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Star Trek Warp Core

A 3d printed scale model of the warp core you would find at the heart of a Galaxy class star ship in the Star Trek universe

gigawattsGigawatts
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So, what do you do when you've been handed an old Cardassian space station with no power? You build yourself a warp core to get it back in working condition!

That is exactly what we did here. A warp core prop was required for the set of a new series of Star Trek fan fiction taking place on "Quark's Space Station".

This first ever scale model warp core replica was custom designed with Solidworks and 3D printed on a Makerbot Replicator 2X. The many pieces of the warp core clock in at an estimated 100 hours of combined print time. Acetone was used to glue many of the parts together, and stainless steel rods run the length of warp core, tying everything together.

Self adhesive 12V blue LED strips stuck to each face of a custom 3D printed prism rod run down the center of both arms of the warp core, providing bright, even illumination of the clear plastic rings. Another orange LED strip is wrapped around the inside diameter of the warp core chamber, brightly lighting the clear plastic windows.  A small tray slides out the front face of the warp core chamber, where you would place your dilithium crystals.

  • 6 × 12v Blue LED strips ~2 foot long each
  • 1 × 12v Orange LED strip ~1 foot long
  • 26 × 3D printed clear rings clear ABS
  • 1 × 3D printed warp core chamber 4 pieces, black ABS
  • 1 × 3D printed warp core chamber window strip 2 pieces, clear ABS

View all 10 components

  • On the Set

    Gigawatts • 04/29/2014 at 06:24 • 0 comments

    A couple photos of the warp core in action on the set of Quark's space station

  • LEDs

    Gigawatts • 04/27/2014 at 07:03 • 0 comments

    Eventually, we will be adding individually addressable LEDs to each arm of the warp core to simulate a pulsing/strobing effect, as seen in the shows, but the static LEDs worked just fine for the filming of the first episode.

View all 2 project logs

  • 1
    Step 1

    3D print parts (for hours and hours)

  • 2
    Step 2

    stack pieces together, gluing with acetone where needed

  • 3
    Step 3

    Solder LEDs strips together, mounting them in the chamber and tubes

View all 6 instructions

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Mike Szczys wrote 05/07/2014 at 21:29 • point
I'd love to see more pictures of the parts before they were assembled.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Gigawatts wrote 05/09/2014 at 03:59 • point
I'll see what else I can dig up. Unfortunately, the project was worked on during a trip to Vegas, before I knew about the contest, so I don't have many "in progress" shots.

  Are you sure? yes | no

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