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  #2671  
Old 07-24-2022, 03:58 PM
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Hello everybody,

let's go into and win fight for the tenths of a millimeter when gluing the puzzle pieces onto the small transportation plate!

First I intended to do the Tie-down Lug Plate, the three parts of which I glued one after the other with Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK). To do this, I put the middle disc with the snippet and the outer disc on a needle (Ø 0,5 mm), on which I can align both parts precisely beforehand, after which I then paint a brush stroke with MEK, which is enough to glue them together.



Since the hold of the needle on the Balsa board was not stable enough, I've clamped the needle in a clamp and clamped it firmly to the tabletop. After that I was able to align the panes in peace and carefully wet the edges with MEK with the tip of the brush. The bonding can be accelerated by blowing lightly on the splice immediately afterwards, which means that the MEK quickly evaporates and the parts are connected in no time, which I learned from a friend at a trade fair.



Then the needle was clamped around and the other disc was glued on the back in the same way.



Then the opening was re-drilled a little and the thickness of the plate was measured,



which actually stayed within the predetermined range with 0,4 mm.

Then I put the two Hold-down Clevis Plates) on a stick from both sides and measured the thickness of this arrangement,



which with 0,79 mm also remained within the required range (≤ 0,8 mm), which cannot be seen on the caliper rule,



and you just have to believe me.

After that, I could go about gluing the Clevis brackets to the smaller transportation plate with a clear conscience, which I had to think carefully about beforehand, based on the drawing.



These are the two brackets under which the small base plate of the hold-down fork has to fit, for which I have in mind a detachable connection, like at the original, whereby the Clevises can be plugged in for vertical transportation and pulled out for horizontal transportation, what of course complicates the whole thing a bit.



For this I came up with the following solution.

The underside of the outer bracket I've dabbed a drop of the normal Revell glue and set it down with the tweezers against the stop of the steel ruler and immediately checked and slightly corrected its position. Then I supported the gluing with some MEK on both sides and checked the lower free space with a strip (0,4 mm x 1,5 mm).



Gluing the other bracket was inevitably more difficult, which is why I checked its arrangement beforehand and thought about how best to proceed, especially since everything is quickly glued together with the MEK, and inseparably so, which of course shouldn't happen.

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  #2672  
Old 07-24-2022, 03:58 PM
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So I thought about a special fixation for the transport plate, in which it is clamped under a steel ruler, which allows me to align the other holder at another ruler and could adjust the upper and lower opening with appropriate placeholder strips.



After that I've removed the bottom placeholder and gently dabbed the front part of the left bracket with MEK, which held it in place.



Then I've turned the plate over, carefully fixed it again, and then glued the outside of the bracket with MEK.



And after pulling out the upper placeholder strip, this bracket also sits firmly on the base plate.



Now I can think about how I can glue the Clevis plates to their smaller base plate so that the finished Clevis then also fits into the small opening under the brackets,



what should be at least as complicated and exciting.

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  #2673  
Old 07-28-2022, 05:27 AM
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Hello everybody,

and now to the gluing of the Hold-down Clevis onto the small base plate (0,4 mm x 1,3 mm x 2,6 mm), which shouldn't become a cakewalk, because there's hardly any space on this little snippet and handling seemed extremely difficult.

But so far I've always come up with a solution , even if it may have looked adventurous at times.



It would be skillful if one could glue both Clevis plates onto the base plate in one step, for which I carefully grabbed and aligned them with tweezers, with an inserted spacer with the thickness of the Tie-down Lug Plate (0,4 mm), additionally supported by an inserted round rod (Ø 0,5 mm).



Of course, both of these must be firmly clamped and fixed before one can start with gluing, for which again only the MEK glue and a fine pointed red sable brush come into question.



The positioning and alignment of the plates in this tricky holder on the base plate could still be done with a lot of care, patience and finesse, but it became clear to me that the gluing between the two rulers had little chance of success because the [color=blue ]base plate[/color] might also stick to the rulers after wetting it with MEK, which has happened to me before, because the creeping ability of MEK is treacherous and unpredictable.



Therefore it was more advantageous to do without the prepared short base plates and to use a longer strip of the same width (1.3 mm), which is fixed with sufficient overhang between the rulers and can cut off after successful gluing.



This gives you a little more freedom of movement with the brush when wetting the tiny corner, which is at least a small relief. However, there is also a risk of sticking to the cutting mat here, especially since my red sable brush seemed too frayed for that anyway.



That's why I thought about whether it wouldn't be better if I got myself a new red sable brush, and the finest there is.

But just with this consideration, it suddenly made Bang, and my daredevil tweezer holder collapsed, what totally scared me.

Luckily the impaled Clevis plates hadn't flew off and survived the mishap unscathed.
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Under construction:
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Last edited by spacerunner; 07-28-2022 at 05:40 AM.
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  #2674  
Old 07-28-2022, 05:30 AM
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So I've invented a similar holding jig using anantimagnetic tweezers and a smaller clamp, what seemed safer to me,



especially since I was now able to use the more stable Magnet clamping technique again and the areas to be glued were much more accessible from the front too.



And for the MEK gluing I got the finest red sable brush,



whose brand name da Vinci - Maestro alone should guarantee quality,



and has gave me hope with its superfine tip.



And with this solution, I've quite successfully managed to glue the plates together, as one can see here. Only pushing the Clevis plates into the holder was quite difficult, because there was almost no clearance in their opening and the seat was therefore too tight, which I have to take into account with the remaining three Clevis brackets.



After I had carefully sanded out the opening with a strip of sandpaper a little bit, it was much easier to slide it in.



And after I had also smoothed the Tie-down Lug Plate on both sides a bit, it then also fitted well between the Clevis-Fork, wherewith I'm satisfied now.



Taking these findings into account, I should then be able to do the remaining three Clevises as well as the construction of the Transportation plates, which gives me confidence.

After cutting off the protruding base plate, the first of four Clevises is finally finished after a few birth pangs.



I'd rather do without the two handles for handling the original ca. 60 cm high holder,


Source: NASA (STS-135)

since they could just about be made with a length of 1 mm and a diameter of 0,1 mm, but their assembly would then be too risky and overkill.

If I can do the other three hold-down Clevises just as well, then I'll be satisfied already.

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  #2675  
Old 08-04-2022, 08:28 AM
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Hello Guys,

after I did successfully scratch the first Hold-down clevis quite well, I've glued the remaining three clevises together too.

Because the simultaneous gluing of the plates with MEK proved to be too unstable due to the minimal adhesive edges, I proceeded a little differently this time and used my steady hand and my eagle eyes trusted.

This time I fixed the base plate strip (1,3 m) to a steel ruler so that nothing could slip. Then I wet a Clevis plate lightly on the lower edge with Revell glue and carefully close to the edge of the strip (approx. 0,2 mm) placed at its end. After that, there was still enough time for the finest position corrections.

I then glued the other plate in the same way, inserted a spacer strip the thickness of the Tie-down Lug Plate (0,4 mm) between the plates and gently pressed both together with the tweezers. Then the position of the plates was adjusted to each other and the central position of the pair of plates was checked and adjusted if necessary, which worked quite well.

After that, to be on the safe side, I brushed the glued areas of both plates with MEK and cut off the base plate strip flush,



and the second Clevis was done too.

The two remaining Clevises then followed in the same way.



And as one can see, the Tie-down Lug Plate still fits in between, which was my biggest concern at first.



Next I tackled the two stoppers that one can see in this image on either side of the bottom of the canister. In my opinion these are more likely to be Sliding shoes for the Payload Canister, through which is guaranteed a certain guidance of the canister when the canister is set down on the Transporter as well as during unloading and hoisting into the RSS-Payload Bay.


Source: wikimedia.org (STS-132)

The fact that this PLC-Hoisting is an extremely complicated and not without danger process, I was just reading in James MacLaren's Page 51 on the Canister Hoisting System in his treatise about the structure of the Launch Complex 39-B, what I can warmly recommend to all interested parties, which made a lot of things clearer to me, such as the need for additional securing of the canister on the "kneeling" transporter with several Tethers (Tag lines) during the Canister is hanging on the crane hook.


Source: James MacLaren - The Construction of Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39-B (Page 51)

The sliding shoes sit on base plates, which are screwed onto the smaller Transportation Support Plates of the transporter during the Vertical Transportation mode.

For the base plate I used an Evergreen strip (0,75 mm x 1,5 mm), which I filed down to a width of 1,2 mm and cropped to 2,4 mm length.

For the sliding shoe, I filed an Evergreen strip (1,5 mm x 1,5 mm) to 1,2 mm x 1,3 mm, which was cropped to 3,5 mm length.



Then I wanted to do a first vertical test fitting of the canister on this transport plate and I have glued on the PLC base plate (0,5 mm x 2 mm x 2 mm) as a support for the canister,



have temporarily put the base plate of the sliding shoe on and set up the canister, what fits together quite well.



And this is what the finished sliding shoe looks like,



which is here standing on the plate, in front of it the Clevis is standing already,



which is inserted here with the inserted Lug Plate in the brackets,



but what is hardly recognizable from this distance.



The same Transportation support plate now will follow for the other corner, and then the two larger Transportation support plates will follow.

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  #2676  
Old 08-05-2022, 10:11 AM
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Hello everybody,

the first prototype is always the most difficult, but fortunately there is Learning by doing, and since I've meanwhile drilled me in this Mini-puzzle, the second plate was much easier to handle, so I can be brief, especially since the images are self-explanatory.





And with that, the two smaller Transportation Support Plates are now complete and can be put aside for the time being.



This brings me to the two larger Support plates, whose Clevis brackets are unfortunately not the same size, as one can see here.


Source: NASA (STS-122)



But in the meantime I've been on the lookout for suitable Evergreen profiles and have actually found some.

For the upper part of the left bracket I can use the left Evergreen strip (0,38 mm x 2,5 mm), from which I only have to cut off 2 mm long pieces. And under these comes a strip of the right Evergreen strip (0,38 mm x 2,0 mm), which is to file to a width of 1,8 mm and to cut to 2,5 mm long pieces.





The two narrower brackets are already finished and only need to be glued to the plates.



So much for the preparation.

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  #2677  
Old 08-11-2022, 12:58 PM
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Hello everybody,

despite the persistent heat, things have to go on, after all, the final of the Mini-Puzzle Show is just around the corner.

These are the both Evergreen Strips (0,38 mm x 2,0 mm x 2,6 mm) for the top parts of the wider brackets,



under which the narrower Evergreen Strips (0,38 mm x 1,6 mm x 2,6 mm) were glued (left on the ruler).

The narrower bracket was glued to the right edge of the fixed base plate in the manner already described, first with normal Revell glue, and after final alignment additionally still with MEK.



Then the wider bracket was glued to the left beside it, whereby the distances for the Hold-down Clevis were adjusted by spacers, above 0,8 mm)),



and below (1,3 mm),



wherewith the first step was done.



Into this opening the Clevis must now also be able to be pushed,



which also did fit perfectly.



And at these points the Transportation Support Plates for the vertical transport will sit on the Transporter.



Now the floor plates are still missing, onto which the Payload Canister is set down,



for their gluing I had a good orientation through the sketch laying beneath. As always, the be-all and end-all is a stable fixation of the plate so that nothing can slip, as well as pointed tweezers in a steady hand.



And the final stabilization of the Revell gluing with MEK is of course a must and provides additional security.



Finally, the stop bar was glued,



wherewith the plates for one side would almost finish.

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  #2678  
Old 08-11-2022, 01:00 PM
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After this the equipping of the larger plate for the other side did follow,



which took place after the same procedure, only everything in laterally reversed assembly,





which can quickly confuse ones.



And what is still missing from the larger plates, one can quickly see on the smaller plate, these are the Sliding shoes,



which are of different design and arrangement on these plates, as one can see here again.


Source: NASA (STS-122)

They will follow next time.

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Last edited by spacerunner; 08-11-2022 at 01:10 PM.
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  #2679  
Old 08-14-2022, 04:29 AM
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Hello everybody,

and thus to the Sliding shoes on the larger transport plates, for which I used Evergreen strips (1,5 mm x 1,5 mm), which stand on small Floor plates (0,25 mm x 2,0 mm).

The larger sliding shoe is 3,2 mm high, the smaller 1,7 mm.



Handling these midgets when beveling the planing surface is pretty tricky as one can barely grab the pieces in the tweezers tight enough to keep them from flying off.



After the strip was clamped by magnet, it was glued in the tried and tested manner in two steps, first fixing with Revell adhesive and alignment, followed by stabilization with MEK.





During the positioning test on the transportation support plate, it turned out that the overhang of the floor plates was slightly too large and the place was therefore too small, which I had to correct.







And finally, these are the two pairs of sliding shoes.



Then I've set up all four transportation plates with their sliding shoes to try them on.



They will not be glued, because also in reality they are screwed on separately for the respective Transportation mode (horizontal or vertical), otherwise they would only get in the way, what one can see on this image.


Source: NASA (STS-132)

And since the size comparison with my Euro cent coin is indeed always impressive but unrealistic, I have added a fireman (1:160) along, together with the four Hold-down Clevises.



The next step will be gluing the transportation plates onto the transporter, for which I have to think carefully about the position of the Payload Canister and the position of the plates and mark them accordingly,


Source: NASA

for which I still have to think about a precise procedure.

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  #2680  
Old 08-17-2022, 01:49 AM
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Hello everybody,
and thus on to the last battle and the tricky gluing of the Transportation Support Plates onto the Payload Canister Transporter.

Here is the pre-fitting test of the canister on the transport plates, but still without Clevises and Tie-down Lug plates.



But since I needed all four Lug Plates for the exact positioning of the transportation plates, I first had to scratch the remaining three of these plates.

These consist of three parts, the middle plate with the narrow bridge, onto which the smaller plates are glued with MEK from both sides. These plates are only glued later to the Payload Canister, but they are very helpful when positioning and aligning the transport plates, as will be seen shortly.



Then the previously determined position of the first larger transport plate was marked with several templates and tape strips, and the plate with the inserted Clevis, incl. Lug plate was placed and fixed on the left side with a narrow strip of tape.

For gluing the plates in this state the low-viscosity MEK is particularly suitable, as one only needs to carefully wet the edge with a fine brush, which is sufficient for a delicate gluing, whereby the position of the plate is already fixed.

In order to see the gluing edge clearly, I illuminated it with a small LED lamp.



Then the 1st edge was carefully glued,



and after folding over the adjoining templates/markings all around, also the remaining edges (2-4), wherewith the first transport plate was glued and the canister had its first fixed point.



After the templates/markings were fixed again, the canister could be set up and the smaller Support plate put on.



After aligning it at the standing canister, the plate was then glued, whereby the position of the canister was already fixed on one side.



Then the transporter was carefully turned on the spot, after which the two panels were provisionally placed onto the other side.



Then the canister was set up and a small steel block was placed between the already glued plates as an additional lateral stop.



Since I would definitely would have to turn the transporter a few more times to check the position of the canister and the plates as well as the lateral distances, I've put the transporter on a airbrush turntable and have secured the canister using further steel blocks, which made it easier for me to handle from then on.



After the larger transport plate had been precisely adjusted again, it could then be glued on three sides.



Then the fourth plate still followed too,



which for gluing the front edge was fixed with a lateral block.

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