Nancy Flury Carlson

This intellectual property discussion is interesting – does it mean we are downplaying LUGDoug’s travels? Seems like we should avoid tagging him on social media.

@greg, I did want to have it done for the Home Show but it’s not worth the aggravation and rush to try and solve it before Tuesday. I think that it is not minifig scale – I think minifigs are proportionally too tall. The tower would be about 19 inches high but a real cooling tower is around 660 feet.

@rcgrier3406, thank you for your good ideas…[Read more]

Thank you @greg for your thoughtful answer AND your attention to proper grammar. I will welcome your thoughts when you get to take a look at it.

@greg, such a nice offer and what a fun-looking cone. Am I reading the room correctly that glue is NOT an option?!! I’m trying to figure out how a cone would look as part of this. Maybe if I could build enough supports on the bottom and the cone could sit on top of the supports, maybe it would work. I still don’t think the top cylinder…[Read more]

@greg yes you are right, hundreds. So depressing. I had originally thought about that design you posted, but when I found the AP1000 I dropped everything.

I forgot to add the picture of the Studio Stability warning. In my opinion baed on handling this thing, the Studio warning does not even highlight half of the poor connections. So bummed!

Then I started playing around with building some internal supports but again, the angled connections between that top cylinder and the slanted sides are just too frail. The whole cylinder itself is very frail as well. It’s a series of hinge clips sitting on jumpers, so each hinge is supported by only one jumper stud on each side.

It’s awful. It might be possible in a no-gravity situation to put this together, but on Earth it will not stick. At one point I thought I could build a paper wall to hold up the sides, but it didn’t fit (I would have to cut it out later). Then I thought of a balloon, which I still think is a great idea (I just have to pop it later). But it…[Read more]

I’ve concluded my cooling tower absolutely will not stick together in real life. Either I use super glue or waste hundreds of dollars. Any thoughts? Will I be shunned? It’s all my fault for being naive in Studio, which clearly states there are “122 clutch power issues (106 warnings and 16 cautions) and 22 stability issues.” Of course I never…[Read more]

I bought a Hazmat Guy and I had to change his head to a smiley face because he looks too frantic. He came with what looks more like a pressure washer. I’ll have to put that Geiger counter on my list of things to get… Thanks!

Today I finished the AP1000 reactor building. I’m looking forward to displaying for the first time at the Ross Park Mall! The roof will just be resting on top so that it can be lifted off easily and people can see the inside better.

Thanks Tim, it will be a cutaway view of the containment building, so people can see the plant components inside. The outside containment is basically free-floating so maybe I will be able to lift it off to reveal the entire inside build. But if I decide that’s too risky, the main components will still be visible.

Thanks Greg – yes, I’ve gotten a lot of help from LUG people who have way more experience with building.

I took a long break from this project, but the 2023 Q4 meeting gave me a huge boost in confidence and energy so I got back on track. Classic FOAK (First of a Kind) project! The designer of the LDD file advised me that I might encounter some stability issues – and he was right. I’ve made some adjustments for stability but the more I’m building,…[Read more]

Ha ha very funny @greg. At least my plant will have a containment!

Here is an update. I have the plant components most finished. I’m just waiting for the top of the Accumulator (the little round thing on the right-hand side of the piping). There are stability issues. The scariest so far is that each steam generator is clutching only three studs below. Between that and the precarious 5-stack of round 1x1s…[Read more]

@greg, I’m loving the tire idea! Maybe in my NEXT nuclear plant I will make “sport” steam generators with tires holding their Dragon Eggs on.

Because of the 5-stack of 1×1 rounds, I’ve had to add one plate thickness in height to the reactor shield wall on either side of the reactor, so that the piping enters the Steam Generator at the correct…[Read more]

Just to close the loop on my noob emergency, here is a photo of the Steam Generator with the simple yet elegant 5-round-plate (in trans colors) attachment for the Dragon Egg. I also finally found an email address for the designer Evan Schultheis and I emailed him to let him know I’m working on the plant. Thanks again for your help!