Chriske

Our manager Marc aside Falcon9/Fairing

There's no need to build a complex machine like a M-o-M. I have two of these machines and never use the 'sideway motion'. At the time we built these machines we did not know it was possible to do it otherwise with a very simple setup. A fixed post will do the job as well. These days you'll find lots of amateurs using fix post grinding on the net.
One of these guys with lots of experience is Gordon Waite.

Falcon + Fairing : 2.15m long(threaded rods not included)
Some more minor parts need to be added.

Amazing, love the brass..!

I wonder btw how hot does the interior of the dome gets during the day when the sun is high in the sky.
As a matter of fact you created a greenhouse, be it small, but I think it's getting rather hot in there.
On top of it(pun intended) that dome is a big lens. What does it do with the real lens inside...?

Didn’t read the thread from the start, so maybe it has been discussed earlier, so sorry...

It would be better to cover the dome when not in use, especially during daylight.
Sunlight(UV) will destroy all plastics in the end.

Gina,

What I'd do with all these pictures : making a time-laps covering a year long movements of the stars. Not a minute long or so, but stretched over 10 minutes or so, even longer.

Testing...on a spare tube. Mounting the brackets for the landing feet.
Not 100% ok, need to redo this.

45 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Hopefully coming to Cura soon!

Chris - is there no holding you back?  🙂

Holding me back....?????😳
I only began...😁

8 minutes ago, Gina said:

That's cheating!! 

Well no, I did it the easy way...😁
Did you know btw that all printers can print bulged surfaces. All you need is the required software.

I gave it away by talking about that cup of tea...dam...
That is not far from the truth indeed.

I used a heat-gun and the 'rocket' itself to push that part against it.
If I go gently I can even bulge the centre part, as is with the real thing.

It's NOT a slingshot...😁

View from another angle.
How is this possible, what happened..?
And at the same time while posting this, I notice my cuppa is getting cold...🙄

Nope...!

Did some printing myself too today.

Question for the print-nerds..🤔

What is the difference between these two part, beside the used nozzle diameter.?  What happened..?
Both parts started from the same STL file.

My pal Michel is also printing parts for this project
He's busy printing thrusters. 8 of those are needed.

Thanks Neil..!

Would you also share the source file..?

I'm @ 51.8' so that is a design I could use...😉
Do you share that file..?

Were are you at °N btw...??

Nice...!!

Hi,

We did a similar thing years ago. We installed a Nema17 stepper above the secondary mirror of a CAS
The stepper and mirror were surrounded by 6 very small ball bearings. Focusing was done with a M3 threaded rod.
There's a problem focusing with a CAS secondary mirror. Moving that secondary mirror is very tricky. Alignment of that mirror was no problem in our case, because of these 6  ball bearings.
Biggest problem is the the threaded rod itself. Most of these commercial threaded rod are not 'regular' enough at all. And that is not all : we discovered that over a certain length the threads of two different rods differ. One time we did a test with a M6 threaded rod of two different sources. Over the length of 1 meter the treads of these rods differ 1.2mm(!!!!!)
What do I mean with 'not regular'. Well we tested a M3 rod for that secondary mirror focuser. We installed a dial gauge aside the unit. The test was to see if for every single and precise rotation of that rod the mirror would move each time the same distance up or down. Needles to say all was springloaded and test were done very thorough.
Well, no the distance for one single rotation of that M3 threaded rod did differ sometimes 0.02/0.03 mm. So we never proceeded with that project.

The only way to overcome this problem is cut your own threads.
most commercial threaded rods are 'rolled'(not cut) at very high speed. For one threaded rod 1 meter long it takes about two seconds to finish.

Now that I come to think of it maybe, just maybe you also have 'bad' rods -of different locations-..?

This is the result printing with a 0.4mm nozzle, telling my slicer it is only a 0.25mm.
Not perfect but it will do.
I need to clean it up a bit with a small file.
Not bad for a liar isn’t it...🤭

First print, have to tune the slice just a little bit because to most upper layer is not completely closed. But not only that, I need to reduce the layer height a bit. These small pieces need a layer height no more then 0.15 I think.
The part at far left has a curved bottom. That is the part in contact with the rocket(diameter 110mm)
As matter of fact I'm not used to work with thin layer heights. I do love more the BIG nozzles projects...!
These small parts prints is something completely new to me. I need to improve this.

Nicely done..

From now on there's a second friend(Peter) helping us drawing all these parts.
I'm doing Falcon9, the two other guys started drawing the(tilting) launch tower.

Just finished the grid. These are used when the first stage is busy landing on one of the boats.
When landing is almost at it's end, these 4 grids are activated. Purpose is stabilize that first stage and correct when needed to have it landing perfectly vertically.

The real these things are 1.2x1.5meter wide. At scale 1:33 they're just 36x39mm.

The thinnest parts(vertical walls) of the grids itself are 0.32mm thick. So I can't print that with my 0.4mm nozzle.
But I pull a trick out of my sleeve. I tell my printer there's a 0.25mm nozzle and raise EM to1.2. Already tested it, works just fine.
The curve in the grid(see photo) I apply later, after it is printed. The curve is to shallow to print. So after print I heat these parts and bend them over a tube. For that to do I throw them in 80°C water for just a few seconds and bend them over the rocket itself.