Star Trek TMP Dr Chapel Medical Scanner

I poured the first part of the three-part mold for the body tonight. :)

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Sure. Here is a photo with the body sanded and primed and the machined pieces just held in place to show how things go together.

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Now I'm just waiting for my vacuum chamber to arrive and I'm going to attempt making some molds. :) The current styrene build feels a little hollow and I'm looking forward to having a solid resin piece.
Nice work!!
 
Why am I so obsessed with Trek medical tools?

I often ask myself the same question. I think maybe it's my obsession with my own mortality and the fantasy of magical tools that would, with the wave of a blinky beam, keep it at bay.

Okay...put me down for I WANT ONE!

I may do a small run of these (5 or 6 maybe) with machined metal parts for trades, if all comes out well. Just subscribe to this thread if you're interested; I'll post here if I do. :) I have just ordered tooling to make that a bit more feasible. As it is, the metal parts took me forever to machine. Trying to figure out if I can do a small run of multiples more efficiently by batching steps.
 
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Wow! That looks awesome, my friend. You really nailed it, imho. Nice job on the metal work, btw.

That'll be another TMP prop to add to my collection, would look good next to my hero Wrist Comm :)
 
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Wow! That looks awesome, my friend. You really nailed it, imho. Nice job on the metal work, btw.

That'll be another TMP prop to add to my collection, would look good next to my hero Wrist Comm :)

Thanks! I think the nozzle could be slightly more accurate, so I'm going to work on that.

There aren't many TMP props in generally really, are there? The tricorder is barely used, and a one-off. No phasers that I can remember. Barely any medical props, other than this one. The art direction was fairly spare/minimalist—in a way that I like.
 
Thanks! I think the nozzle could be slightly more accurate, so I'm going to work on that.

There aren't many TMP props in generally really, are there? The tricorder is barely used, and a one-off. No phasers that I can remember. Barely any medical props, other than this one. The art direction was fairly spare/minimalist—in a way that I like.

No, you'd be correct. I only seem to recall the Tricorder, Wrist Comm and this medical prop. I agree thier sparse/minimalistic approach with the props was well done.
 
Just a quick update: the molds came out well, but the castings kind of sucked due to bubbles. I tried all the usual tricks but after a few test castings still didn't get anything that satisfied me. But I'm happy to report that I got a pressure chamber today and will be trying it out this week to try to get some perfect pulls.
 
Here it is with the pieces held in place (nozzle is pressure fit):

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An advantage of casting it in black is I don't have to paint it, and it has a nice smooth feel right away. :) I'm very happy with how this has come out so far.
 
Great work! And you've picked the most sensible way to approach it -- by the time you de-mold, the hard work is behind you and you have a beautifully simple build. Very smart. :) Also an excellent beginner's kit if you go that way. I think that and the agonizer must be the two simplest props from TOS (from a building standpoint, not the mastering of course).
 
That is some good looking work!

Thanks! You have some great TOS movie-era builds yourself!

Great work! And you've picked the most sensible way to approach it -- by the time you de-mold, the hard work is behind you and you have a beautifully simple build. Very smart. :) Also an excellent beginner's kit if you go that way. I think that and the agonizer must be the two simplest props from TOS (from a building standpoint, not the mastering of course).

Ah, the Agonizer! That was one of my first Trek props that I had as a kid—mostly because it was so cheap and was all I could afford from the prop vendors I saw at the first convention I went to.

What I just finished was the prototype. I have improved my machining technique and plan to make a few of these as finished pieces. I was originally hand-grinding the curves on the bar stock, but I figured out a way to do it with a radius cutter to get a more consistent look across the piece. And I figured out how to make the "button" piece consistently using an angle parallel. Now I just have to figure out how to make the nozzle without it taking me several hours to do each one.
 
Several hours? How are you approaching it? Have you thought of speeding up your auto feed for the majority of the taper, then slowing down again for your finish pass? I don't know what the issue is, so I'm just throwing that out there.
 
Several hours? How are you approaching it? Have you thought of speeding up your auto feed for the majority of the taper, then slowing down again for your finish pass? I don't know what the issue is, so I'm just throwing that out there.

It's probably mostly just because I'm an idiot and haven't quite gotten the hang of production work on the lathe. I'm working with a really old Colchester-Clausing lathe that doesn't have auto-feed on the compound slide, and most of the time is taken up with tool changes (adjusting the angle on the compound slide is a whole annoying operation). I'm trying to figure out how to batch the tasks, but the trouble is that whenever I stick my bar very far out of the chuck, I start getting tool chatter, even when steadied in the tailstock, so that somewhat limits my ability to batch stuff. But I'll figure something out I'm sure. :) I'm hoping the first one took so long mostly because I had to figure out what I was doing as I went. I'm sure once I write down a list of operations, it'll go must faster.
 
It's probably mostly just because I'm an idiot and haven't quite gotten the hang of production work on the lathe. I'm working with a really old Colchester-Clausing lathe that doesn't have auto-feed on the compound slide, and most of the time is taken up with tool changes (adjusting the angle on the compound slide is a whole annoying operation). I'm trying to figure out how to batch the tasks, but the trouble is that whenever I stick my bar very far out of the chuck, I start getting tool chatter, even when steadied in the tailstock, so that somewhat limits my ability to batch stuff. But I'll figure something out I'm sure. :) I'm hoping the first one took so long mostly because I had to figure out what I was doing as I went. I'm sure once I write down a list of operations, it'll go must faster.

Yeah, same issue with the Jet lathe at Techshop, no auto-feed on the compound slide, though setting the angle is a snap. The tasks do go much faster after the trial-and-error part is behind you. Trust me, so far my phaser build is more error than trial. :p

I'm kind of half exited, half full of dread at the thought of turning the engine bells for my upcoming Eagle build. I have to create custom steel tooling for those. Three kinds of bells, interior and outer tools for each -- yep, that still equals six custom tools in tool steel. Thank God for Blender and the Tormach, but all I can hear when I think about it is the sound of expensive high-speed bits snapping...

The bells would be a lot easier if we had a resident expert on the lathe attachment for the Tormach, but apparently the G-code software is some kind of Lovecraftian incantation that summons Cthulhu's cousin Shloim, so nobody's cozied up to it yet even after nine months. Sigh.

No, wait... I forgot about the thrusters and the sensor arrays in the command module... total is nine tools. Yikes.
 
Yeah, same issue with the Jet lathe at Techshop, no auto-feed on the compound slide, though setting the angle is a snap. The tasks do go much faster after the trial-and-error part is behind you. Trust me, so far my phaser build is more error than trial. :p

I'm kind of half exited, half full of dread at the thought of turning the engine bells for my upcoming Eagle build. I have to create custom steel tooling for those. Three kinds of bells, interior and outer tools for each -- yep, that still equals six custom tools in tool steel. Thank God for Blender and the Tormach, but all I can hear when I think about it is the sound of expensive high-speed bits snapping...

The bells would be a lot easier if we had a resident expert on the lathe attachment for the Tormach, but apparently the G-code software is some kind of Lovecraftian incantation that summons Cthulhu's cousin Shloim, so nobody's cozied up to it yet even after nine months. Sigh.

No, wait... I forgot about the thrusters and the sensor arrays in the command module... total is nine tools. Yikes.

Heh. Yes, life would be much easier if I knew G-code and had a CNC lathe. Someday maybe. In the meantime, challenges like this can be seen as educational growth opportunities. ;)
 
Heh. Yes, life would be much easier if I knew G-code and had a CNC lathe. Someday maybe. In the meantime, challenges like this can be seen as educational growth opportunities. ;)
You couldn't be more right! I've actually got a Ph.D in screwing up, but if I manage to keep all my fingers, I'll be an expert when I grow up! :p
 
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