Saturday, January 2, 2010

Started work on Aluminum Skins

Good golly it got cold here.

I have a few days off for New Years so I'm taking this opportunity to start work on the skins. Remember there are 4 main pieces, 2 inner and 2 outer layered one on top of the other. Using blue painter's tape I placed a piece on each panel I removed as a label and another on the skin skeleton so I know where each panel came from. For example, I designated the front inner as part "A" and the rear inner as part "B". Then each piece would be labeled as "A-1", "A-2", etc.
Today I worked on the outer rear, or part "D". It is not exactly fun. First I used a loose hacksaw blade to cut through the tabs holding the panels to the skeleton. Once that was done I used a metal file to file down the remaining bits of the tabs so they're flush. The picture below shows all the pieces from part "D" cut out. A large piece of part "D" is removable to allow for a rear panel door to gain access to the inside of the body by means other than the top with the head removed.


As for the PIC Flasher that doesn't want to power on, I can't figure out why it won't work so I'll have to order a new one. Oh well.

More updates to come little by little. Once the spring thaw comes, I'll have lots more to post as I return to the shop.

John

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi John,
I also had trouble with the pic flashers. Turns out they were shipping with bad crystals. I contacted them and they sent out the new crystals the flashers worked like a charm.
-Eric
astromech user gunbu