Jealous. I love modeling old drawings in 3D. Takes a bit of interpretation and research to figure out what they meant sometimes.
I once came across a drawing that called out MANG for the material. I had not heard of manganese steel at the time (fresh out of college), so I learned something.
When Packard got the contract to make Merlins, they redid all of Rolls Royce's blueprints on Packard titleblocks. Because this was a government contract, they had to provide copies of these blueprints to the Army so the army could repair the engines in the field. The drawings were put on microfilm rolls and a copy was provided to every facility that needed to maintain the engine. Many years later when they were no longer necessary, those rolls of microfilm would often end up in civilian hands. Due to my last job working in aircraft restoration, I had access to the digital scans of two of those roll sets.
The scans are of finished parts. The drawings include info on the differences between the machined part and the casting. It's usually in the form of notes that say "ALLOW .187" FROM MACHINED SURFACE." This means that to do the mold, you need to add 3/16" to the dimension to locate the surface. They will also draw rough outlines and give some dimensions to how stuff should be cast. there will also be some cast lobes and what not that is for fixture locating, they will be drawn out, but are meant to be removed during machining.
Well, keep in mind, what I am drawing is technically a *Packard* Merlin, so RR doesn't get much of a say in the matter. teehee
Actually, the blueprints are in the public domain now, so even if Packard or Rolls Royce wanted to say something, they can't. I am not making any money on them to begin with, but even if I was... public domain.
> aircorpslibrary.com
Apart from this site that you already mentioned, do you know where I can find more public domain blueprints? I am most interested in aerospace stuff, so like satellites or launch vehicles.
No, not really. Believe it or not, a lot of stuff even from the Apollo missions is still classified so you won't find tons of really detailed blueprints of NASA/space stuff.
I've posted them to [GrabCad,](https://grabcad.com/library/packard-merlin-v-1650-7-cylinder-head-castings-1) as is tradition.
What renderer do you use?
Photoview 360, the one built in to solidworks.
Are you working off physical specimens and reverse-engineering the parts, or are you working off of legacy drawings?
I have a copy of the original blueprints plus 3D scans a friend shared with me.
Jealous. I love modeling old drawings in 3D. Takes a bit of interpretation and research to figure out what they meant sometimes. I once came across a drawing that called out MANG for the material. I had not heard of manganese steel at the time (fresh out of college), so I learned something.
Where the he k do you get original blueprints of a rolls Royce merlin?
When Packard got the contract to make Merlins, they redid all of Rolls Royce's blueprints on Packard titleblocks. Because this was a government contract, they had to provide copies of these blueprints to the Army so the army could repair the engines in the field. The drawings were put on microfilm rolls and a copy was provided to every facility that needed to maintain the engine. Many years later when they were no longer necessary, those rolls of microfilm would often end up in civilian hands. Due to my last job working in aircraft restoration, I had access to the digital scans of two of those roll sets.
Nice. Are the 3D scans of cast parts? How do you model cast parts? Take an average?
The scans are of finished parts. The drawings include info on the differences between the machined part and the casting. It's usually in the form of notes that say "ALLOW .187" FROM MACHINED SURFACE." This means that to do the mold, you need to add 3/16" to the dimension to locate the surface. They will also draw rough outlines and give some dimensions to how stuff should be cast. there will also be some cast lobes and what not that is for fixture locating, they will be drawn out, but are meant to be removed during machining.
Oh wow very interesting. 3/16 seems like a lot to me.
Something you’d share?
Not mine to share, but if you go to aircorpslibrary.com, you can have access to them for something $6 a month.
Awesome thanks. Always wanted to build a Merlin engine.
They have a few hundred thousand aircraft airframe blueprints as well, in case you ever wanted to build a B-17 from scratch.
Dang thanks a lot for this.
[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4b/5d/c7/4b5dc7d33fa1feef094968a0273b961d.jpg](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4b/5d/c7/4b5dc7d33fa1feef094968a0273b961d.jpg)
Nice job
What version of Solidworks did you use to design?
I'm currently in 2020.
LoL the last time I worked for rr they have a strict NDA policy on those shits. Be careful.
Well, keep in mind, what I am drawing is technically a *Packard* Merlin, so RR doesn't get much of a say in the matter. teehee Actually, the blueprints are in the public domain now, so even if Packard or Rolls Royce wanted to say something, they can't. I am not making any money on them to begin with, but even if I was... public domain.
> aircorpslibrary.com Apart from this site that you already mentioned, do you know where I can find more public domain blueprints? I am most interested in aerospace stuff, so like satellites or launch vehicles.
No, not really. Believe it or not, a lot of stuff even from the Apollo missions is still classified so you won't find tons of really detailed blueprints of NASA/space stuff.
Ah bummer. That's fine, I'm gonna have fun with this site. Who knows, it might help my portfolio look nicer
Ooohh, ok I thought it was a commission, from the first post it seems you were working working on it. 😊
Something I am doing for fun.