Rube Goldberg Lander

[rbelknap]

seeing all these tantalizing bits and pieces of the construction and still not having a clear picture of how they all fit together is getting to me. I can't wait to see how this all turns out. Keep up the good work (please? if this never gets finished I may need to chip in on that rubber-room.)

 

[fyrwrxz]

I love a good mystery, but I, too, have stripped a few gears trying to figure out the 'landing' part. In my nightmares it's just a rubble pile of painstakingly created legs and joints and smoldering body tubes. That's only if I built it. I'm sure as rain John will do us and himself proud-but the suspense...oh, the suspense.....

 

[JAL3]

I wish I had as much faith in me as you do!

The lander system is still being worked out. The concept is fairly simple. Parts of the fins rotate into landing position and help this beast sit down on its tail.

What you've seen thus far is just the periphery. I have not started building the main body yet. In fact, two of the critical parts have yet to be ordered because I am still tinkering with fin placement and the boat tail cannot be ordered until I'm sure where the cuts need to be.

 

[hornet driver]

:bang:

 

[boomtube]

Any moment now he’s going to claim that a critical, key component, has been discontinued and is no longer available; therefore the build will never be completed.

Bwa Ha Ha Ha!!!

 

[JAL3]

Any moment now he’s going to claim that a critical, key component, has been discontinued and is no longer available; therefore the build will never be completed.

Bwa Ha Ha Ha!!!

That's just evil!

 

[JAL3]

I actually got a good bit done this evening but won't be able to update until tomorrow.

 

[JAL3]

The balls were not placing themselves so I scribed a mark on boom tube 4 to match the one on boom tube 3, applied some TMT and slid the first ping pong ball into place.

 

[JAL3]

While the first ball on boom tube 4 set up, I decided to see how mounting a ball on the boom struts would work. I marked the outline of the strut with a pencil, just like with the tube.

 

[JAL3]

An X-acto was then used to cut out the outline and a file was used to open the hole enough to accommodate the strut.

 

[JAL3]

As with the tubes, the strut was pushed through the hole until it was flush with the other side. This differed from the tube in that it did not self-align nearly as easily as the tube and the outline, as seen through the ball, was much more difficult to discern. Eventually, though, I managed to mark the opposite side. That too was cut out and filed to size.

 

[JAL3]

The process was repeated until the strut had 3 balls.

 

[JAL3]

A baffle was installed in boom tube 2.

 

[JAL3]

By this time, the first ball on boom tube 4 was set up enough to allow me to go ahead and install the other six.

 

[JAL3]

I took a break from gluing, clean my fingers and cranked out another 3 balls for the second boom strut.

 

[JAL3]

When I figured the baffle was safe, I went ahead and assemble the rest of the structure for pod 2. Again, the alignment is critical!

 

[JAL3]

The mitered joint for pod 4 had some putty applied to fill the gaps.

 

[JAL3]

Part of the most recent Semroc order included replacements for boom tube and pod base 1, both of which had been butchered beyond redemption. These were marked and alignment guides were drawn.

 

[JAL3]

The pod base was cut to its angle, just as before.

 

[JAL3]

Boom tube 1 was not cut like the previous ones. I realized when designing this beast that the miters on the boom tubes needed to be on opposite sides. Like an idiot, though, when I cut them, I placed them on the same side. This is a blunder that can be recovered from with the judicious use of putty but for tube 1, I wanted to get it right!

 

[JAL3]

Another mitered coupler was shaped and glued together.

 

[JAL3]

Another boom strut retainer was also glued together.

 

[JAL3]

The first order of business the next day was to sand down the putty.

 

[JAL3]

This time one application seemed to have been adequate so the putty was hardened with thin CA.

 

[JAL3]

The first ball was placed on boom tube 2.

 

[JAL3]

A baffle was installed in boom tube 1.

 

[JAL3]

The balls for another boom strut were knocked out.

 

[JAL3]

The rest of the balls were installed on boom tube 2...

...and then there were three.

 

[JAL3]

I'm too bushed to finish this tonight. I have to be at work at 7 in the morning so I'm going to go put in some rack time.

To be continued...

 

[JAL3]

The fourth and final pod base assembly, set 1, was carefully aligned and glued together with Titebond III.