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Apollo Saturn V and LUT

This is a 1/60 scale model of the Saturn V and Launcher - Umbilical Tower. This model is huge! I have been working on it for two years.

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This model is now complete. The files are all out on Printables.com. I have been documenting this build on spacemodels-forum but this site is a bit unresponsive so I have moved the material over to this site. This model has been split up into numerous model parts. Start with the Apollo Umbilical Tower - New model. This is the overview that contains all the overview documents and no parts.

Warning: This model is not a beginner project. There are over 5,600 parts. You should be familiar with 3D printing as you have to decide how to orient parts to print and whether or not you need supports.

You should start by gathering information about the model.  There is no detailed step by step assembly instructions as that would take years and be thousands of pages.  Start by joining the LUT Group at https://groups.io/g/LUTGroup.  Go in and download as much information as you can.  The two most important documents are 75M-05120 and 75M-05121.  These are original NASA documents used to build the LUT.  The MicroArtwork is an invaluable resource.  The other important documents are the floor plans showing where all the equipment is placed.  This is in the CatoLibrary -> LUT Drawings -> 79K-00403 - LUT 3 Area Alloc.  Another major resource can be found on the TurboSquid website.  Search for Apollo LUT.  There are many 3D views that are invaluable.  

The model you need for the entire model are the Saturn V rocket which can be found at https://www.chronic3d.com/ with the four model parts purchased on https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/apollo-15-saturn-5-pack-1-4-etage-s1c.  

The next part you need is the launcher which can be found at https://www.printables.com/model/621901-apollo-umbilical-tower-new.  The launcher is made by skinning a wooden box.  There are other various models referenced in the build.  This has been a collaborative effort.  

The umbilical tower is the hardest part by far.  This consists of the following models.  

  1. Structure Level 0-30 - Complete
  2. Structure Level 30-60 - Complete
  3. Structure Levels 60-380 - Complete
  4. Mid-Floor Structures - Complete
  5. Elevator - Complete
  6. Stairs - Complete
  7. Flooring - Complete
  8. Railing - Complete
  9. Equipment - Complete
  10. Cable Trays - Complete
  11. Lights - Complete
  12. Cameras - Complete
  13. Anemometer - Complete
  14. Motor Housing - Complete
  15. Piping Side 1 - Complete
  16. Piping Side 2 - Complete
  17. Piping Side 3 - Complete
  18. Piping Side 4 - Complete
  19. Swing Arm Common - Complete
  20. Swing Arm #1 - Complete
  21. Swing Arm #2 - Complete
  22. Swing Arm #3 - Complete
  23. Swing Arm #4 - Complete
  24. Swing Arm #5 - Complete
  25. Swing Arm #6 - Complete
  26. Swing Arm #7 - Complete
  27. Swing Arm #8 - Complete
  28. Swing Arm #9 - Complete
  29. DRRS - Complete
  30. Crane - Complete

I would highly recommend lighting the model.  The lights are not too hard to make and really add to the look of the model by lighting the dark interior of the levels, even in the daytime.  

  • Colby Crane

    wglasford12/28/2023 at 15:55 0 comments

    The Colby crane is the final, crowning achievement of the LUT.  The crane is going to be automated in that it will rotate and the hook will raise/lower.  Notice that I intended to use the crane model by CristineZ as is but the more I dug into it the more I realized how incorrect various aspects are.  I will attempt to use as many of these parts as possible but if the part is incorrect I will redesign and publish the new part.

    A question was asked on the space-models forum about a flashing light on top of the model, which would have to be on top of the crane.  Here is GTGeo's response:

    The top of the lightning mast had a light and there was a Crouse-Hinds FCB-12 flashing beacon on top of the crane above the door to the machinery house.

    Ahh, a vintage airport beacon. I will have to model that. I was wondering what that thing was. I was unable to upload the manual but a quick internet search shows two lights inside a round fresnel lens. I am definitely going to have to get some clear PLA.

    Here is my version of the beacon for the top of the crane.

    Oh wait, that's not it. Here it is. I like the way the clear PLA printed up as a fresnel lens. I may re-print this with a darker grey.

    New crane automation design: The old design, using two continuous servos, was proving to be a bad design. The servo will work well for the winch motor but not to rotate the crane. To get the speed down low enough, from 110 RPM to something reasonable was requiring too many gears and modifications to some of the underside carrier beams. After sleeping on it I have redesigned the crane rotation using a fairly standard micro stepper motor. This motor (28BYJ-48) is small but has internal gearing to get it down to 15 RPM. The redesign uses the same Kingpin with a 36 tooth gear versus 48 tooth gear. No idler gearing is required. A 12 tooth gear will press fit onto the motor shaft. This gear combination will get the rotation down to 5 RPM. The stepper motor is large enough, 28mm diameter, that I had to redesign the I-beams that run under the floor. The motor mount that holds the stepper motor and slip ring will notch into these I-beams. Carrier beam #3 gets moved out a bit to make room but none of these cross beams have to be redesigned and this beam is within the large outer main roller base so the fact that it has moved will hardly be visible. This design will be more compact, stronger and more elegant.

    And now for the more interesting part of the redesign. There are six wires going into the crane with two of them already dedicated to the fixed lights. That leaves four wires for the automation. A stepper motor requires 4 wires to run with another two for power, one for the servo and an additional two to flash the top beacon. The solution that I have had in my back pocket all along is to put a slave Arduino inside the crane. To run the slave Arduino using the I2C protocol requires 4 wires, power, ground, SDA and SCL. I will create a simple protocol where a one byte command is sent, giving 256 possible commands. Currently I can think of 10 commands; all stop, rotate crane clockwise, rotate crane counterclockwise, crane stop, winch in, winch out, winch stop, beacon on, beacon off and flash beacon. This is similar to the protocol I built for my Mars rover project. The one bit of caution I read about is that the stepper motor should be connected directly to the power source and not have its power routed through the Arduino. Fortunately all of these parts run using 5 volts.

    Here is a first cut at a wiring diagram. All the individual capabilities have been tested out using a single Arduino. Now to write the code to get things split between two Arduinos and get all the functionality driven via software interrupts.

    Here's a question for everyone regarding the steps on either side of the crane going down to the level 380 floor. The structural diagrams I have found so far agree with the turbo squid drawings...

    Read more »

  • DRRS Arm

    wglasford12/28/2023 at 15:35 0 comments

    The DRRS is a motion dampener arm that attaches to the escape tower.  Here is a perspective drawing of the arm. 

    Here is a DRRS counter weight. I used the Aviator67 parts with the addition of a small pulley.

    And here they are installed. Make sure not to glue the bottom to level 320 as that is part of Section #6. On the left you can see an I-beam spanning L320 to L340. You should not glue this beam at both the top and the bottom otherwise you won't be able to separate Sections #6 and #7. I chose to glue it to L320 since the DRRS is glued to this beam and the outer beam of the swing arm support structure. This way both of these are attached to Section #6 and therefore the DRRS will be part of this section. Only the strings will go between the DRRS and Section.

    I have also created and printed the end of the DRRS arm. This part is split into two parts that are glued together.

    DRRS Arms: Get out your fine tip glue bottle. Instead of angling the joints at 45 degrees I chose to have butt joints that inset into the other pieces. The parts are pretty flimsy but once glued together they are surprisingly strong.

    Once the arms are glued up I attached the hinges. The parts include small printed pins but I got better results with small pieces of red wire.

    I then glued the small radiator loops to the end part.

    Here are the arms attached.

    DRRS Arm Installed: Here it is retracted. The cables are not yet attached.

    And here it is with the cables attached. You can see the drain lines that hang under the arms.

    The DRRS Arm is now complete. Here is a final picture of the tower with all its little doo-dads.

    And here is the business end of the arm.

  • Swing Arm #9

    wglasford12/14/2023 at 21:30 0 comments

    All swing arms have common parts except SA9. After drawing up the new hinges I realized for some reason I made the side 4 support column way too narrow. A simple change to the width and a reprint gave a column that supports the new hinges, so I cut the old column off the model. Even though these side 4 parts are not truly common, the common swing arm parts are the best match so I have published these parts and declared success on the swing arm common parts.

    Here is the swing arm #9 box. This arm is so long only the top and bottom can be printed as one piece if you turn it sideways. The sides had to be printed as two parts, the first and second elements.

    Here you can see that the arm narrows midway. To keep things straight and looking good I printed them as part that you will need to bend a bit. I held each part with pliers right where it should bend and pushed a bit.

    As always, before gluing the bottom on I installed the lights. Here is the arm boxed in with the lights installed and lit. I later realized the lights on the second element are incorrect, they should be swapped side for side. You will see this in later pictures.

    I went ahead and used aviator67's white room. The dimensions are not exact. When I tried to mate up the walkway to the door. The door is too narrow and tall. The overall height seems correct, but you can see in the picture below the indent for the doorway hangs below the walkway. That's OK because there will be cables obscuring this.

    The plate around the doorway is also too narrow. From the top view you can see that I simply shifted the walkway towards the bellows to leave enough of a gap for the angled plate that will be attached later. In the end no one will notice and I really don't want to redesign the white room. I can tell a lot of work went into this.

    The white room was looking like a large white blob so I added some piping.

    Swing Arm #9 is ready to be installed.

    Swing Arm #9 is now installed. You can see it swung out as well as attached to the CM.

    Before adding the SA9 walkway there are a few pipes that need to be added. Here are the pipes going to SA8.

    Another thing to add before the walkway goes on is the latchback mechanism. This is a good time to swing SA9 completely around to get the mechanism in the correct location. There is a gap in the walkway and the walkway is level with the top of the mechanism.

    And here is the installed walkway without the railings. Notice on side 4 there is a control console mounted to the floor I-beams. This walkway is not only the most complex, you have to be careful because it is right at the break between section #6 and section. 

    SA9 walkway is complete. Here are the inner rails.

    The outer rails on Side 4 have to fold down so SA9 can latch. Here are the counter weights.

    And here are the completed walkways. In the last picture you can see a black/yellow sticker.

    The last part of SA9 is what Micro-Artwork calls the rail car (the escape mechanism). Here is the inside with three rows of seats installed.

    Before installing there are bumpers to install.

    And here is the completed rail car ready to install.

    And here is the installed rail car with the cables and such.

  • Section #7

    wglasford12/07/2023 at 21:11 0 comments

    Motor Housing: The motor housing is complete except for the stairs. In the first picture you can see the floor beams with the grating cut to shape. I didn't make a specific grating. Just print up the standard grating and then cut out the hole shown. The grating and lower support structure are dry stacked. When I get to this level there is a stair railing that goes under the motor house. You can see the detail on the I-beams, even on the inside because why not. The lower section is glued together as is the floor and upper walls. I like the way the louvers printed. The roof is just laying on top. I still need to figure out how I'm going to get six brightly colored wires up to the next level. I may hollow out one of the 12" cross braces. A word of warning: The stiffeners on all the outside walls are really fragile. Be careful and you may only break off one or two like I did. I simply glued them back on. Fortunately they were on the lower walls.

    Level 320-340 core is complete. This section really locks in well at the side 1/4 corner with two support columns and their tabs that fit into the floor I-beams. There is still a little bit more piping above and below this floor. There is a funky joint in the lower ECS pipe. The additional piping above/below the floor is part of the water pipe going over to the swing arms.

    And just when you though the tower legs were getting too spindly... I give you the last taper to the final I-beam size.

    Level 340 equipment in place. There is almost no equipment on this level. The build is definitely gaining speed because of this. I decided to include the little yellow box shown on Turbo Squid because why not.

    Thinking ahead... At the next level I have to route six wires up into the crane. The wires have been routed up through the elevator shaft but that avenue ends at the motor housing. I don't want strange wires coming out of the top of the motor housing. As you just saw the legs are spindly I-beams that won't hide anything. The only real alternative I saw was to hollow out one of the 12" diagonal braces. Success! This will work. at the lower corner the wires will go down through the floor grating and along the floor I-beams to the elevator shaft. At the other end the large gusset will hid the exit of the wires which will be glued to the inside of one of the central I-beams on the L380 floor to the center where they will run up into the crane compartment through the king pin.

    Just finished printing the L380 I-beam structure. Of the thousands of parts I had to design, this one took by far the longest time to draw up. This is the part I am most proud of. It still needs the underside flanges and braces glued on. And of course the top surface you see will be covered by a solid floor.

    Ironing on the old crappy printer was really bad, so bad that I went with plastic sheeting for the launcher top. Ironing on the Prusa is really impressive.

    A big thanks to John for designing and printing me a set of showers/eye wash station/water fountain parts. They are so small you need a resin printer which I don't have. To really appreciate the parts you need to look at them through a lighted magnifying glass. They definitely add great detail to the model. I added the first one to L240 since there is not much equipment here where the shower goes.

    Now that I am satisfied with the direction the crane is going and understand the wiring and the way the crane will connect I am back to building the core of Section #7. I first glued up the next two levels on the model to make sure everything was straight. Now I can remove the top section and work on it on the bench. Yet another good reason to assemble this model in removable sections.

    The amount of detail in your LUT is mind boggling. From the corrections of items to the collaborations between different parts and people plus all the contributions from the LUT patrons/followers that are used is staggering.
    I’ve ghosted this topic since it the “LUT” was on the original website...

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  • Swing Arm #8

    wglasford12/07/2023 at 20:37 0 comments

    Swing Arm #8: For all the arms I suggest keeping the bottom off until you get the lights installed to give room for soldering. For this swing arm all the wires and pipes run inside the arm so keep the bottom plate off until you are ready to mount the arm. Here I have added the lights and then cables running down both sides. Notice the cable racks glued to the inside sides. Outside of the bulkhead there is a winch structure that has to be added since the first light to wire is a flood light pointing towards the rocket.

    For the first time I decided to do multi-color prints. The Prusa slicer does this with ease. The silver/black part is on the rocket side of the bulkhead. The cables on the left side end at this plate. The other part is a box on top of the arm. Instead of trying to model the box and tray separately simply print the tray in red then change over to silver. I even changed out to yellow for 3 layers per the Turbo Squid drawings. Adding latches was a bridge too far. These parts are small.

    Swing Arm #8 is ready to attach. This has been one of the easier arms. I am getting smarter as I go. One trick I learned is to leave the flexible hoses unglued at the connector. Once all the hoses are on you can rotate the hoses to get the connector plate to line up. The winch cable (thread) helps align the connector plate as well and gets it the correct distance. In the second picture you can see the two color plate glued to the bulkhead.

    Swing Arm #8 Complete: There is always something new with each swing arm. You can see in the first picture that the pipe support I-beam ends at the bottom of the support column for swing arm #9. They included another level of that I-beam moved over to the right. Both swing arm #8 and #9 have support brackets that hold up the walkway attached to this I-beam. Instead of having one run of stairs they chose to have one set from the floor up just enough to get these support brackets installed and then there is another run up to the level of the arm. Only one more swing arm left and it looks like they saved the best for last. This feels like the nose bleed section of the tower. The two step stool may not be high enough to complete the model.

  • Section #6

    wglasford12/03/2023 at 23:21 0 comments

    Looking ahead: Only 6 more levels split between two sections remain along with two more swing arms plus the DRRS and of course the crane. The legs and floors from this point on will have to be redesigned to make them lock together better. The vertical braces will be lengthened. The next section will be the last to lock together with square pegs. The last section will be more interesting. I will probably extend the support and locking columns on Side 1 their entire remaining length. There are new support and locking columns on Side 4 to support swing arm #9. These will also be extended up at least one level. This should support the last section on two sides. To continue the build I will need to bring in a step stool to access these higher levels.

    The higher up legs and floor beams have been redesigned so the legs set down into the floor beams. This alone will work well for the glue joints but my worry is the removable joints between Sections 6 and 7. The legs are getting awfully spindly. The Columns Decoded spreadsheet shows these legs are 6.6 x 6.6mm with the next level being 6.2 x 6.2mm and the last two legs are 5.9 x 4.2mm. For this last section joint I plan to add small square pieces that are glued to the top of L320 just behind the 12" cross braces. You can see where these will go in the picture below. I places a pair of silver filament pieces where they will go. These will help stabilize the joints. For additional support, on Side 1 the support and locking columns end at L340 so I will extend these up from Section 6. On Side 4 there are support and locking columns for SA9. The locking columns go from L300 to L340 and the support column goes from L300 to L360. I plan to add the locking columns and support column to Section 6. These additions should solidly anchor Section 7. Since the DRRS attaches to the Side 1 support column (Section 6) and the Side1/2 leg (Section 7) I will have to make this part removable.

    Snow Eagle, I used the drawing 75M-05120-013. The overall dimensions of your model should be pretty accurate so base your measurements off of known locations (i.e. the outer edges and engine chamber). Sometimes I have had problems reading some of the measurements so what I do is I have a 6-sided engineering ruler with six different scales divided into 1/10ths. What I do is scale up the drawing on the screen so a known measurement is exact for one of the scales. I then use that scale to measure the unknown measurement. It is not alway exact but it is better than nothing. Here is an example... Your model is looking great! Hope this helps.

    Snow Eagle, 
    Another thought on hatch placement. After laying out the hatches down to the millimeter, before gluing them on, compare the location visually with drawing 75M-05120-012. Measure and pencil in where the tower legs will go along with the elevator. Do the hatches align with each other and with other objects on Level 0? This is probably more important than the exact millimeter location of the hatches.

    The location of the tower legs is much more important to get accurate. Verify the side 1 leg locations line up with the Fixed Support Interfaces per drawing 75M-05120-015 and visually with the actual Fixed Support Interfaces on the side of your model. If the legs don't line up perfectly with the Fixed Support Interfaces, that's all right, just make sure the tower leg locations are exact. All the swing arms will depend on how exact you make the tower location in relation to the engine chamber. The center of the side 1 tower legs should be exactly 50' 0" (254mm at 1/60 scale) to the center of the engine chamber and the engine chamber should be centered on the side 1 tower legs. You may find other measurements off slightly but make sure you nail this measurement. If your engine chamber is off slightly I would shim and modify it before adding the inner chamber panels. You should probably go ahead and cut in the square holes for the tower legs, verify and fix any engine...

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  • Section #5 & Swing Arm #7

    wglasford12/03/2023 at 22:50 0 comments

    As I work on Swing Arm #6 the printers are busy printing parts for the next section. The next section (#5) has an issue. This section was going to consist of the next 3 floors, L240, L260 & L280. At L260-280 the leg columns switch from box beams to I-beams. Once the columns are I-beams, there can no longer be a square peg to secure the legs to the floors. You can see where I designed these legs to fit into the floor above, however the legs simply sit on top a smooth floor surface.

    The way I am going to pivot is to have section #5 consist of the next two floors with section #6 going from 2 to 3 floors. This is the last opportunity to take advantage of the peg legs. So section #5 will consist of L240 and l260. Section #6 will consist of L280, L300 & L320. As a result, section #5 will not have any swing arms and section #6 will have swing arms #7, #8, #9 and the DRRS arm that hold the top of the rocket in place. These two section should be very secure. This leaves the final section (#7) the same, consisting of L340, L360, L380 and the crane. I will need to redesign the way these levels connect, maybe setting the bottom of the legs into the floor a bit and add a V-notch to help stabilize the section. The other important aspect will be to balance the crane so it is not "beam heavy". I see this accomplished by gluing washers or some other heavy objects inside the rear of the crane to offset the beam.

    Looking ahead to Section #5: With the recent design pivot this section will consist of two floors (L240 & L260) and one swing arm (#7). The arm will attach to an extended support column just like with section #4. This section should be very similar to section #4 except there is only one swing arm. The LH2 pipes will end with this section. This section should go faster than the previous section.

    Level 240 core is complete. This is a pretty easy floor because there are no cable trays hanging from the underside of the floor. The E3 pipe goes over towards the next swing arm. The aviator67 pipes for the heat exchanger are sized correctly so all I had to do was design the underside piping. You can see the underside expansion joints on these pipes. I reused the E3 (large) expansion joints. This will be the end of the LH2 pipes. I had to design the two equipment parts related to the round heat exchanger.

    Thanks to aviator67 we have a great looking pair of Water Methanol Units for Level 260.

    Lighting How To: I get smarter the further I go up the tower. Using the level diagram, place the underfloor cable trays onto the floor I-beams. Notice that the floor is upside down and the drawing is right side up. Once you are satisfied that the cable trays are placed correctly, mark the location of each light using a black marker. Each light will be glued over a dot. The ideal location is in the middle of the cross brace. Sometimes the lights need to be moved so they aren't covered by the cable trays. Now it is easy to create the light string and glue them correctly in place, knowing that when it is time to glue on the cable trays they won't conflict with the lights.

    When trying to decipher all the parts I forgot to add the Side 1 cable supports. Those were redesigned into parts that are easier to print along with the actual cables. The easiest way to add these was to remove Sections #4 and #5 from the tower and deal with them separately. You can see the cable supports behind the swing arm support column. The cables are printing. It has proven to be really useful to have the sections removable.

    The core part of Section #5 is complete. This includes another intermediate level, L252. Here are pictures of this level constructed outside the model and then installed. The equipment that sits on top of L260 is installed. I really like the Water Methanol Units that aviator67 created.

    Section 5 Sides 2, 3 & 4 complete: Side 3 is now complete complete, no more pipes higher up. Side 2 has gone from 14...

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  • Swing Arm #5 and #6

    wglasford12/03/2023 at 22:25 0 comments

    As I do more lights I refine the technique. By the time the last light is installed, I should have the technique perfected. For the swing arm lights that hang from the side I now drill two holes in a small square of plastic to thread the leads through. This is then glued to the side of the arm. In lower the arms I have tabs that are printed along with the arm side. That strip of red plastic is like the strips of bass wood I used when building a wooden ship. Just cut off a piece and shape it if you need to tweak an install.

    Swing Arm #5: Built and ready to be attached. For some reason the Turbo Squid decals for some of the arms have two of the four numbers reversed. Not sure why this is. I went ahead and installed them. If this is not correct I can easily re-print and install new ones. Also I have improved the shared part that first showed up on SA4, the bar that the retract cable attaches to has been improved. I will not go back and replace the one on SA4. You can see the new and improved bar in the second and fifth photo.

    Swing Arm #5 attached: Now I need to extend and attach the pipes, the light wires and design and install the walkway.

    Swing Arm #5 is complete! It always looks better with the lights on. I'm really glad I chose to add lights. The second stage can now be fueled. Now on to SA.  

    SA6 Extension: The main part of Swing Arm #6 and the extension platform is complete along with the lights. Now I need to design the rest of the fueling mechanism and the pipes.

    Swing Arm #6 is ready to be installed. This was yet another fairly complicated swing arm. Given the number of arms and the fact that they perform a similar function (connect a bunch of pipes and hoses to a connector plate, attach the plate to the side of the rocket, at the exact time, activate a winch to disconnect the plate and retract the plate and hoses enough for the arm to swing out of the way) you would expect there would be more common parts. Other than the hinges and the first element, almost everything else is unique. Its like the design of each swing arm was given to a separate team of engineers that did not talk to each other. Each arm has a fairly unique retract mechanism (what I chose to call the fueling mechanism). I add as much detail as I can given the scale and then call it good. If you really wanted to make a detailed, fully functioning swing arm model you should scale up to something like 1/30 to 1/20 scale. Each arm would make a very unique and impressive model by itself at a larger scale.

    Swing Arm #6 Complete: This arm and its walkway was easy to attach. Notice that the support column extends beyond the L220 floor. This should help stabilize the next section.

  • Section #4

    wglasford12/03/2023 at 21:53 0 comments

    Level 190: The upper three cable floors are assembled and the pipes in place. The lower part has already been glued to the L180 floor. Because this is where tower sections 3 & 4 split, the upper part will be glued to the underside of L200. Here it is held in place with clothes pins.

    George asked about the angled cable trays. Here are pictures the cable trays for level 180-200. In the first picture you can see CT12 moving over one slot closer to the elevator. In general the wider CTs are bunched up against the back side of the elevator shaft. Two levels lower CT4 ended and CT12 is moving over to take its place. The thinner CTs are bunched towards the outer edge of side 3. One level lower CT 18 ended so at this level CT14 and CT19 moved over one slot. See the next two pictures. In the last picture you can see the end result of the CTs at level 200 before the floor grating is added. From this view you can see that at this level both CT11 and CT7 have ended. You can see how important it is to get the light placement correct so all these cable trays can be glued in without interference.

    Here are the lights for L200 glued in. Notice that I chose to no longer add the black shrink wrap. I think this is a cleaner install and would suggest you do not use shrink wrap. When the lights are glued to the cross braces, the brace keeps the two terminals separated and the resistor is soldered onto the positive wire a bit away from the negative terminal. Use the diagram below in the picture to get the light placement correct. I highlighted the horizontal cable trays in orange. Remember that you will be placing the lights with the floor upside down. It really helps to have the actual cable trays printed so you can dry fit them while placing the lights. It helps to place a small black dot where the lights will be glued. I solder up the entire light strand before gluing them in place.

    I got to the L200 valving and there is an issue with the LOX valving. Up to this point I have been using the Aviator67 valving and have appreciated the fact that I don't have to design these parts. Unfortunately the valve pipes are too large at this level. I think this may be due the farscape1 pipes being the same size all the way up. and not getting smaller as you go up the tower. Here is a picture of how far off the pipe size is.

    Here is the NASA diagram for this valving. Notice that the pipes are 6" and 4" in diameter. This translates to 2.54mm and 1.69mm. The Aviator67 part has these pipes at 4mm and 3mm. 

    The Aviator67 part also did not include the pipes between the two main pipes and did not take into account that these two pipes end at this level so they should down turn. Here is a picture of the two valving pieces side by side. You can see the obvious difference in pipe size.

    Tighten you belt and sharpen your exacto knife because level 200 is the hardest yet. It is really fortunate that this level is removable from the one below it. The underside has plenty of pipes to deal with. The underfloor pipes that attach to the LH2 valving above was interesting. Fortunately the lighting did not get in the way. From the top view there is one storage rack that is missing by the corner of the elevator.

    I was about to add the vertical cable trays between levels 200-220 when I noticed an error in the large cable trays below. They were shifted over one slot. I was able to correct this easily be removing section #4 and ungluing three of the cable trays and gluing them to the correct slots. The center two stayed in place. Here is the corrected picture of the underside.

    Section #4 core is complete. This includes the structure, flooring and railing, equipment, internal piping, cable trays, elevator and stairs. As I work my way up the tower, I am finding a few errors in my work and some missing parts, but the assembly for the most part is going well. Now its on to the external piping and other outer doodads.

    Section #4 Side 2: Complete...

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  • Swing Arm #4

    wglasford11/23/2023 at 23:10 0 comments

    I tied something different with the lights on swing arm #4. Instead of covering the positive side resistor and solder joints with shrink wrap I think it looks better to just leave them exposed. The thin wire is easier to hide behind beams and braces without that thick black shrink wrap. This was the first swing arm that has a light on the bottom, probably to illuminate swing arm. 

    There is quite a bit of detail and mystery inside swing arm #4. The three main sources I am using are TurboSquid, MicroArtwork and the ApolloManiacs pictures/drawings. Unfortunately I missed that the upper end panels of the main gantry are screened in. It was not obvious in the TurboSquid pictures, but is obvious in the ApolloManiacs pictures. If you want to add that I will leave that up to you.

    Beyond that there are obvious cable trays inside the TurboSquid but not the MicroArtwork.

    It is hard to tell with the ApolloManiacs but in the picture I think I can just see the cable trays.

    A search of the internet could not give me a definitive answer, including this picture of swing arm. 

    TurboSquid also shows the three white pipes on the inside of the right side as pipes whereas the MicroArtwork show them as flat ribbon cables. For the most part I will design to the TurboSquid and ApolloManiacs depictions.

    I initially forgot an end light one the inside of the structure. This light had to be added. It was really tight quarters, like the game operations, if you hit any of the plastic it would melt. I'm also glad I didn't use shrink wrap tubing.

    Here are the cable trays inside swing arm #4. I thought about making them grey but went ahead and printed them red. You can see I was just able to glue 3 wires into the ends. The actual arm had many more wires but this was the smallest I had. There should be a set of stair between the cable trays going up to the extension platform, but this space is so small I am not going to add these stairs. The inside space is getting tight. I should have just enough room between the cable trays to squeeze in the lower winch arm.

    Swing Arm #4: I went ahead and added four cables per side that run along the bottom inside corners. These along with the cables from the upper cable trays give me enough to add to the lower front connector along with the other two larger pipes. You can also see that I added the two cable retract mechanisms, one on top and one inside the bump out on the left side. There are also some pipe supports ready for the LH2 pipe. You. can also see that for the pipe retract bumpers the main part is grey and there is a one layer thick black part glued to the front to simulate the rubber. I then drilled a small hole through the middle to run the black thread (cable).

    You need to sharpen your print nozzle and clean the print surface for this part. I think these pipes came out ok. It's getting to where the limits of what you can print is limiting the detail that can be added. I think these pipes are critical for the overall look of this swing arm.

    Swing Arm #4 is installed with the lights and lower pipes connected.

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wglasford wrote 11/20/2023 at 20:28 point

You are welcome.  i have been working on this for over 2 years.  Fortunately there is a LUT Group that is providing me with all the original NASA technical documents and pictures.  

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Dan Maloney wrote 11/20/2023 at 19:47 point

Amazing! What a labor of love! Thanks for sharing

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