I'm working on a scratch build of one of my favorite Trek props, from almost certainly my favorite scene in all of Star Trek. It seemed like a good way to ramp up my skills for some much more ambitious builds I have coming up soon.
Here is a photo of the somewhat battered prop when it went up for auction:
@HMS Mike also has a good photo.
For anyone who wants to do the same build, I've made detailed dimensioned plans. I'm working from measurements on the original, so I'm fairly confident that my proportions are accurate.
The plans can be downloaded here (I'll keep this updated as I make improvements while the build progresses). They include a template for cutting out the styrene parts for the body.
I started out by machining the nozzle. This is aluminum turned and sanded on the engine lathe, then polished by hand. The trick to getting the taper is to set your compound slide to 18 degrees and your tool holder to parallel to the chuck face.
The original body was wood, but I prefer the smoother look I'll get from styrene. I built templates in Illustrator, printed them out and then scored and broke the stryrene. I affixed the printed template to the styrene with spray glue, which I subsequently removed with warm water and a bit of sanding.
I have mostly assembled the relevant parts, but I'm waiting for a piece of tubing to arrive so I can make a tubular hole for the nozzle to go into. This should make any subsequent casting easier, should I desire to make copies of the body. If I were making a one-off piece, just cutting the hole in piece F1 with a 1/2" drill bit would have sufficed.
Puttying and sanding are next, while I'm waiting for materials from McMaster-Carr (namely, the tubing for the nozzle holder and the aluminum bars for the side and top strips).
Then I'll grind the aluminum bars for the controls and side strips and this thing will nearly be done! A super easy build.
Here is a photo of the somewhat battered prop when it went up for auction:
@HMS Mike also has a good photo.
For anyone who wants to do the same build, I've made detailed dimensioned plans. I'm working from measurements on the original, so I'm fairly confident that my proportions are accurate.
The plans can be downloaded here (I'll keep this updated as I make improvements while the build progresses). They include a template for cutting out the styrene parts for the body.
I started out by machining the nozzle. This is aluminum turned and sanded on the engine lathe, then polished by hand. The trick to getting the taper is to set your compound slide to 18 degrees and your tool holder to parallel to the chuck face.
The original body was wood, but I prefer the smoother look I'll get from styrene. I built templates in Illustrator, printed them out and then scored and broke the stryrene. I affixed the printed template to the styrene with spray glue, which I subsequently removed with warm water and a bit of sanding.
I have mostly assembled the relevant parts, but I'm waiting for a piece of tubing to arrive so I can make a tubular hole for the nozzle to go into. This should make any subsequent casting easier, should I desire to make copies of the body. If I were making a one-off piece, just cutting the hole in piece F1 with a 1/2" drill bit would have sufficed.
Puttying and sanding are next, while I'm waiting for materials from McMaster-Carr (namely, the tubing for the nozzle holder and the aluminum bars for the side and top strips).
Then I'll grind the aluminum bars for the controls and side strips and this thing will nearly be done! A super easy build.
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