I love retro-designed rockets. I’ve done several now, and I’m just getting started.

This one is designed after some 1930s ideas, and is even similar (though mine has fins) to the one that took Bugs Bunny into space to meet Marvin the Martian for the first time.

Here’s mine, the parts laid out:

Which assemble to form:

So far I have designed and printed a rocket based on a Fathers’ Day Card my daughter gave me:

Then I did one from the 3DAGOGO T-shirt from a contest I won:

Then I did one for the Regular Joes Podcast after their new logo, a white and gray rocket:

Then last weekend I designed the Jetpack Rocket (based on the jetpack I made for my friend, which I modeled on a corgi dog for him.)

UPDATE: May 2, 2015 – PLA Version

A while back I got a reel of Afinia Premium PLA filament in gray. I had never used PLA before, and for some reason I had some issues printing on my H479. I don’t know why. I more or less abandoned it as a material after a few tests. Then I got a Makerbot red transparent PLA not realizing it was PLA. I thought it was ABS. I used that a couple of times with similar results. A lot of spiderwebbing (very thin traces of filament stretching between spans between parts.)

This week I revisited the PLA with my H480 (basically the same printer with some nice extra features, but more or less the exact same printing system) and this time I got really good results. So I thought I would do a more comprehensive test print of my Silver Bullet Rocket.

So I printed each piece in Fine (slowest, most accurate) mode, with .15mm layers (highest resolution) in PLA.

Here are the results:

The Parts: (minus the door window, because I forgot I needed it when I took this picture.)

The door, with aforementioned window (printed in blue glow-in-the-dark ABS. This is the only ABS part on this particular print) – But look at it close-up. It printed very nicely!

The engines and caps: (I have to say, I really like that translucent red!)

The nose section. (At this size, the cone was a little untidy)

The finished print.

It was Carol’s idea! I swear! She envisioned a Santa Claus robot, and of course its main feature would be disproportionately large claws.

So I set to work designing a slightly retro look, with white helmet reminiscent of the Battlestar Galactica Viper pilot helmets (original series) with a fin that looks like it belongs on a bullet train from the 1920s.

I was originally going to give him skis and a jetpack engine, but I thought better of it. I thought of snow-cats, which have very wide treads, and completed the design with white jet intakes down the front  and a headlight beam on his belt buckle, and snow goggles.

ZoomFloppy is a great little circuitboard I bought for $35.00. It connects to a PC through USB and allows you to connect Commodore 64 disk drives (1541, 1541-II, 1571, 1581) directly to the PC for reading and writing to .d64, .d81 files, etc. This allows you to use a Commodore emulator (like VICE) which uses these files as images of the original disk.

It’s a great way to archive your old disks too, but also to revive your interest in the Commodore 64 without having to go out and find an old C64. Any PC (or Mac, or heck, even a Raspberry Pi) can run the VICE emulator and you can have a fully functional Commodore 64 at your fingertips.

To start, I measured the distance between the mounting holes on the circuitboard:

(Note, the numbers on the calipers are not accurate… this was for visual reference only.)

Then I printed an X-shaped test strip with cones where the screws should go, so I could test fit it onto the circuitboard and see if I had the dimensions just right:

Once I knew the test cross fit, I could be confident those dimensions would work on the case.

I measured the connectors so I could cut spaces for them, and printed a rough frame that should fit the ZoomFloppy:

Then I did it again, refining the spaces in the gaps for each connector, and rounding out the hole for the LED, since the square hole was just for position testing.

When that was secured, I printed a completed bottom:

Then I printed a test top, though this print came out less than perfectly, I was able to use it to test position:

It was time to print the first test print in color – white.

I printed these floor down. My printer was having some issues with warping and the case top and bottom did not come out perfectly flat, but I think that’s a print-bed heating issue I’m working to resolve. But it worked out fairly nicely. Printing it “upside down” allows the connection between the top and bottom halves to fit just about perfectly. The warping would only affect the case top and bottom, and not be a major issue.

I etched out a space for a Commodore logo, and a strip at the top that would have a smaller version of the logo with the rainbow color strips familiar on the Commodore 64’s case, then the ZoomFloppy logo on the right. Each strip was printed in a separate color, and fits into a thin slot on the logo strip.

Next I secured the two halves with screws, sandwiching the ZoomFloppy board perfectly.

This shows the bottom, with the four screws and the four rubber feet I attached to prevent slipping. (Bought in any craft or hadware store.)

This is a short video (no sound, sorry… my iPhone’s front microphone does NOT work when shooting video) showing my new H480 printer (left) working at the same time as my H479 (right).

It is currently printing two halves of a case designed to house a circuit board called ZoomFloppy which allows PCs to read and write to Commodore 64 disk drives.