gary davies-jones

By the way Chris, love the "profile" piccy. Yours? Always loved this hairy buzzer. Soooo elegant. Gary

Cheers Chris, Good link ordered some today, fingers now crossed that Postmann Pat doesn't look too closely at what he's delivering. Gary

Suppliers of model technics fuels will supply it, but only if ordered by the case ie 6 cans at a time. Chemists no longer seem to be able to supply ether, or almost anything else come to that. nanny state again. ARRRGGGHHHH! We are obviously all to stupid to be trusted with poisons or flamable substances.

A lot of people are recommending highly corrosive cleaning agents (either acid or alkaline). As a metalurgist, I would shy away from anything corrosive as aluminium is almost unique in that it is highly reactive to both acid and base. Really not a good situation considering the limited ammount of meat and the tolerences involved. Thus my choice of acetone as a substnce capable of disolving the oily residue. By the way the polishing with autosol can then be further enhanced with brasso, BUT ONLY EXTERNALLY, just in case any body has a go at the inside. "Well thats what I think anyway." Gary

Hi, Anyone out there know where I can get diesel fuel in or around Swansea? Or come to that just ether will do the job then I can mix my own. Gary

Acetone is my solution. I soak the engine in the stuff for a few hours. It works a treat and doesn't dissolve anything you don't want it to. After a soak a good scrub with an old toothbrush removes the goo easily. 'O' rings do blow up like balloon though, however leave them to "dry" out and they return to their origional dimmensions. The only fly in the ointment is getting hold of the stuff. the chemists will not sell it in more than 50ml bottles for legal reasons. However if you go to a fiberglass supplier they will sell you as much as you need, usually in 5litre cans for about £8 to£10. As a finnishing trick I use Solvol Autosoll and the old toothbrush. When "dry" and dull another old toothbrush brings out a great shine even in between the cooliPlenty of elbow grease and patience will pay dividends in shine. Paper gaskits? I agree, thick manilla envelopes. P.S. Its safe on Mercos by the way. I've done both my marine 61's this way and they stilll run well (as well as any Merco ever did) and they look really good.

A motorcycle breaker near us has sign up states that prices and levels of customer service are liable to fluctuation due to customer attitude. Just a thought doesn't really apply to faceless budget suppliers on t'internet.

Just blown the dust off the box......Its a series2 if that changes anything. Gary

Yes John it was a desmo. Half of a 900SS. Probably why it was so out of balance. Back to locking screws though. I have recently experimented with hotmelt. It used to hold the pints into arrow shafts very effectively, even when pulling them out of taget boss tripod legs, wonder how I found that out. So far no failures, I'll let you know how it works out. Gary

Ha Ha the good old tax payers dollars. I have heard this "too tight to move without tools" quoted about nylocs as well. However Ref my Ducatti:- it still amanged to unscrew Nylocs that had been prviously used once. Still miss that bike. Though not quite sure why. It was vibratory, noisey, drank oil, stopped dead in a light drizzle at the same time as trying to electrocute you, and broke final drive chains on a regular basis. On the upside however it went like a scalded cat, and handled like it was on rails, and of course being Italian looked....well....sexy. But I digress. It probably is true that if you can't move a nut by hand then model engine vibration is highly unlikely to do so. Just one fly in the ointment thought:- how hot to engine mounting bolts get? hot enough to soften the inserts on a nyloc nut? Ohh the negativity! Cries my wife. I just like to be safe, and try avoid problems real or perceived. Gary

True Nyloc nuts are good, HOWEVER, as Alex points out best only used once then replaced, and how many of us are guilty of reusing them? Me Sir! guilty as charged. The other point here is Nylocs are only of use if the fixing is a through hole with sufficient clearence for the nut. Threadloc on the other hand works in blind tapped holes. It will also work on machine screws, AND the much maligned (unfairly I feel) self taper. Mind you I have yet to see a self taper with a decent head (eg hex), and yes I know there are hundreds of Torx headed self tapers in my car holding all sorts of things trim like in place, but these are a bit on the big side for model use. for me it's still studlock/threadlock that wins. Gary

With reference to Alex Whittaker's article on mounting engines, I am surprised he has not made one mention of "thread lock" or "stud lock." This is technically speaking an anaerobic adhesive, that is to say a glue that cures in the absence of oxygen. Used to lock a thread in place it is applied to the thread at the point of final assembly, and when cured helps to prevent the thread from vibrating loose. I was introduced to it by a fellow biker when I had a Ducatti 450 single. Now this beasty vibrated like a .......... well it vibrated a lot, and as a result used to unscrew and shed all sorts of excess weight. On one occasion (the final straw) left me trying to stop a bike with the handlebars in my hands, but not attached to the steering yoke. Now a complete strip down and rebuild with stud lock later it cured it's weight saving habits completely. A cautionary tale here though some of the larger bolts later took the efforts of a 24" (that's 600mm in metric speak, give or take 3/8th's) breaker bar to release. There are two types of thread locking compound out there as well as several manufactures. The two basic types are:- The type that hardens totally, and The type most useful to us modellers that remains slightly less than solid. The later is the one I favour in fixing any small thread as it will release with a little effort, though I would agree whole heartedly with Alex. Use hex headed bolts or set screws as these are far less likely to slip or round than pozidrive or phillips headed items. All of my models are assembled with thread lock, and none so far have suffered any loss of components, and that includes a highly tuned 1/8th scale off road buggy which revs to over 50 000 RPM. In short then the tips are:- Use the semi hardening type. Use hex headed screws. Use only very small drops on each thread. Use only for final permanent installations. Gary Davies-Jones

Diametrically opposed opinions then. Seems there is no middle ground. From what people are saying though it sounds like its a flying tank. Great in one respect, however we want to teach the cadets the land not just arrive without damage. Perhaps we could use it as a follow on trainer before we move on to the spacewalker donted to us along with a lovely unbuilt Edge 540 ARTF. Any suggestion for a bullit proof slow flying airframe?

Thanks Alan (sorry cant spell), I'll have to get the box down from the atic, but I think it does look a bit Cessna 172 like, come to that any generic Cessna really. Thanks again Gary

Allen mate, How do we tell if its a mk1 or a mk2. Ours has foam core wings if that helps? Gary