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

[beckychestney]

<- This one looks about right to describe my expression!

[spacerunner]

Thanks Becky,
but the show, or better the madness must go on ...

Keep your head!

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,

well, if nobody has an idea, then I have to think for myself.

After a long period of testing, I have managed to position the support clamped in tweezer nearly in the middle of the 0.7 mm wide strip fixed between two rulers, and to brush it carefully on both sides with MEK.

And here is the result of my first test.



Afterwards, I've carefully cut off the ends of the strip, and the first prototype of such a support is finished.





And so it looks like with provisorally placed gutter on the support.





But when I imagine that I have to tinker about 32 pieces of this support type, which somehow have to be glued with CA on the gutters, then a rather queasy feeling is creeping over me already ...

But let's look, time will tell ...

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,
on my macros it always looks so huge. But that is not the case, how this photo here from my normal working position at the desk shows, whereby I hope that you do not ask now, where the support is ...



The problem with this matter is the extremely difficult handling of these tiny parts, as well as their fragility, since the bottom edge of the sickle is only 0.1 mm "wide".

But by the glueing with the lower flange the things at least stand upright, which might perhaps facilitate the later assembly on the gutter.

The stupid is only that there are hardly any suitable places to grab with the tweezer, because only the front approximately 1 mm long but very narrow part (0.3 mm) comes into question, since the lower edge (0, 6 mm x 1.6 mm) must be accessible for the MEK brush.

The tip of the scissors tweezer is almost too large and also squeezes this front narrow web too much, which is why you need a different solution.

I had first helped me with a clamp over a normal tweezer, whose bite was tolerable thereby.



And this clamp handle must now be positioned only still centrically over the fixed narrow strip, and then the pointed MEK brush comes.

For glueing together the supports onto the gutter I imagine that I fix the gutter with the rounding upwards at an end stop, and then the supports are sinked in the clamp grip over the roundness and carefully painted with MEK, after which they hopefully stick. This sounds adventurous indeed, but could work.

Before the assembly of the gutter, the next tricky procedure of the airbrush painting would come, presumably first outside and then inside, for which I still have to think over a skillful holder for these fragile structures.

And not until then when the complete gutter is painted with all the supports, it can be glued to the top edge of the MLP, what is still a mystery to me.

But somehow I'll make it, I think, even if the gutters should get some bumps, but the real gutters had also their traces of usage back then ...


Source: NASA
But initially I still have to struggle with the rest of the supports ...

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,

in the meantime I have refined my previous clamping device and stabilized it.

For this purpose, I fixed my most pointed tweezers with the support between magnets on a steel plate so that the lower edge of the support rests planar on the web strip, which is also fixed between two steel rulers.

The clamp is required because the tweezer is non-magnetic. In the clamped state, I could now take them away, because the magnets are strong enough, but it does not interfere, because the splice is freely accessible with the MEK brush. And besides, nothing should shift.
This is by the way the finest marten brush (5/0), which I could find.



The advantage of this arrangement is that I can position the rulers with the inserted strip relatively easily and above all fairly precisely centrally under the support by careful shifting and can then lower it.



And with the necessary calm and patience I will manage it already.

[spacerunner]

Hello everybody,

a friend from the Raumcon Forum has sent me two special clamps, which of course had to be tried immediately.

Their function is relatively simple. As can be seen in the picture, when the two parts are pressed together, a small, opening clamp is pushed out of the tube, with which the part can be gripped.



When releasing, the clamp snaps the part and is retracted by an internal return spring, but in this way also thin or narrow parts with diameters/widths ≤ 1 mm, which would not be good for my dainty supports.

While the upper 1.5 mm wide strip stops before the opening of the tube, the lower 0.8 mm wide strip would be pulled in by the spring force of this original clamp.



Therefore my friend has inserted a weaker spring in the lower clamp, whereby the pull-back force can be dosed, but now the stability of the clamp grip is now no longer sufficient to be able to position parts like my supports exactly before gluing.



Therefore these clamps are unfortunately not suitable for the handling of these tiny supports, but for other purposes they could be quite useful. It would be more convenient for the handling, if the inner clip could be rotated by 90°, what might be possible.

That's why I've continued fiddling around with it, and I came up with the idea of converting my adjustable cutting compass to an adjustable "tweezer", that's why I replaced the tip by inserting a second cutting edge.



As a result, the support can be clamped on a suitable base between the two cutting edges so that the clearance under the support corresponds approximately to the thickness of the strip on which the support is to be glued.



Depending on the strength of the clamping grip of the cutting edges, the position of the support can also be adjusted relatively easily in this way.



This clamping device can also be easily transferred to the sheet metal and fixed in the mini-vice.



And after centering the support over the strip, the strip can then be glued in flat contact with MEK.



This new method is much simpler and above all more stable than the previous somewhat wobbly arrangement with the tweezer fixed between the magnets and the top clamp.

[elliott]

Genius! I've said it before and I'll say it again - Genius!

[spacerunner]

Thanks elliott for your nice compliment,

I'm very impressed.

[spacerunner]

Hello folks,

and forward with the gutter-supports, which still keep me in breath.

Next, the lower edges still had to be beveled. These are admittedly only about 0.4 mm, but in hindsight these edges should also fairly look uniform, which is why one needs a stop too.

For this I have clamped the supports under a steel ruler and so aligned that only a 0.3 mm long corner has looked out from under the ruler, which I have adjusted by applying a 0.3 mm wide strip.



And these tiny corners were then cut off with the cutter chisel at the ruler.



This was followed by the bonding of the supports with MEK on the lower support strip according to my new method,



whereby the central alignment on the strip takes most of the time, especially if the front edge of the support is to be positioned precisely over the front edge of the strip.



My new pointed brush has proven itself in any case and was also necessary for brushing of the tiny contact line with MEK.



After that, only the strip at the rear edge needed to be cut off,



and the next support was ready.





And so I have now at least already a pair,



which I have tested under the gutter, which I liked definitely.



And so it can go on ...

[elliott]

Looking good Manfred. So...how many more to do? <evil grin>