With July slipping away and the deadline approaching, the Project Egress builds are pouring in now. And we’re starting to see more diversity in the choice of materials and methods for the parts being made, like these two latches made with very different methods by two different makers.

For the uninitiated, Project Egress is a celebration of both the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 and the rise of the maker movement. Spearheaded by [Adam Savage], the idea is to engage 44 prominent makers to build individual parts from the Unified Crew Hatch (UCH) from the Apollo Command Module. The parts will be used to create a replica of this incredibly complex artifact, which will be assembled by [Adam] before a live audience at the National Air and Space Museum next week.

Both [Joel] from the “3D Printing Nerd” channel and [Bill Doran] from “Punished Props Academy” got the nod for one of the 15 latches needed, and both played to their respective strengths. [Joel]’s latch was executed in PLA on a Prusa I3 printer. [Bill] went a different route for his latch. He used a Form 2 SLA printer to print the parts, but used them only to make silicone molds. He then cast the parts from urethane resin, which should prove much stronger than the original SLA prints. We suspect the ability to quickly cast more latches could prove handy if any of the other latch makers should fail to deliver.

The latches [Joel] and [Bill] made joins the other parts, like the wooden latch being made by [Fran Blanche] and the hatch handle [Paul] cast in aluminum. We’re looking forward to more part builds, as well as the final assembly.

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Source:: Hackaday