

Then I smoothed the bundle a bit on the underside and on both ends to compensate for small differences and to set a uniform length of 11 mm.  

 

 

And as one can see on this image, the bundle fits well to the curve of the Balsa jig and hopefully also later on the canister doors.

 

 

Now I can take the bundle apart again and trace the upper contours individually,  whereby the position of the stripes is fixed by the wire. Then the upper contours are cut out one by one as close as possible,  and put the bundle back together. 

 

Then I'll try to smoothen this narrow bundle to an even shape at the top and hope I can do that. 

[spaceman]

Good morning everybody,

 

and I proceeded in exactly the same way and drew the upper contours of the individual sickles one after the other using my original form on the remaining 7 Styrene Sheets (0,13 mm), 

 

 

whereby the original form always has been fixed by the steel wire (Ø 0,3 mm) and by a tape strip on a Balsa plate.

 

 

Then I've carefully cut out the top sides of the sickles with the nail scissors as close to the contour as possible,  which was a very tedious and stressful affair, since the part had to be re-clamped several times in the scissor tweezers, which meant that the strip that was accessible became narrower and narrower. 

 

 

Then I threaded all the sickles on the wire in reverse order, whereby my original form (1) came to lay at the front position. 

 

 

All my subsequent attempts to evenly trim this aligned, narrow bundle on the top were ultimately unsuccessful, despite all efforts to clamp and fix it somehow,  which is why I unfortunately had to give up this approach. 

 

 

Instead, I started by smoothing each of the 7 sickles individually at the top side to the shape of the original form in front of me, 

 

 

for what I held them in different positions in the tweezers and worked the upper contour with different files for so long, 

 

 

until I was reasonably satisfied with their shape and almost a twin had been formed. 

 

 

I then put the first pair of twins on a Styrene rod (Ø 0,3 mm) as a rod axis, 

 

 

and immediately tried a test fitting on the canister, which looked quite promising, 

 

 

which gives me courage to work on the remaining sickles in the same way, so that I end up with 4 pairs of twins for the Door Actuators on the doors. 

 

So far for today. 

Edited October 18, 2022 by spaceman

[spaceman]

Hello everybody,

 

before I turn towards the remaining sickles, I took a closer look at the linkages of the upper Door Actuators and thought about how and from what I could best scratch these filigree individual parts, whereby it is always important for me to understand the interaction of the components of an assembly and their function to some extent. 

 

And for this it is always worth looking at detailed photos with high resolution from different perspectives, like this one here of the upper linkage in the folded state, which I want to reproduce, 

 

Source: NASA (STS-132)

 

as well as here in the unfolded state, in which one can see some details on the two rotary axes more clearly. 

 

After a close look at the linkage, its lower part seems to be a coherent strut construction, which I have marked in blue, 

 

Source: NASA (STS-135)

 

which this photo in the zoom also seems to confirm.  The longer support strut lies on top of it, which is rotatably mounted at the upper end between the side parts. 

 

Source: NASA (STS-132)

 

Before opening the doors, both linkages of the door drives are folded out and screwed together, thus forming their upper supports, which are taken up by the drives on the canister walls on which the opened doors rest.

 

For replicating the individual parts this photo of the STS-125 is ideal suitable, on which I determined the dimensions of the most important parts and immediately searched for suitable material in my inventory. 

 

Source: NASA (STS-125)

 

I started with the lower rotary axis, for which I used an Evergreen strip (0,5 mm x 0,5 mm), on which the four struts are attached, which are probably welded together to a kind of a fork.  

 

Then I glued the upper rotary axis on one side with MEK, adjusted the distance between the two sickles with a suitable spacer (3 mm), 

 

 

and then glued the axle on the other side as well, 

 

 

and separated its overhang. 

 

For the longer rod attached to the upper axis of rotation, I first glued a rod (Ø 0,25 mm) onto a small styrene triangle (0,13 mm), which is not entirely correct since the bar actually sits between the triangles. 

 

 

For the struts of the small fork, I first used Evergreen Strips (0,25 mm x 0,5 mm). 

 

 

But when I had laid on the longer rod and compared this thing with the filigree structure of the side parts (0,13 mm),

 

 

I saw that the proportions couldn't be right, which didn't convince me overall and therefore couldn't stay like this. 

 

 

So I measured all the dimensions again more precisely, after which I used a rod (Ø 0,3 mm) and ground off the Evergreen strips (0,25 mm x 0,5 mm) for the struts between two cosmetic polishing files to a thickness of approx. 0,15 mm,  what should then match better with the sickles. 

 

Then I also had the daring idea  to glue the rod between the triangles, that only had a usable side length for clamping of about 1,5 mm, which is why I was rather skeptical about being able to glue them accurately to the rod. 

 

 

But that was too much of a good thing, which is why I remembered to another solution,  which I have used already successfully in such cases several times, namely with the MLP-SSWS-Pipes, and most recently also with the Crawler Gear Boxes. 

 

 

OMG, that was already 6 years ago ... 

 

So I've cut narrow Styrene strips (0,13 mm) with the height of these triangles (1,2 mm) and glued them from both sides onto the rod (Ø 0,3 mm), which could still be done with appropriate fixation, 

 

 

and with the necessary patience and caution. 

 

 

Here's a comparison of both variants, whereby one hopefully can see the difference. 

 

 

And then the strips only needed to be carefully cut off at an angle, 

 

 

and with this result I was more like satisfied already. 

 

 

As a test, I've laid this rod on top of the rotary axis, which of course it will later be glued in front of the axis. 

 

 

So the picture is slowly rounding itself off, and with it I want to leave it at that for today and wish you a pleasant evening. 

Edited October 24, 2022 by spaceman