Apollo Saturn V and LUT

[bglasford1]

I have almost completed this model.  All that is left a few last minute parts on the Colby crane and the control box since I chose to automate the crane and add lights and flashing obstruction lights.  This has been a two year endeavor.  I will not repeat the build log here, just give an overview.  As before, all my parts are free and out on https://www.printables.com/@bglasford1 if you want to build one of these monsters.  Why 3D printing?  I can build any part I want and print it myself without all the tedium of working with styrene, balsa wood, etc.  I am now over the whole Bondo and painting thing as long as I can find the plastic filament in the correct color.  I do still spray paint where needed or if the color is not available.  I have already decided the orange for the shuttle external fuel tank is not available so I know I will be painting that part of the model.  I have thrown away my original crappy 3D printer and have two state of the art filament printers.  For the really small parts there are resin printers which rival injection molded parts.  Here is a printed emergency shower along with eye wash station and drinking fountain that existed at each level.  I have also seen a few of these on the shuttle launcher, RSS and FSS.

 

And here it is installed.

[bglasford1]

The Saturn V rocket was created by someone else and can be downloaded for a minimal fee from Cults 3D.  All of the original NASA documents are available from the LUTGroup at https://groups.io/g/LUTGroup.  They have been invaluable and are a wealth of knowledge.  I could not have built this model without them.  The build log is on their site.  You have to create an account on the LUTGroup site and also create an account on their auxiliary site at http://www.spacemodels-forum.com.  The reason I want to use this site to document the space shuttle build is these people seem mainly interested in the Apollo program.  

 

There was a free model out there but it was really crude as are many of the models from the plastic model vendors.  Once I started digging into the NASA documentation I realized it was not sized correctly and I was going to have to go down a really long road and get really good at drawing CAD parts.  Fortunately there is guy, aviator67, who created may of the equipment parts that sit on the various levels.  That still left me with over 4,000 parts to build.  

 

I will just get right to the final product.  Here it is, all except for the crane on top.  Yes, this is the first model I have ever built that needed a step stool as part of the building process.

 

 

[bglasford1]

Here are few detailed pictures.  This is a winch on level 360 that is used to raise and lower the DRRS arm that stabilizes the top of the rocket.  I used a surprising amount of thread as cables for this arm and to retract the other arms.

 

Here is a sample of one of the levels, level 260-280.  You can see a pair of water methanol units that look like some sort of A/C unit.  There are a whole lot of cable trays, both vertical and horizontal.  

 

There are not only anemometers on the very top but also midway up along with an antenna to send the radio signal results.

[bglasford1]

The swing arms were also models unto themselves.  I chose to have them moveable so they can retract against the tower.  Each one seemed to be designed by a separate group as each one had its own retract mechanism.  That and they had a whole lot of pipes and cables.  Here is swing arm #4.  You can see the amount of pipes on this side.  The small grey pipes are 1mm wide.  

 

Here is some of the detail on the end of swing arm #1 in the magnifying glass.  Yes, you can print very small parts with a 3D printer.  

 

Here is the inside of the escape cage.  Once the rest of the cage was assembled you can hardly see the seats but I know they are there.

[bglasford1]

Here are some crane pictures.  Yes, the door opens and closes. 

 

The crane will rotate and the hoist will go up and down thanks to stepper motors.  Here is the trolley and hoist hook.  The trolley has 10 parts and 8 bearings.  There are four grey pulleys that rotate.  I was amazed how small a bearing you can get.  The rails are steel colored because I learned how to switch filament color part way through a print.  

 

Here are the end pulleys.

 

[bglasford1]

And here is the automation.  The winch pulley that raises and lowers the hoist.

 

And the other stepper motor that rotates the crane along with a slip ring so the crane can rotate indefinitely.

 

All this is going into the machinery house.

[bglasford1]

Anyway, enough of the LUT and the Apollo.  Now on to the Space Shuttle...

[dustiepal]

This is amazing, I have a 1/144 LUT from Launch Complex Models but this looks way better. What printer do you recomend.

 

Thanks;

Dave

[bglasford1]

Dave,

 

Thanks.  There are a few other people that are scaling the model down to 1/144.  I started with a Flashforge but it was crap.  I couldn't get rid of the elephant foot problem with the first layer no matter how hard I tried.  I then bought a Prusa MK3 in kit form.  It was easy to put together.  You still had to fiddle with getting the first layer at just the right height but once I dialed it in the Flashforge was history.  I have since upgraded the MK3 to a MK4 and bought another MK4.  These printers are great.  The first layer is automatically calculated, the servos are twice as accurate, the prints are twice as fast, the user interface was upgraded along with the computer, the print head is completely redesigned.  One of the MK3 fans was defected and after talking with the help desk they overnighted a new fan for free from Prague.  Overall I am extremely satisfied with this printer.  Josef Prusa is really moving forward the state of the art in 3D printers.  

[bglasford1]

The crane machinery house is just about complete.  The code has been written and tested for the two Arduinos.  Once the hoist winch was glued into place I had just enough room on one side to glue in the Arduino mount.  The two stepper motor control boards would not lay flat so I glued the mounts back to back and then glued them at an angle to be able to access both boards.  I also added a C-shaped part to hold wires out of the way and away from the winch.  These are glued to the inside roof of the fixed machinery house roof.   Now I need to wire everything up to the Arduino.

 

[dustiepal]

1 hour ago, bglasford1 said:

Dave,

 

Thanks.  There are a few other people that are scaling the model down to 1/144.  I started with a Flashforge but it was crap.  I couldn't get rid of the elephant foot problem with the first layer no matter how hard I tried.  I then bought a Prusa MK3 in kit form.  It was easy to put together.  You still had to fiddle with getting the first layer at just the right height but once I dialed it in the Flashforge was history.  I have since upgraded the MK3 to a MK4 and bought another MK4.  These printers are great.  The first layer is automatically calculated, the servos are twice as accurate, the prints are twice as fast, the user interface was upgraded along with the computer, the print head is completely redesigned.  One of the MK3 fans was defected and after talking with the help desk they overnighted a new fan for free from Prague.  Overall I am extremely satisfied with this printer.  Josef Prusa is really moving forward the state of the art in 3D printers.  

Thanks for getting back to me and your recomadations. I am probably looking at a printer in the 400 to 500 dollar range like an Elegoo Neptune 4 pro 3D printer Printer. I am new at the game and just trying to figure out what I need. Again thank you for your help and I really like you LUT.

 

Dave

[bglasford1]

Sure, no problem.  Whatever printer you select, research how you adjust the first layer.  Typically the first layer is 0.2mm thick.  You want it to be within about 0.01 to 0.02mm tolerance.  The Flashforge had these three hand wheels and a little microswitch that switchblades down to make the adjustments.  I ended up using a feeler gauge trying to get the adjustment correct and could never get there.  It also printed on glass so you had to use a glue stick to get the part to adhere.  Very messy.  The Prusa uses a specially coated removable panel that you flex and the part just pops off.  No glue, no mess.  Other than that most printers in a given price range should be about the same.

[bglasford1]

The Apollo LUT and Saturn V is now complete!!!  It has been quite a journey building this model and digging through all the NASA documents to build the printable parts. The lights turn on/off, the obstruction lights blink, the crane rotates CW/CCW and the hoist operates.  

[dustiepal]

That is amazing!

 

Dave

[Dutch]

Absolutely beautiful!

 

[Whiskey]

Holy cow this is awesome! I want this in my classroom!

[bglasford1]

Thanks for all the praise.