The Plans

Any reader of this site will not be surprised that Wah's organically-shaped hand-crafted communicator does not render easily to paper. Everything tapers and curves; the top is different from the bottom; the left differs from the right, plus every comm differs from each other! A carefully aligned photograph or caliper-made measurement conflicts with the very next one taken at the same spot. Thus it has been daunting to accurately convey details exactly as-is. The weeding out of errors and weighting averages is a nearly endless process. Our goal has been to produce plans whose margin of error is within that of your printer, and below are the results of that effort. We currently have measurements AND tracings for Zeta and Alpha, plus just dimensions for Epsilon, thus we begin with the two we have the best data on. Tracings of Alpha in all 3 axis and hundreds of numbers and photos all meshed to produce the set of plans below. Clean-up consisted only of averaging the left vs. right shell sides and antenna contours, plus straightening the control well edges, to produce a "quintessential" communicator plan and profile. This was done separately for both top and bottom shells. Other components are shown exactly as measured. Solder, glue and gaps between parts have been omitted for clarity and simplicity. Zeta's partial plans focus on the exact shell and midplate shapes and combines them with Alpha's exact shapes. With the moire bezel rings plans - we have measurements off of three (Alpha, Epsilon, and Zeta) - and superb photographs of that can be matched to the actual pattern source to create two more (Gamma and Delta).
	Current Issue: July 07. Our plans show a restored version from the "Friday's Child" era, including the now-missing rear midplate segment between the hinge wheels (traced from that episode's screen caps). The shells have been made symmetrical and the imperfections, including an off-center moiré bezel, have been cleaned up in these plans. The bottom shell is shown with the actual 0.5 degree cant to the right as it was fastened to the midplate. The back end of that shell also seems a bit flattened compared to Epsilon and Zeta.
	Current Issue: January 08. Based on tracings, measurements, and photographs provided to us by Greg Jein in 2006, the parts to Zeta we have sufficient data on are exactly outlined as they exist today, with all imperfections kept intact. Both precise CAD-drawn lines and pristine original tracings are included. In addition, outlines of Alpha's parts are shown right atop Zeta's (also precisely as they are without any alterations) along with key overall dimensions for both to enable a comprehensive comparison. Complete blueprints will be offered when additional images and dimensions of the original comm can be obtained.
	Current Issue: May 08. Exacting plans for the moiré bezel rings on Alpha, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta, as determined by on-prop measurements, high-resolution photographs and scaling to the actual moiré pattern inserts. Dimensions are given to the nearest thousandths of an inch for the benefit of those with computer-guided lathing. 2021 update - the spacing of Alpha's upper and lower Pattern #4 is not as shown on Page 2 but is now established to be: Lower rotating pattern 0.118" off-center, and Upper transparent pattern 0.005" off-center to the left. Jun 09 Supplemental - Our best guess at the moiré bezel rings for three comms; Beta, Iota and Kappa, based on good screen caps which can be measured off of with some modest confidence. Beta's ring is drawn with the two grooves it perhaps has. We've also added our best stab at Eta's and Theta's from the pooling of whatever fair-to-poor data is available. >>> Download Supplemental - Page 1 Here <<< >>> Download Supplemental - Page 2 Here <<< Additional information on how all ten rings compare to each other is on their Parts page.
Since our PDF-format plans are only as accurate as your printer, we have introduced a means by which you can check if your output device measures up. On each line-work page are lightly-drawn corners of an exact 3" x 5" rectangle you can compare by ruler.