My summer of discontent is over and the Fall of chaos is nearly done.

The Artemis mission to the moon finally launched and I started looking back at the history of the Saturn V rocket. I think it is one of the most mind boggling machines to fly yet.

This model of the Apollo Saturn V is at 144 scale. This makes it over 30 inches tall and 2.75 inches in diameter. All the parts were turned on a lathe except for the fins. Spruce was used for the structure, laminated birch craft sticks for the fins alder. The engines were turned from alder (five F1), poplar (six J2) and a scrap of walnut ( command module).

The stages are held together with 1/16 brass pins fitted into 3/32 brass tubes...eighteen matched holes in all.

It is primed and will be getting painted soon along with the various markings and other details.

Note the six foot stick man standing beside the main F1 engine....

Fraser

Wow! Awesome project Fraser. I eagerly await more updates.

Lou

Fraser,

Definitely different. Excellent workmanship.

Looking forward to updates.

Gordon

Thanks Lou and Gordon. Normally I am building things with wings, so this is a bit different. Funny that when I start looking at the rocket, it is much more than a tube.... I did present the unfinished model at the wood turning club here in Vancouver and they were amazed at the number of small parts it is made from. Most wood turned projects are generally less than 3 parts where the Saturn V model has about 30 turned parts.

I will update shortly when I get some color on the model

Here is the wood turning guild I belong to. Actually I was initially reluctant to join a "guild", but they are a fantastic group of guys who vary from true professional turners to beginners who've never held a tool. Everyone has so much knowledge to share too. Check out their resources and newsletter. gvwg.ca

Fraser

Looking for the correct paint markings for the Apollo 11 version is a bit frustrating. Seems most of the illustrations are of earlier test vehicles with markings that were changed when the Apollo 11 flew. The finss are numbered a.b.c.d and they seem to be the defining reference for the orientation of the black and white roll markings. So we'll press on looking at pictures for now.
Fraser

I found enough information on the paint markings to allow me to start masking. The black and white paint scheme allows for better visual tracking of the roll orientation of the rocket during launch. Eleven engines are painted silver/black; not yet sure about the command module engine as it is usually shown with a red shroud over it during assembly.
Fraser

I am looking forward to it.

Lou

Me too ! 

Cheers

Gordon

You know, math was never my strongest subject, but I was pretty good at arithmetic. Not today though...When referencing the station diagrams, i blundered a measurement of the second stage length. I measured to the bottom of the interstage skirt, not from the top and ended up 1 7/16" short on the second stage booster. A mere 17 scaled feet short. Hmm i guess it is rocket science . So back to the lathe to make a new section.

I discovered the error when making the UNITED STATES stencil that is marked on the second stage. The decal was 1.5" too long based on actual dimensions of the scaled letters. Whereas the USA markings on the stage 1 worked out to scale.

In reality the stages were built in ring sections, so I suspect the night crew missed a ring section, or two......

Oh well.
Fraser

Back on track with a new second stage under construction. I tend to collect "nice" 2x4 spruce at the local HD so the material is inexpensive and works well. Plus the lathe is fun to work with.  I now have another test piece for painting too.
Fraser

Been there many times and had to redo some piece or other. Your lathe skills appear well developed.

Lou

Thanks Lou. The lathe has opened up a whole range of possibilities on various projects. I managed to get the cylinder quite consistent in diameter. I was originally going to cut a piece off and add it to the short part, but it would result in a seam that would probably be harder to refinish.
Fraser

Painted the engines silver over black. Didn't mask the black as the edge of the nozzles created a nice crisp paint line. It was fun spraying the silver. As it covered the black it felt like I was sandblasting black metal clean🤔.

I also carved up 8 ullage rockets and 5 fuel line fairings and have a few more detail bits to make. So what is a ullage rocket? Ullage is the unused space inside a liquid container. During staging of the rocket, the thrust reduction create a loss of G in the tanks that would cause the liquid fuel in the next stage to float and possibly starve the fuel from the engine prior to ignition. To prevent this, the ullage rockets would fire as the staging occurred to provide a positive G to settle the fuel in the tanks towards the intakes. This occurred just long enough for the main engines to start and resume the acceleration.

I learned all this just by building a wooden model of the rocket and looking for the details of it.

So having said all that, building solid wooden models is more than just modeling, it's also learning the technology from the era being studied.


Fraser

Fabulous results on the engine nozzles Fraser. This is shaping into your best yet.

Lou

 Fraser,

Beautifully turned and finished.

Cheers

Gordon