JWST Model

This is a model of the James Webb Space Telescope or JWST for short. It's fully 3D-printed and can be printed with a single-color printer. It's also super easy to put together. Hope you like my Instructable!

I used the popular 3D printer by BambuLab the A1 mini. I also used the textured PEI plate because it makes the sunsheild shiny. For my build, I listed the colors I used and the alternative colors you could use:

1. Yellow (gold probably looks better though)
2. Black
3. Grey
4. Navy blue or blue

To attach all the parts I used super glue.

Here is the link to my Makerworld page: https://makerworld.com/en/models/1038470#profileId-1022856

Important!!!

Make sure to print plate 5 before plate 2. When plate 2 pauses mid-print you need to insert the solar panel from plate 5 into the slot of the control bus.

Once you print all the plates, you are ready to begin!

First, you want to take your frame piece in the first picture and stack 4 of the sunshield layers with the spacer pieces on top. You can see how that looks in the third picture. Then you want to take your last sunsheild layer, which shouldn't have any spacers, and flip it over with the shiny side facing up.

You'll want the SIM module seen on the right and the SIM module to control the bus attachment pole on the left. Take the pole with the short tilted end and insert it into the bottom of the SIM module. Before you glue it into place twist around the pole to get the largest angle you can as seen in the pictures. A tip for aligning it is taking something with a right angle and aligning the bottom of the SIM module with the side of the pole and twist the pole to make it into a right angle.

Take your cylindrical piece and insert it into the hole in the SIM module with a bit of super glue to fix it into place. The little square in the primary mirror's center should be horizontal and closer to the top. One of the holes should be at the top. You can see all of what I just described in the first picture. If your printer has difficulty bridging gaps there might be a gap between the SIM module when you dry-fit them. I recommend filing down the attachment cylinder to solve that problem.

For this step, you must be careful of how your parts are rotated. For reference, I recommend this JWST model on Google. Once you click this link scroll down to the slowly rotating model of JWST and click on it. From there you can navigate the 3D model and use it for reference. Insert the pole that's attached to the SIM module down through the sunsheild. Rotate the sunsheild in the hole so it's pointing at one of the short sides. Fix those parts in place with super glue. With another dab of superglue mount the control bus, and rotate the solar panel to the exact other side that the primary mirror is facing.

Cut some filament off your spool and make sure it's the same colour as the hinge arms in the pictures above. First, insert the filament just a bit into the smaller pieces. Place the arm (The longer piece) into the center and align the holes before pushing the filament through all the way. The filament should require a bit of force to push through but once it's in it shouldn't fall out. The arm should rotate enough so you can position it well for the next steps.

All the hinges should press-fit into the holes on the sides of your primary mirror. Don't superglue anything yet though.

Take the two tiny pieces one is black and hexagonal and the other is a yellow circle with a square protrusion. With a bit of superglue press the square protrusion onto the top as seen in the picture.

It's harder to insert the hinges into the sides of the secondary mirror so you can superglue them one at a time if you're having difficulty but don't get any superglue in the hinges. They will superglue themselves into one fixed position! Once you have everything assembled very carefully put dabs of super glue in the hinges and on the sides of them too where you can see the filament.

Wow, you're done! I hope you liked my model! I'd love to see your model, too. So please add a make if you want! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section. A boost on Makerworld would be great if you got this far because clearly, you liked the design.