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#2260 by roma847 on 17 Sep, 2022 22:56
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Hello everybody,
while I was looking at this image, I noticed this long steel cable to the right of the Torque tube,
which is attached by a hinge to a strut and runs across the entire Starboard Side Door, 
Source: NASA (STS-135)
where it is locked in a bracket.
Source: NASA (STS-135)
At first I couldn't explain the meaning and purpose of this steel cable, but I want to try to find out somehow. Maybe someone of you knows wherefore it is good for ...
And then it was down to business, because these linkage is really tiny.
For the left part of the linkage, which is connected to the end of the Torque tube, I cut narrow strips of Styrene (0,13 mm),
which I glued onto both sides of a rod (Ø 0,25 mm x 2,5 mm) to this small fork as the right part, which then were reduced to approx. 1,5 mm which was quite stressful to handle.
This tiny part was so light that it stayed stuck to the tweezers for the photo. 
The joint of the strut attached to the rod I indicated with a tiny eyelet made of Lead wire (Ø 0,3 mm), which I 'rolled flat' by twisting back and forth under a steel ruler to Ø 0,2 mm, wherefore some preliminary tests were required.
The final eyelet then looked like this,
which I threaded and glued onto the rod in a rather hairy action.
Then I carefully glued the linkage onto the door with CA/MEK,
and let everything dry.
Next comes the lateral strut, which reaches from the rod joint (eyelet) to the attachment point of the steel cable.
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#2261 by roma847 on 18 Sep, 2022 22:35
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Hello friends,
meanwhile I found out what this steel rope was all about, which sometimes sagged down a bit, like in this image.
Source: NASA (STS-101)
And if I'm interested in a technical detail like that, then, as is well known, I get to the bottom of it. And through my Swedish friend David from NSF (DaveS) I met a member of the then Can Crew whose explanation is as amazing as it is simple.
"That cable what we tied off to for fall protection when we walked down the door in the horizontal configuration to verify the latch’s we’re closed properly prior to ratcheting into the closed position."
After all, the Transporter with the Canister had a height of approx. 28 ft, and from there one shouldn't necessarily be able to fall off it.
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#2262 by roma847 on 05 Oct, 2022 15:50
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Hello everybody,
in a time full of interesting soccer games,
I want to get back to you quickly so that I don't lose the thread myself and get completely out of step.
I'm still dancing around on the Payload Bay Doors without a Safety rope, what needs to change immediately. But these mini-struts took me some lot of effort, which is why I finally wanted to get this over with. 
From this perspective als well as at high resolution, one can still see the details best.
Source: NASA (STS-114)
On the one hand there is the lateral strut already discussed next to the rope holder, which I tried my hand at first and even managed the small [color =blue]wire[/color] to be inserted between the rope holder and the turnbuckle, made of a tiny lead wire (Ø 0,2 mm x 0,5 mm), but please don't ask me how ... The result is already invisible to the naked eye, but I know, as always, that it's there ... 
Now only the rope sling is missing, to which the rope will later be attached.
And here this strut made of Styrene (0,13 mm) is now mounted, which one can just barely make out.
The thin wires ordered for this have also arrived in the meantime. The upper roll is the steel wire (Ø 0,1mm) shipped from China, and below are two NiCr wires (Ø 0,1mm/0,2mm) - Made in Germany.
I proceeded in the same way for the rope holder and the turnbuckle on the other side.
This time I glued a short NiCr wire (Ø 0,2 mm) between the two Styrene strips of the holder. The overhangs of the parts that are needed for handling are important.
For the turnbuckle I prepared a Styrene rod (0,4 mm x 0,4 mm), using an Evergreen strip (0,5 mm x 0,5 mm).
The shortening of the connecting wire between the bracket and turnbuckle to approx. 0,8 mm was a delicate procedure, for which backup tapes were helpful so that nothing could fly away.
Bending the loop of rope from NiCr (Ø 0,2 mm) into a small eyelet was a stressful fiddling too, but finally worked after a few tries,
as well as the gluing on the turnbuckle.
And then the same procedure again on the other side.
The rope is only glued in later so that it is not damaged when assembling the small parts that are still missing.
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#2263 by roma847 on 11 Oct, 2022 23:51
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Hello everybody,
here the Safety rope made of NiCr wire (Ø 0,2 mm) has been put on at least as a test. 
With gluing the cable onto the door, I will wait until the upper linkages of the Door Actuators are glued onto both doors,
Source: NASA (STS-132)
Source: NASA (STS-125)
which I have now planned, but for which I first had to determine various dimensions again.
Source: NASA (STS-125)
In the closed state of the doors these linkages are folded and are only folded out to support the opened doors, as can be seen in this image.
Source: NASA (STS-101)
As one can see from the small dimensions, it's again about tiny parts, whereby the two outer sickle-shaped holders seem particularly tricky, whose shape I first drew in order to create a corresponding template for scratching.
As one can see in this image, these holders are extremely narrow at < 1 mm and also very thin (0,13 mm), which are probably difficult to handle.
On the upper Evergreen Styrene Strip (0,13 mm) the contour is pre-drawn and the lower bow has already been cut out, which was still reasonably easy to do.
Cutting out the upper contour, on the other hand, will become a stressful affair,
because one can hardly hold tight this narrow sickle in the tweezers. 
For gluing the linkages between the lateral holders I thought about a Balsa jig,
the top of which I filed to match this lower contour. 
It doesn't matter how, but first I need a total of 8 such holders for both doors. That's why I transferred the lower contour 8 x to a Styrene strip,
and carefully cut out with nail scissors. And I now have to transfer the upper contour to these parts and cut them out, file them out, or whatever ...
Maybe it will be advisable, to glue the sickles to a bulged Styrene strip,
then glue in the linkage parts and then glue the holders made in this way onto the doors.
It may all still sound pretty bold and adventurous, but somehow I'll be succeeding already ...
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#2264 by mike robel on 12 Oct, 2022 15:27
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Keep it up,Manfred! Somehow I think you had either diamond jewelers or Watchmakers in your ancestors.
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#2265 by roma847 on 12 Oct, 2022 17:38
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Maybe Mike,
the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind ...
But they guaranteed weren't passionate Real Space Modelers like me.
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#2266 by mike robel on 12 Oct, 2022 18:07
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Manfred, I dare say. I do dare say. But it would explain much.
Oder vielleicht Marklin oder Fleishman modeleisebahn. Ich hatte jahrrelan Fleishmann modelleisebahnen und Kibri Strukturen. Serr Nett!
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#2267 by roma847 on 13 Oct, 2022 17:02
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Hi Mike,
when my son Andreas was a little boy 30 years ago, I built him a great Model railroad layout (TT - Table Top, 1:120), with a great landscape, several tunnels through mountains, forest, small houses, and even then I had a fondness for nice and tiny details ...
It's been a long time ...
Then he preferred to play Chris Roberts' Wing Commander, and today he works for him on Star Citizen.
The apple never falls far from the pear tree ...
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#2268 by mike robel on 13 Oct, 2022 17:11
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Schoene!
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#2269 by roma847 on 13 Oct, 2022 18:59
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Hello friends,
when looking at detailed photos when determining the dimensions for the scratch construction, it always depends on the respective perspective, which should show a direct view of the respective detail if possible.
During the repeated viewing of my countless PLC photos I came across this well-known photo of the canister for the STS-132,
Source: NASA (STS-132)
on which one can clearly see that the contours of the Door Actuators in the area between the two linkage axes correspond to the curvature of the door and therefore have the same shape in contrast to my previous drawing, which makes it a little easier for me to make the 8 sickle-shaped holders.
Although this area only approx. is 0,6 mm wide, the contours can now be transferred more easily to the prepared Styrene parts.
On this drawing (1:1) you can see the different shape, but the finished parts should look as same as possible.
That's why I transferred the lower contour again at a distance of 0,6 mm,
and marked the twice as high hump at the upper leverage axis (1,2 mm). The outer ends are then freehand drawn.
Next, I'll grab the nail scissors again and carefully cut out these sickles, in order to give them the finishing touches.
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#2270 by roma847 on 13 Oct, 2022 19:03
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Schoene!
Thanks Mike,
keep cool, I know that you don't have an ö.
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#2271 by roma847 on 13 Oct, 2022 23:33
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Hello friends,
after carefully cutting out the holder, I held it in tweezers and carefully smoothened it for a while at the top side with my finest TAMIYA diamond file for photo-etched parts, measured its height again and again and compared the contours with the STS-132 -Photo, 
Source: amazon.de
until I was halfway satisfied with this prototype, which differs pleasantly from my first guinea pig (above).
In order to make my work easier when making the remaining 7 holders, I've bored a small hole (Ø 0,3 mm) at the location of the upper leverage axis, which I can now transfer to the rest of the holders and then pre-drill, which will hopefully make marking the upper contour easier.
So far for the theory, let's see if it works like that.
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#2272 by roma847 on 15 Oct, 2022 10:44
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Hello everybody,
since the one-off production in this way is a bit too tricky and time consuming and the shape of the parts is also not very reproducible, 
I switched to a kind of small series production. To do this, I drilled through a strip at the linkage axis (Ø 0,3 mm) and then this strip with 7 other strips, with the lower contour cut out, as well superimposed as possible and clamped in scissor tweezers.
Then I carefully drilled through the entire bundle and pushed a steel wire (Ø 0,3 mm) through the hole, whereby the bundle is at least fixed to the rod axis.
Then I smoothed the bundle a bit on the underside and on both ends to compensate for small differences and to set a uniform length of 11 mm.
And as one can see on this image, the bundle fits well to the curve of the Balsa jig and hopefully also later on the canister doors.
Now I can take the bundle apart again and trace the upper contours individually, whereby the position of the stripes is fixed by the wire. Then the upper contours are cut out one by one as close as possible, and put the bundle back together.
Then I'll try to smoothen this narrow bundle to an even shape at the top and hope I can do that.
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#2273 by mike robel on 15 Oct, 2022 22:25
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Manfred,
Have you thought about cutting machines, like these: https://www.brother-usa.com/home/cutting-machines/scanncut#sort=relevancy
I use them for cutting out labels for wargame counters and the counters themselves. I have not been doing much modeling lately, but they would work for many of the things you are cutting out. They are capable of cutting out squares. A few times, I made the lines between counters too thick and they were all adjacent to each other. The thing cut out the lines as a seperate matrix which peeled off in one go.
They may be useful to you for the small precision parts you make and are less expensive than laser cutters. I'd go look at one before buying though. There are several brands. I use the scan and cut because you can directly scan the thing you want to cut or you can design it on your computer and scan/input it to the machine. It's pretty flexible. It has much to commend for general crafting.
Videos on You Tube of course: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPeOOvP1z5VGaPzb6_hQvKQ
Kind regards
Mike
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#2274 by roma847 on 15 Oct, 2022 23:38
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Thanks Mike for your tips,
I know such Scanning cutter machines but they are not worthwhile for my rare and special scratch building, since the parts are much too small on my small scale and it is usually not a question of large quantities.
Therefore in this case good old manual work is the better solution, even if it is stressful and time-consuming, which I can now see again with these tiny parts of the Door Actuator.
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#2275 by roma847 on 18 Oct, 2022 11:02
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Hello everybody,
and I proceeded in exactly the same way and drew the upper contours of the individual sickles one after the other using my original form on the remaining 7 Styrene Sheets (0,13 mm),
whereby the original form always has been fixed by the steel wire (Ø 0,3 mm) and by a tape strip on a Balsa plate.
Then I've carefully cut out the top sides of the sickles with the nail scissors as close to the contour as possible, which was a very tedious and stressful affair, since the part had to be re-clamped several times in the scissor tweezers, which meant that the strip that was accessible became narrower and narrower. 
Then I threaded all the sickles on the wire in reverse order, whereby my original form (1) came to lay at the front position.
All my subsequent attempts to evenly trim this aligned, narrow bundle on the top were ultimately unsuccessful, despite all efforts to clamp and fix it somehow, which is why I unfortunately had to give up this approach. 
Instead, I started by smoothing each of the 7 sickles individually at the top side to the shape of the original form in front of me,
for what I held them in different positions in the tweezers and worked the upper contour with different files for so long,
until I was reasonably satisfied with their shape and almost a twin had been formed.
I then put the first pair of twins on a Styrene rod (Ø 0,3 mm) as a rod axis,
and immediately tried a test fitting on the canister, which looked quite promising,
which gives me courage to work on the remaining sickles in the same way, so that I end up with 4 pairs of twins for the Door Actuators on the doors.
So far for today.
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#2276 by roma847 on 23 Oct, 2022 23:04
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Hello everybody,
before I turn towards the remaining sickles, I took a closer look at the linkages of the upper Door Actuators and thought about how and from what I could best scratch these filigree individual parts, whereby it is always important for me to understand the interaction of the components of an assembly and their function to some extent.
And for this it is always worth looking at detailed photos with high resolution from different perspectives, like this one here of the upper linkage in the folded state, which I want to reproduce,
Source: NASA (STS-132)
as well as here in the unfolded state, in which one can see some details on the two rotary axes more clearly.
After a close look at the linkage, its lower part seems to be a coherent strut construction, which I have marked in blue,
Source: NASA (STS-135)
which this photo in the zoom also seems to confirm. The longer support strut lies on top of it, which is rotatably mounted at the upper end between the side parts. 
Source: NASA (STS-132)
Before opening the doors, both linkages of the door drives are folded out and screwed together, thus forming their upper supports, which are taken up by the drives on the canister walls on which the opened doors rest.
For replicating the individual parts this photo of the STS-125 is ideal suitable, on which I determined the dimensions of the most important parts and immediately searched for suitable material in my inventory.
Source: NASA (STS-125)
I started with the lower rotary axis, for which I used an Evergreen strip (0,5 mm x 0,5 mm), on which the four struts are attached, which are probably welded together to a kind of a fork.
Then I glued the upper rotary axis on one side with MEK, adjusted the distance between the two sickles with a suitable spacer (3 mm),
and then glued the axle on the other side as well,
and separated its overhang.
For the longer rod attached to the upper axis of rotation, I first glued a rod (Ø 0,25 mm) onto a small styrene triangle (0,13 mm), which is not entirely correct since the bar actually sits between the triangles.
For the struts of the small fork, I first used Evergreen Strips (0,25 mm x 0,5 mm).
But when I had laid on the longer rod and compared this thing with the filigree structure of the side parts (0,13 mm),
I saw that the proportions couldn't be right, which didn't convince me overall and therefore couldn't stay like this.
So I measured all the dimensions again more precisely, after which I used a rod (Ø 0,3 mm) and ground off the Evergreen strips (0,25 mm x 0,5 mm) for the struts between two cosmetic polishing files to a thickness of approx. 0,15 mm, what should then match better with the sickles.
Then I also had the daring idea
to glue the rod between the triangles, that only had a usable side length for clamping of about 1,5 mm, which is why I was rather skeptical about being able to glue them accurately to the rod. 
But that was too much of a good thing, which is why I remembered to another solution, which I have used already successfully in such cases several times, namely with the MLP-SSWS-Pipes, and most recently also with the Crawler Gear Boxes. 
OMG, that was already 6 years ago ...
So I've cut narrow Styrene strips (0,13 mm) with the height of these triangles (1,2 mm) and glued them from both sides onto the rod (Ø 0,3 mm), which could still be done with appropriate fixation,
and with the necessary patience and caution.
Here's a comparison of both variants, whereby one hopefully can see the difference.
And then the strips only needed to be carefully cut off at an angle,
and with this result I was more like satisfied already.
As a test, I've laid this rod on top of the rotary axis, which of course it will later be glued in front of the axis.
So the picture is slowly rounding itself off, and with it I want to leave it at that for today and wish you a pleasant evening.
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#2277 by roma847 on 31 Oct, 2022 18:04
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Hello everybody,
it went on with the fold-out strut construction that lies between the sickles and is marked blue.
Source: NASA (STS-135)
As a spacer for the sanded off lateral Evergreen strips (0,15 mm x 0,5 mm x 3,7 mm) I used a strip (0,7 mm x 1 mm),
and have tried to laboriously fix this structure, which is carefully held in the tweezers, between three steel rulers, which was a hair-raising action, because the strips tipped over several times doing so, 
before I managed to glue them to the bottom rotational axis (0,5 mm x 0,5 mm). 
Here one can see both forks in comparison, whereby the thinner struts fit the picture better.
Then the slanting lateral struts were glued with a lot of feeling and a steady hand.
And this is what the finished strut construction looks like,
here also with the support strut laid on.
This procedure was then repeated three more times, which made me sweat quite a bit,
wherewith now all four lower linkages for gluing between the sickles are prepared.
But beforehand I will still finish the remaining 5 sickles and scratch the remaining 3 upper support struts.
Strictly speaking, these support struts still have these coupling forks at the end, which are screwed to the fork struts when unfolded,
Source: NASA (STS-135)
which perhaps would also still be feasible.
In the folded state, however, they are usually surrounded by a protective cover, therefore let's see ...
Source: NASA (STS-132)
Finally, here is a test fitting with the inserted strut construction and provisionally applied support strut between the sickles,
what doesn't look bad at first glance already.
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#2278 by roma847 on 01 Nov, 2022 08:15
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Thanks guys for your silent companionship, after all better than nothing ...
I know it's nothing spectacular, but a penny saved is a penny got.
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#2279 by roma847 on 04 Nov, 2022 22:23
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Hello everybody,
the remaining three support struts were produced in the same way as described lastly.
During the drying I brought the second sickle pair to the final shape.
After cutting off the strips on the support struts, both sickles were glued with the rod (Ø 0,25 mm) for the upper rotational axis,
then the excesses cut off,
and smoothed the ends.
Then I tried my hand at a coupling fork and have carefully slit the spacer (0,7 mm x 1 mm), which was used lastly for making the stand fork, on the narrow side with a Fine saw blade (CMK),
and widened the slit with fine sandpaper.
But since this strip with 1 mm is too thick, I would have had to cut it in half or grind it down, but I didn't want to do that to myself.
That's why I slit an Evergreen Strip (0,4 mm x 0,7 mm) in the same way.
To cut off the only 1 mm long coupling fork, I secured the slotted end with tape to prevent it from jumping away.
From that point of view, the fork could even be a bit narrower ...
To glue it to the support strut, the fork had to be fixed again.
And then I wanted to know it and try to display the unfolded state of the linkage.
To do this, I carefully inserted the strut with the coupling fork between the stand fork,
and carefully lifted it with a razor blade, which was pushed under it, and erected up to the point, until the end of the support strut hit the upper rotational axis, which was pure thrill.
And after a few failed attempts, I actually succeeded in this game of patience.
In contrast, I will build the canister with folded Door Actuators,
for which purpose the individual parts are then glued together, which will make assembly much easier.
