Post 9: Design Preview Report

For my final project I am building a stand for a model Lego Saturn V rocket. I want the stand to support the rocket vertically so that the rocket is standing upright and I want the stand to be steady enough that I don’t have to worry about the model tipping (especially considering the fact that the rocket is quite tall and narrow). In addition to this, I want the stand to be covered in LED lights and then covered in loose cotton so that the light is diffused through the cotton and looks like a smoke plume from launch. Ideally the lights would also change color or have different parts of the stand light in different colors so it looks more realistic to an actual rocket launch. The stand would also have a wider base to help with stability.

The tube is currently 6.5in tall with a max diameter of 4.5in. The smaller holes in the top are recessed by 0.1in into the top of the stand. The holes are the diameter of the rocket nozzles and have the same spacing so that the rocket can sit in those holes on the stand. The stand top is about 0.5in thick and is solid from the top face to about 1in down. I also hollowed out the interior with the walls being about 1in thick. The hollowed out section extends from the bottom of the stand to about an inch from the outer top face. I hollowed it out so less material would be needed. I have a plywood base that should be large enough to be secured to the bottom of the stand.

I know a guy who has a pretty nice 3D printer and he has space nylon so that’s a nice way to get it 3D printed without having to pay anything or deal with the lines and issues associated with CU 3D printers. The 3D printer is a rather nice one so the print times will be shorter and more accurate which is also an added boon. Most of the stand will have an infill of ~35% to balance strength and speed of printing. The bottom inch will have a 100% infill so that I can screw the wooden base into the bottom of the stand. In addition to this, I also know someone with an Arduino who’s willing to lend it to me for the project so I can use that to try and accomplish the light change effect. If that fails I also have found a couple of LED light strips from Amazon that have a color changing feature as well as some basic programability that should accomplish a similar effect.

As a final note, a friend brought up that this concept has been executed before. I did not know at the time but now that I know, I want to give credit where it’s due. I’ve linked the post where it was done as well as included an image below of the person’s design.

My attempt at a LEGO Saturn V display
by u/AceReddit2 in lego

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/lego-nasa-apollo-saturn-v-92176