The Star Trek: Discovery Phaser Project

Thanks! The main reason for breaking the phaser down into so many pieces was so that different paint finishes could be done to the separate parts without masking. Much cleaner, especially with the metallic parts which may be best painted with buffing metalizers and/or require a clear top coat. Having separate parts also allows each to be oriented in the printer to minimize the number of supports needed and keep the supports off of as many hero surfaces as possible.

There are also some special printing set ups based on how the parts are going to be molded and cast, I'll show those as I do them. A few of the parts which will be printed separately will be joined together after being cleaned up to be molded and cast as one piece.
 
Astonishing work.
I admire your approach to this replica - the devil's not in the dark, but in the details. And by that I don't only mean the surface details, but printing pieces separately for ease of painting and construction.
This may sound overly anal, but have you considered printing the master slightly larger, to account for the slight loss in size once cast?
 
Thank you, this has been a really fun, and challenging project, not only modeling the exterior but also "engineering" for molding and casting. A process that is still ongoing.

I'm not really worried about casting shrinkage. With the silicones and resin that will be used the shrinkage is less than one half of one percent. Not enough to worry about.
 
Casting of the two-part targeting screen targeting screen.

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...Rather than go the traditional route of embedding the master in clay and pouring one side of the mold, cleaning off the clay and then pouring the other, I printed the each part already “embedded” in a surface up the the parting line, including fill port and keys. The silicone was then poured like a normal one piece mold...

Brilliant! Molds look fantastic!

Sean
 
Molds for the pop up targeting screen. These parts required two-part molds. Rather than go the traditional route of embedding the master in clay and pouring one side of the mold, cleaning off the clay and then pouring the other, I printed the each part already “embedded” in a surface up the the parting line, including fill port and keys. The silicone was then poured like a normal one piece mold. Easy and fast. And super easy to make additional sets of molds when needed without having to go through the whole clay process again. To the left of each mold is its 3D printed mold master.

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What type of printer are you using? That is flawless! No print lines or anything.
 
I'm using a Formlabs Form 2 at 50 micron layer height. but as these are patterns, I've also primed and wet sanded the major surfaces to remove any residual print lines, although they are pretty minimal. Generally I orient each part in the printer to get the best quality surface.
 
Looks so freaking cool already. My only complaint is that it’s not done yet,or at my house. Looking great man, enjoying watching it come together.
 
I've been working long and hard trying to come up with a simple and reliable way to raise and lower the targeting screen on the Tyoe One Hand Phaser. The problem is that there is not a lot of room and I wanted something that would be easy to put together in a kit, not require a lot of fiddling. I'm very pleased with the end result. Only two moving parts! The pop up hood and the thumb wheel. It will use magnets to hold in the up and down positions, not springs. No latches, releases or other fiddly bits. The Thumb wheel has a lever arm that direct links to a pin on the hood.

I printed a section proof-of-concept mockup to make sure it would work as planned. It does!

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Thanks! It’s basically a single tooth pin gear. There’s not enough room for even a section of a traditional involute gear. I love that it’s only two moving parts.
 
This is superb!

Will the kit be in two halves as above?
Readon I ask is because I'm pretty certain one of the members here would offer a run of metal thumb wheels.
 
No the shell will be one piece (both halves) with a removable bottom to access the mech. It's all designed to be able to be assembled through the bottom. As far as metal thumb wheels, we'll see. I can make those too. But the cost of this thing is already climbing up into the "ouch!" range.
 
Care to define "ouch"...? ;-)

This looks like the model I'm been searching/hoping for, so hopefully it falls within my budget!
 
What diameter brass rod stock do you usually use for pins like the two smaller ones you've got here? 1/16"? 3/32"? Do you just get it from somewhere like Grainger?
 
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