Back to Basics

JonTappin wrote: However for me, things like that would bother me ever after, knowing it was wrong, so I would correct it.

It would bother me too forever but if it flies okay then I probably wouldn't fix it.

Phil Ford wrote:

JonTappin wrote: However for me, things like that would bother me ever after, knowing it was wrong, so I would correct it.

It would bother me too forever but if it flies okay then I probably wouldn't fix it.

But once it's finished, it's too late to fix it!

You speak my language Brian - for 9/32 in my brain would tell me that's 1/4 in + 1/32 - easier than counting 9 thirty seconds on the steel rule.
The error would annoy me too, so I'd fix it.

Colin.

Most encouraging to know that I'm not alone Colin, there is an ambience to measurements that have their roots embedded in history. Whether its a fact or a charming legend, the "foot" being the length of the king's foot, and an "inch" being the length from the first joint to the end of his thumb, and the amazing coincidence that it was one twelfth of the length of his foot. Such things, legendary though they may be, generated a measurement system that enabled great works to be built. However, we must bend to digital measurement in all its forms and methods of control. But it is comforting to remember that the monetary system we had for almost two thousand years was started when the Romans invaded us, that and our measurement system must have confused the rest of the World. Unfortunately, I can't help thinking that a "Micron" is an extremely small version of a French president, in spite of that, the magic Metric System and the works of Mr Boole enable us to enjoy the affordable high-tech items we rely on today.

Not much done today, funny how the "fiddly bits" take so much longer to sort out. I started the morning with fitting the aileron servos, that was a whole lot of fun as I hadn't made provision for accessing the screws that prevent the servos from falling off. By the time I'd found a suitable piece of 1/4" diameter brass tube, dressed the end so that it would cut through a 1/16" thick rib, and made four access holes for a screwdriver, then it was lunchtime. I must have been concentrating very hard as I'd no idea that I'd spent a few hours scratching about. Returning to the shed after lunch, I spotted something fluttering on the path. It was a very very small Blue Tit chick. The afternoon was spent in feeding it and hoping the parents would come and take over. Unfortunately they didn't, and now the chick is tucked up in a sandwich box lined with a wad of kitchen paper and carefully stowed in our tool shed. The RSPB website says to leave them alone, they don't advise on how to cope with seeing something young and fragile and needing help.

Things have drifted a bit over the past few days. Since the episode of the chick that didn't fall out of its nest, it was tweaked out by a magpie, which came back and took the rest of the brood. Perhaps I ought to knock up some sort of scarecrow? Its been far too hot to work in the shed, so I spent a bit of time trying to find out why the shed door is difficult to lock and persists in swinging shut. Now I wish I hadn't been so inquisitive. The shed is sinking into the ground. The underpinning is a timber frame supported on twelve "legs" made from two inch square softwood, these were soaked in preservative before the whole thing was beaten with a large mallet until it was level. The shed is no longer level, and the once flat floor has a distinct bulge upwards in the middle. I thought of an assoetment of complicated ways of getting it levelled, but the answer is amazingly simple. All I need to do is empty the shed, dismantle it, heave out the original base, and replace it. So apart from fretting about that, I drilled a few 1/8" holes for pin hinges in the fin/rudder, and dry fitted the hinges. Some years ago, I used a Pacer glue for hinge fitting, then it went off the market. The glue was water based and came in a small plastic bottle, something like 1/2 oz (American of course). I emailed Pacer and was surprised by their reply. They'd taken the hinge glue off the shelves because canny(stingy) modellers had found that Pacer canopy glue was a lot cheaper and did the job just as well. I did some tests and found that the balsa gave way long before the glue joint parted. Since then I've used Deluxe R/C Modellers Glue......works a treat and cleans up with water, also works very well on tail feathers for ARTF models, no more smears of epoxy on the pristine Oriental covering. The Kadet has now got a wing locating dowel at the LE, the front fairing, having been sawn off to allow the wing dowel hole to be drilled, has been refitted to the top of the front former. Glued some balsa sheet where the wing meets the former, needs a bit more sanding to profile and a bit of filler here and there.