Third Attempt

I started a second version of the backpack based on the new construction plans: however, careless work introduced a few visible errors, so I decided to start again, and be more careful in the new attempt. Particularly, I want to be very sure that matching parts for the left and right sides match as closely as possible, that all 90 degree joins really are at 90 degrees, etc. It makes progress go a little more slowly, but I am learning that it’s still faster than scrapping a part and starting over again.

Most of the work so far has gone into the center thruster housing of the backpack: the plates are the same design as those used in the previous attempt, but this time I glued them to each other before doing the final edge-sanding, to help make the two parts match up better, and then cut them apart again for assembly. I added additional plates perpendicular to the side plates in order to help lend the part a stronger structure and a more consistent spacing, and I squared up the major joins as I made them. Some bits of precision were still a matter of eyeballing the part, hopefully that will be good enough. In order to position the part within the rest of the backpack, I added another couple of spacer plates to the interior of the structure, to help ensure that the thruster housing winds up in its proper place in the end.

One fairly major problem I had with the second attempt was the side plates of the backpack: I designed them out of .5mm plate so each plate could be made of two layers stacked: in this way I hoped to create the part’s mitred edge as part of the plate layout… However, small mistakes in cutting the plates resulted in parts that didn’t match up well enough to create a consistent mitred edge… So this is another bit of the backpack I’ll have to do more carefully this time.