NASM Technical Drawing Microfilm archive

[BHawthorne]

Anyone used NASM to get NASA technical drawing on microfilm? I know it's common to do with aircraft research. Wondering if it would be a good way to get accurate technical drawings on old NASA spacecraft for simpit building?

 

[yagni01]

Anyone used NASM to get NASA technical drawing on microfilm? I know it's common to do with aircraft research. Wondering if it would be a good way to get accurate technical drawings on old NASA spacecraft for simpit building?

Never tried it. Sounds like a good idea, though. There might be ITAR restrictions on the data, but its definitely worth going for.

 

[BHawthorne]

I've gotten the manufacturer's technical drawing blueprint data for several parts I had to reproduce on a B-47 and my F-84F display projects, so at least I know if it was in the airforce inventory they'd have the production drawings for every nut and bolt. I would think it would be the same for old NASA designs like Apollo, Mercury, Gemini, etc... Only downside is the $30 per reel.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/arch/collections/techdraw/mfilm.cfm

For example, here is a reel of B-47 engineering drawings:

 

[yagni01]

What do you do for a reader?

 

[BHawthorne]

I picked up a surplus microfilm copier at Spirit Aerosystems about 6 months ago for $20. Microfilm readers are pretty much given away at surplus businesses. I'm looking for a simple microfilm reader at the moment that doesn't have the copier machine part. I also picked up a 11x17 computer flatbed scanner awhile back for $15. The idea is to mate the scanning face of the scanner to the reader window. I saw this done to great success on a website awhile back. No need to spend $2500 for someone elses new 200-800dpi microfilm scanner. This way is pretty innovative and cheap to do. It has the added bonus that it'll end up giving a lot higher scan resolution then the expensive solutions. The microfilm reader enlarges the view to show on the screen opticly, then the flatbed scanner also can do 800dpi of that opticly enlarged view, so it's a heck of a lot higher resolution becuase of it beening enlarged opticly before it's scanned. Using this contraption I can get the microfilm transfered to electronic PDF form, clean it up in Photoshop and just access and print out the stuff I need from DVD-R.

Worst case, someone in the forum buys some reels and I'll scan them to PDF for free for them.

 

[Ghostrider]

Are you sure the scanner can cope with the glare on the reader window? Maybe you would be better off hooking it up to a digital camera.

 

[BHawthorne]

Are you sure the scanner can cope with the glare on the reader window? Maybe you would be better off hooking it up to a digital camera.

I've seen it done before on a few websites. One way to find out is to throw it together and tweak it as needed. It's not like I have much invested in such a frankenstein creation. The screen of a microfilm reader is a piece of diffusion glass or plexi. It shouldn't be glossy I don't think. worse case I can swap in something that has the proper charactistics to be scannable.

Edit: I just found a little portible microfilm reader I bought awhile back I forgot I had. I looked at the screen. It looks like it should scan fine. It was another surplus thing I bought and forgot I had. It has a wierd power connector that never came with it though. I have an old halogen desk lamp I'm taring the guts out of and use it to power it with. The microfilm reader lamp was 6V 9W and the desk lamp is 12V 20W. I might have to put in a little 12V computer fan to offset the heat difference.

 

[BHawthorne]

Small update on things, I now have a Canon Microfilm Scanner 400 and can scan 16mm and 35mm microfilm. NASM does offer microfilm for NASA spacecraft, but I don't have specifics of what is available. If anyone purchases microfilm from NASM, I can scan it into digital form to DVD for free. :speakcool:


-----Post Added-----


Out of curiousity, I put in a help desk request at NASM inquiring what microfilm they have on the McDonnell Mercury capsule. I should know what microfilm is available in 3 weeks or so.

 

[BHawthorne]

Contacts at NASM told me that National Archives or NASA's own archival system would be the better place to check for spacecraft microfilm. They didn't have much of note. Most of NASM's microfilm is US Air Force. Anyways, here is a pic of my scanner in action.