Sunday, November 24, 2013

Bits and pieces....

A lot of small jobs to get done before painting, like finishing up the wiring. I had a clamp left over, and I knew it had to go somewhere but I was danged if I could figure it out. Finally found where it was supposed to go, and it gave me an excuse to do a bit more stitching.



While at Hardware Sales one day I grabbed some of these on impulse, now I wonder how I lived without them. They worked great for wrapping up wiring until I got to them with the lacing, much easier to use than the small velcro ties.


Much better......



Next was the hull side angles. First came some trimming around the bulkhead attachment bolts, 




Then some trimming around the instrument panel. 




They're attached with10-32x3/4" machine screws, they stuck out a bit far for my taste so I've ordered some 10-32x5/8" ones. 1/2" is too small, 3/4" is too big, it's a small thing, but.....



PolySpray and PolyBrush are expensive, over $80/gallon and you don't want to waste it. But the PolyFiber manual also points out that of you start spraying a wing with no practice and mess up, the cost is even higher. They recommend using an old door to practice on before you start spraying, but since I had some leftover fabric I decided to mock up some control surfaces out of PVC pipe and use those.



We weren't sure what the chemicals were going to do to the PVC pipe, but the fabric held fine. I wouldn't want to fly under them, though 



PolyFiber is very similar to the Monokote I've used on my models for decades, but PolyFiber does not let you use a heat gun on their fabric due to uneven application of heat. Since these surfaces weren't going to fly I indulged myself, and let it rip with my gun. I didn't melt any holes, but I didn't try too hard to see if I could, either.



 In the other shop Einar has been working on his OX-5 rebuild



which motivated me to go back and work on the Jenny model I've been working on...  oh... forever. Should be ready to cover pretty soon.