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<< Designing the Taui Landing Pad
2019-12-28
Printing the Taui landing pad >>
2020-01-03

Assembling the Taui landing pad

2020-01-01 by David

Happy New Year to you all for 2020!! May your printers never run empty!

 

With the new year to celebrate, we have the first pictures of the printed Taui landing pad to share with you soon. But first, here is an assembly guide for those of you about to tackle this big terrain piece......

 

 

First thing to note for this landing pad is that the exterior wall is printed UPSIDE DOWN!!!!

 

Since the outer wall is intended to be printed in colour-tinted clear filament, and to be lit with LEDs from the inside, walls that will block the light inside the model have been kept to a minimum. To that end, exterior walls are only 2mm thick, and internal supports have been removed.

 

Obviously printing curved models without overhanging supports is tricky, so the main 6 sections of the landing pad should be printed upside-down (as oriented in the files) at 100% infill, without any supports at all. I recommend printing with a brim, too, for better adhesion to your print bed.

 




£ When you have printed all 6 wall sections, you'll see that they all have a flat surface at each end - these are for gluing the sections together. In order for the strongest possible join and to minimise gaps, I recommend quickly smoothing the ends flat with sandpaper. I used 400 grit sandpaper, and each section only took a few seconds.





£ You can then glue all 6 wall sections together, as shown. They are numbered from 1 (bottom left), going clockwise to number 6 (bottom right). You'll notice that section 2 and 4 are the same, with that large dome-shaped bulge, but actually you can mix and match sections freely, as long as sections 1 and 6 (at the bottom) are included.

 




£ Next you need to print 6 sections of the inner ring. Again, sections 1 and 6 (shown in the image above) are a slightly different shape, while the other 4 sections are four copies of the same file. Start by gluing ring sections 1 and 6 into the outer wall, as shown. Then fit the other sections one at a time. You may find the final ring section is too tight to fit - I had to sandpaper 1mm off from one end, to get a perfect fit.

 

(A slightly modified version of the ring file, 1mm shorter on each end, has also been included in the set)




£ The energy lift acts as a large (10cm / 4") platform at the front of the pad, elevating models from ground level to the top surface of the pad. Printing this is easy - the outer ring is a single print (best printed at 100% infill to avoid inner lines, if you are printing in clear PLA).

 

Then you can print either the hexagonal surface shown in the photo above (again, at 100% infill), or you could choose a geometric design version instead.

 

I chose to print both versions - the hexagon version for the product pics, and the geometric version to customise it to my Tau models.





£ The energy lift ring is designed to be a VERY precise fit in the landing pad. You will probably find that you need to gently file down the two "teeth" from the back of the ring, as shown in the photo above, to get a perfect fit.

 

Ideally, you want the ring to fit in the slot and slide up and down when tilted up slightly (about 10 degrees), but when you remove your hand the weight of the lift itself will hold those two teeth against the inside grooves of the slot on the main pad. So to get that perfect fit, try filing off a fraction of a millimetre at a time, until the fit is right.




£ The top surface of the landing pad will look best printed as one large, single piece - but only if your printer has a print bed of 24cm. For smaller printers, a version cut into four 12cm sections is also provided, which can be glued together.

 

If you choose to print the four-part version, I recommend printing the central support cylinder as shown in the photo above, and gluing it in the centre of the underside, for added strength.

 

 

Assembled pictures are coming tomorrow, so watch this space!!!


Tags: taui  assembly 


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<< Designing the Taui Landing Pad
2019-12-28
Printing the Taui landing pad >>
2020-01-03
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