With July slipping away and the deadline approaching, the Project Egress builds are pouring in now. And we’re starting to see more diversity in the choice of materials and methods for the parts being made, like these two latches made with very different methods by two different makers.
For the uninitiated, Project Egress is a celebration of both the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the rise of the maker movement. Spearheaded by [Adam Savage], the idea is to engage 44 prominent makers to build individual parts from the Unified Crew Hatch (UCH) from the Apollo Command Module. The parts will be used to create a replica of this incredibly complex artifact, which will be assembled by [Adam] before a live audience at the National Air and Space Museum next week.
Both [Joel] from the “3D Printing Nerd” channel and [Bill Doran] from “Punished Props Academy” got the nod for one of the 15 latches needed, and both played to their respective strengths. [Joel]’s latch was executed in PLA on a Prusa I3 printer. [Bill] went a different route for his latch. He used a Form 2 SLA printer to print the parts, but used them only to make silicone molds. He then cast the parts from urethane resin, which should prove much stronger than the original SLA prints. We suspect the ability to quickly cast more latches could prove handy if any of the other latch makers should fail to deliver.
The latches [Joel] and [Bill] made joins the other parts, like the wooden latch being made by [Fran Blanche] and the hatch handle [Paul] cast in aluminum. We’re looking forward to more part builds, as well as the final assembly.
There was quite the contrast between Joel’s take on the project vs. Fran’s. Not that either one was bad in any way. It just goes to show how people are remarkably individual.
The whole point of 3D printing is to print all those parts already assembled.
What would give you that idea? The “point” (if it could really be said there is one) of 3D printing is to be able to rapidly produce accurate replicas of a digital model. So rather than having to mill those parts out of aluminum, they can be printed in plastic. It’s an additive vs a subtractive production method.
It’s possible to print some designs that have moving parts, but that’s just a nice bonus of the technology. And also fairly limited. This part looks far too complex to pull off a “print-in-place” version, and changing it to make it more printable would seem to violate the spirit of the project.
Not necessarily. It’s possible but you might end up with layer lines going in directions that could substantially weaken the part.
Yeah, totally, but you try one time and you instarealize that it is such just destined to end up with molten together lumps of supposed parts.
There are already [This Old Tony’s] and [NYC CNC] videos on machining their respective parts.
I just wrote up an article on ToT’s build last night. Opted not to write one on NYC CNCs just because readers don’t seem to be into the CNC-pr0nz as much as I am. Tom Lipton from Ox Tool Co just posted a brief video of his part – the cabin vent valve. Can’t wait for the full-length video on that.
Here’s hoping that we get a ton of #projectegress videos on YouTube this week – I’d really like to see how some of the makers we don’t often see on HaD handle their parts. And I really hope we get a live stream of the final assembly on Friday.
*cough*
Quinn :D I “really” don’t know what are you coughing about…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMy_hiROyk
That double hinge mechanism is kind of beautiful. Seems like each part in this door is just stacking mechanical advantage on top of mechanical advantage.
That’s kind of the point. everything was designed to put tonnage of counter force on the air trapped in the capsule.