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Trevor Rushton

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  1. I've been away from this site for a few months but on dipping back in I saw this thread and thought I would add my own experiences. 20 years ago I went for a routine medical and was told that I had a raised PSA that ought to be checked out. I was told that it could be due to infection as opposed to anything sinister so I promptly forgot about it. 10 years later I had a pulmonary embolism ( totally unrelated of course) but as part of the diagnosis they checked my PSA again and it was pretty high. The usual DRA , biopsy and scans then followed and confirmed that I did have an aggressive carcinoma. Fortunately, the wretched thing was contained. If it had not been for the PE I would probably have carried on in blissful ignorance and things could have been much worse. I elected to have a radical prostectomy using laser surgery. The operation went well and I was travelling home 24 hours later. 10 years on and I am having my normal bi- annual check tomorrow. I consider myself fortunate and in a very odd kind of way, privileged to have had the experience. That may sound daft, but the issue made me refocus my life and get many things into perspective. Now, everyone will have their own concerns, experiences and beliefs as to how to deal with these things. I recognise that others are or will not be as fortunate as me, but here are a few thoughts: dont find excuses not to have a PSA test if the result suggests something might be going on then act on it; don't leave it 10 years! dont worry about the DRA, it's not a big deal dont worry about the biopsy, it was a bit uncomfortable but in the scheme of things not a big issue dont bother to spend time reading and researching everything that you can find on prostate cancer and details of the operation; if you are not medically qualified you will end up working yourself up to a frenzy. Take it as it comes and leave the treatment plan to those who have spent their careers developing the expertise to treat you. Dont feel alone; there are plenty of people who have been through it; talk to them don't bury your head in the sand and think that it could not possibly happen to you TREVOR
  2. Agh! sorry everyone the method explained above does not work quite as expected in that it seems to be the outer face of the body that cuts and not the inner face. It looked okay until I pulled the two parts apart.
  3. The spinner question got me experimenting as to how to get the bottom part of the spinner to fit inside the top part; I suggested a small ridge with the idea that you could screw the parts together like the commercial spinners with two screws. However, Nev was trying to create more of a lip. The answer is to extrude a cylinder on top of the bottom part of the spinner (it will project beyond the face of the top part of the spinner - and then adopt the procedure that I suggested for using an offset plane to slice the body into two parts, but instead of using the plane to select the cut line a second time, select the top part of the spinner as a body and use that to cut the lip. If you make the residual part a component you can then dispose of it quite easily. If anyone is interested I will create some screen shots - I am not suggesting its the right way to do it, but it worked for me. Bob I like the fuel tank - did you use abs for that?
  4. Nev I have been using Fusion for nearly a year now and am beginning to get the hang of it. I suggest that to get a better spinner shape its better to use the modify/revolve tool. Start a fresh sketch and select the relevant plane. Draw a vertical line the radius of the spinner and from the same point a horizontal line representing the desired length. Now draw the outer shape of the spinner using a spline curve to join the two end points. You will have to play with it to get the shape you want, When satisfied with the profile use the modify /revolve tool to create a new body (important) use "full" and you will get a solid spinner shape. Now select the bottom of the spinner and use the create tool to set up an offset plane say 15mm from the base i.e. to get the two parts of the spinner. With that offset plane visible now use the modify /split body tool; click on the spinner, then use the offset plane as the cutting tool, the plane will go red as it slices your spinner into two parts. Now use assemble/new component to create a component for first one part of the spinner and then do it again to create the second one. If you right click and select move you can now pull the two components apart. You still have two solids so to hollow the out go to modify/shell, select the component and wall thickness say 2mm or whatever you want. Make sure that you select the circular face of the component and away you go. Do the same again for the bottom part of the spinner and hollow that out. To create a joint I would then start a new sketch on the top face of the bottom part of the spinner and create a new circle of diameter 4mm smaller than the top part. Extrude this by say .75mm (you might need to experiment here to get a decent fit) between the two parts. Obviously the extruded bit will not have exactly the same profile as the top bit of the spinner but if you create a screw fixing (like a commercial unit) it should click into place. I hope that is helpful - if you need some screen shots let me know. Trevor
  5. Shane that looks like a result well done. I have seen examples of printing onto photo paper and then carefully splitting the paper apart - not sure about that. I have tried making decals from tissue paper - there are some u tube vids on doing that; Out of interest what is the size of each flag?
  6. Looking good Shane. How about making the rising suns out of ink jet decal paper? Red will not show up very well, but if you use the white decal paper it would show up I think. In the alternative mask up some white rectangles and then apply the (clear) decals onto these.
  7. Rob I was looking for another thread and stumbled upon yours; I am probably too late now but I have been building one of these for about 18 months (made very slow progress) but I am very pleased with the way in which it is shaping up. The quality of the kit is first class and the drawings are well produced and detailed. Its a slightly odd looking aeroplane which attracted me to it in the first place. Mine is covered now and almost ready to finish off but work commitments have put a halt to it other than for a few minutes here and there. The model is surprisingly large; loads of room for the r/c kit and flight pack. I like the shape of the wings but don't ask me how it will fly! The only point I would make is that the drawing for the u/c is not very clear and when I had finished it the whole assembly felt very heavy. I broke the original u/c up and made my own and although lighter I am still not very happy with it; the small wing between the wheels is difficult to get right and in my attempts to redesign I think I have made it more complicated. I may well rebuild it again. The front cowl is very large; I have not yet worked out the best way of cutting the vent slots in it as I don't want to damage it. Mine will probably not be finished in camo; I have seen some examples of civilian markings which I may go for. This is the second RBC kit that I have built; my first was the Texan which I built as a Havard. It flew perfectly on its maiden but in my ineptitude I tip stalled it on finals and after repair thereafter followed a series of mishaps including the motor detaching itself in mid air. I think these problems were all down to pilot error rather than any problems with the airframe. Once I sorted everything it's flown well and given good service. I am thinking of buying the Kingfisher next; it will no doubt be added to the growing pile of projects awaiting my retirement but it would be rude not to! In summary I hold RBC in high regard and am happy to recommend them. If you are interested in more pics of the Avia I am happy to post them; I decided not to provide a build log on this one; its taken so long that people would probably have got bored
  8. Hi Shane - its coming on and looking good. I am usually very impatient by this stage and cannot wait to get the primer on to see what the panels and bits look like.A bit of care at this stage makes a big difference and worth the number of failed cutting exercises when its finished. A few rivets perhaps? I have used glue and also the Mick Reeves rivet tapes before and very much like the latter albeit they can be a bit fiddly. Once you have used the cut rivets you can use the tape as a template for more. The real challenge would be to use the vinyl cutter to make some. You mention that you have glassed the wings - did you use Poly C or resin? Presumably doing this also lets you use cellulose based spray paint or rattle cans? I have had good results with both methods although PolyC on to foam veneered wings was less satisfactory as it caused a degree of rippling. Thanks for the Illustrator tips - I have kept away from that type of graphic programme up until now preferring to fight it out with Cad, but I will certainly give Illustrator a go.Thinking about it I have a cheap Serif graphics programme - I will have a look and see if that has a similar feature. Bed levelling on the Stepcraft is a bit of an issue. I realised that I had a problem when I was cutting out the aluminium for my blade holder; I was making very light passes and realised that the first few were making contact but running out to zero over about 75mm. Not quite sure how to deal with it; having spent ages getting the x and y axis to work properly I am reluctant to take it to bits again. It seems that the favoured approach is to put a heavier and better supported bed in place - that seems to be quite a lot of effort. Did you have a magic trick? It's a great machine and I am very pleased with it,so this is not really a big issue for the uses that I put it to. However vinyl cutting would be a challenge I think. Fancy getting the laser cutting head?
  9. Ha, visions of cutitng alu with a Stanley knife - I wish! No, my post was unclear; I was making a blade holder to take a Stanley Knife blade. The holder fitted to a spindle and the spindle fitted into a couple of bearings like a Donek knife.. It took me 4 failed attempts to cut it out with a 3mm dia cutter on the Stepcraft (and loads of cutting oil). I don't think that I will rush to do it again! I do have some Vance Mosher plans for a large Firefly - its over 7kg if built in Balsa, but a composite Depron/balsa version could be good fun. I would like to find a reliable way of turning hard copies into vector drawings for the Stepcraft; my attempts at auto tracing and conversion have not been rewarding and I have not been happy with their quality. So far I have resorted to redesigning using DevFus and DevWing I am using Cut2d and UCCNC. Sorry, this is taking the thread a bit off topic so I'd better let you crack on with the Corsair!
  10. Thanks Shane; thats great: I'd not thought about using the small hole - that's too simple! I will have a go at it at the weekend - I have ordered some blades and will see how it goes. My larger Stanley knife version was a disaster but it taught me how to cut 6mm aluminium on the Stepcraft. (Slowly!) I think that I have been overthinking the design. I'll look at the depron ribs again; looks promising. Thanks for your comments I am also thinking of using it for some (not all) fuselage formers.
  11. Thanks Shane; re the cutter no hurry. The Stepcraft cutter seems to be spring loaded so that you set the depth of cut (blade projection) and then the Z axis puts the compression on the spring. I have a lathe (not that I am very good with it). I have also been experimenting with 3d printing so I quite fancy having a go at something. I am intrigued by the use of depron ribs on your Corsair; I have been tempted to try it on a couple of builds but they have not progressed beyond initial trial stage. I was nervous about the strength, but this was an open structure rather than a sheeted one. Would you do it again?
  12. "Don't let the model fly where it wants to go, fly it where you want it to go" "I lost my orientation"
  13. Shane I am following your progress with interest; my building has dropped off a bit of late due to work pressures but I did try making my own dragknife; it was a variation on the Donek theme and whilst I was pleased with the way it looked it was a total failure. I also have a Stepcraft and am keen to expand its capabilities. You would not happen to have a rough sketch of your design that you could share wold you? I am keen to have another go. Many thanks
  14. Brilliant; it gave me a big smile on a grey day!
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