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Post by ZacYates on Aug 20, 2023 21:11:47 GMT 12
Hear hear! I may not always comment but I do always read them.
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Post by denysjones on Aug 26, 2023 21:31:11 GMT 12
Continuing on from where we left off last week :-) In Dave's photo the bottom connector on the now refitted junction box has a cable heading off to the right of the photo where it commences to follow the fuselage wall forward. It is attached twice to the upper of two shelf-like fixtures (we'll come back to those shortly) and then disappears out of shot. Given that I knew the size of connector I could see, I played "find the mate" further forward. As I only found one such recipient I confidently (?) made up the run to it and proceeded on this this week... Now those shelf-like things.....these have long been a puzzle to me, as to their function. Each of them has three square cutouts in it, with each trio vertically aligned. Curiously all three holes are along the inboard edge of the shelf rather than in a triangle formation, and the two most forward ones are very nearly edge to edge. A further mystery is that only the rear two holes on each shelf have had a shock mount riveted to them, the other two have no pre-drills at the corners for rivets. (This matches other Hudsons that I've seen the shelves in.) The puzzle being what they support as it seems to suggest some sort of frame support suspended between the two supports! Given the warmer temperatures of the day I devoted the afternoon to the turret cupola parts. First up I tackled the wee (?) task of the internals of the forward section. With a small paint brush each of the nuts and washer combos holding the external cover strips down got painted. All 205 of them! Then the clear panels on the rear, larger, section got masked off and the cover strips rubbed down and the first coat applied...more for next week. In the background I could hear Team1058 beavering away populating the forward face of the firewall. Something was causing grief as I heard references to "it's like wrestling with an octopus"..who knows? :-)
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Post by denysjones on Sept 3, 2023 14:44:26 GMT 12
Team1058 recommenced battle with their previous week's problem fixtures on the firewall and after slackening off some of the saddle bolts that attach the firewall to the frame things progressed much easier. They've a few questions around some bits as the manuals aren't as clear as they'd like them to be but by close of play things are taking shape, the uppermost unit at right was the one that caused them grief last week. During the week I paid a few visits and progressed things on the second piece of the turret cupola by getting the outside sprayed. If you talk numbers of parts it is the second of two but in terms of size it's more like it is 2/3rds of the whole. At the end of day I had had a wee bit of time to spare so made start on the job of painting the nuts and washers around the perspex panels, at least there'so nly 186 to be done this time. In preparation for attaching the forward section to the turret base I retapped the threads of the seventeen retaining nuts. These are on the inside face of the turret arch and are those terrible pommie type where a 2BA nut "floats" in a pressed metal sheet metal enclosure. On the cupola section more final polishing of assorted metal and perspex items is on-going. Back in 2035 the formed tank straps were measured up for length and this week will get painted and lined with felt prior to fitting, the attachments points for which were also prepped. Rob was in R44 mode getting ready for the mast installation. Dave was progressing with the multitude of cockpit fittings in the Sunderland and Alex and I spent a while looking at radio gear which will be going in there. We're after mounting rack materials for the Marconi gear in case anyone out there can help or point us in the right direction. 633Sqn were a little light on the ground but George was there on the aileron job while Dag and Alex busied themselves on wing matters as they are still waiting for the canopy frame to end its molasses rust removing soaking.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Sept 4, 2023 20:33:44 GMT 12
That turret looks good Denys.
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Post by ZacYates on Sept 6, 2023 21:09:58 GMT 12
Hear hear. Gorgeous work!
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Post by denysjones on Sept 9, 2023 21:19:20 GMT 12
Target task number 1 today was "fit the deicing tank" which should be a walk in the park if all things are according to plan. So first up consult the appropriate drawing and read off the tank dimensions...12" across the welded end seams..check! Now measure the wall separation in the recipient tunnel...13 1/2".. clearance looks great..but now what impact are these two angles attached to the sidewalls going to have..hmm gap is 11 1/2"..tank will obviously have to go in on the angle and rotate..is there enough depth below the angles for this..no so remove the elbow on the side that projects out through tunnel wall which should lessen the depth required..woohoo all is good :-) There's just the slight oops in that the retaining straps are the lengths from the drawings but it is now apparent that the felt packing as per Lockheed was thicker than that which I'd been able to find so the turnbuckles are within a turn or so of their maximum, I might have to add a second thickness to bolster it :-( The next task was to make up the plumbing line from the now re-installed elbow to run to where the pump, which we lack, should be. So I placed my faith in the called out dimensions and bends and it looks pretty right. Now to make the ones which head off from the pump to the two engine bays. This blueprint clip shows a view looking from the rear of the tank forward and the dotted outlines show the pump and the plumbing lines at the forward end of it. From the parts book it looks like this Anyone out there got a pump perchance? cheers
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Post by denysjones on Sept 16, 2023 21:25:12 GMT 12
Now the anti-icing tank is happily installed the target shifts to the installation of the bombaimer's bench which projects back into the tunnel space above the tank. The bench has been patiently waiting since Dag made it for me back in Sept 2020 (see page 19 hereon). As previously mentioned, on the tunnel side walls at back are two castings which are the receptors for pins to serve as hinges for the bench, the forward of which is height adjustable. The screw jack mechanism for adjusting the height Dean manufactured last month, and seeing he did such a good job on that I sent him off with another blueprint printout to make the hinge pin units and this week their painting was part of the schedule at home so I could progress their fitting to the bench's tail. The bench installation is roughly 50% of length back into the tunnel with the balance forward towards the clear floor panel for aiming. Attention has now turned to the three box sections of floor structure forward of the tank which will be somewhat concealed by the forward portion of the bench. Hence post tank installation last week I attacked the first box area and removed two pieces of tubing which are the final stages of some sort of venting run. Now they're back in after a spruce-up and the cleaning and painting of two of the floor structure boxes. The vent is obviously for air/gas as in the line is a simple non-return valve, of a type found elsewhere in air lines in the aircraft, which can be seen in the outboard structure area between two rubber joiners. The line coming into the area from the right is the feed line from the tank to the location of the pump on the cross member. Today's work included the makeup of the two outwards feeds from the "pump" to port and starboard. From the junction box on the wall in the first area I removed this rather sad item. This is the wiring loom for the three belly mounted lights (as the apertures in the floors testify). It had had a hard life over the years. Paint overspray, metal corrosion, and general dirt had set it in distinctly non-flexible condition somewhat twisted, presumably, by foot traffic once the aircraft floors had departed. The remedy was first paint stripping to remove the surface detritus that would respond to that, followed by a good soaking and scrubbing with a nice warm brew of Handy Andy and Scotchbrite pads. Next was a slow process of spraying an inch or so at a time with CRC and gently flexing it by hand, concertina style, to reinstate mobility and so feed it onto a piece of keep rod of suitable diameter which just happened to be lurking in my garage. The process was repeated for each of the three legs of the unit and after quite some time my reward was it moving again end to end as of old with the twists removed. The old shellac wiring was extracted and discarded and new flexible rubber coated material inserted before painting. Brother Angus of 633Sqn is doing a foreigner for me to lace it as per original which should be ready for installation next week. ttfn
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Post by denysjones on Sept 23, 2023 21:26:13 GMT 12
A bit of a low day today as weather seemed to deter a few of the various team members. Team1058 were wrestling with more engine items including a somewhat bent and battered prop governor which is hopefully going to be rectified with parts donated from one recovered from the scrapyards back in the 1970's. In 2035 I got the other two lines from the missing anti-icing pump in place and later in the day moved onto working back from the port firewall to link up that side's circuit. Having these two bits in place allowed the floor panel on the starboard side to be replaced which certainly makes life down in the nose a tad more comfortable. I then got the foremost, third, of the floor areas that will be hidden by the bombaiming bench sorted. The triangular item that you see tied up, to facilitate access, for that process is half of the forward hinge of the bench, the other is already in situ on the actual bench itself. Finally I did battle with two items that you see on a small shelf on the right of the final photo on last week's report. These are obviously tie-down restraints for some bit of kit but they had to come out for refurb. The nuts holding them down weren't visible due to space confines and initially trying American series spanners simply didn't work and it turned out that both the nuts and so the screws were British BA..hmmmmm. Even more interesting was that once they were removed two American captive nuts were revealed. So was the change of fixtures carried out in the US at the RAF acceptance centre or are we facing an RNZAF item here? As the shelf itself and certainly the fixtures are not in the good old parts book I can't say what it's purpose was and why the shift in the method of fixing whatever it was took place. This week I'll strip down and clean the removed fixtures and see where that leads us. One final outcome was that there is a serious corrosion footprint to also deal with. One of the US nuts is evidenced by the bulge to the left of the footprint on the right item.
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Post by denysjones on Sept 30, 2023 20:10:44 GMT 12
The fittings recovered last week were the homefront topic and rather interesting it turned out to be. Firstly I trawled my reference photos of the other three Hudsons and am 100% sure neither 2031 nor 2049 have them in place and I'm pretty sure I can't see them in 2013 but my photo isn't focussed directly on the mystery shelf. It looks like 2031 and 2049 have the two original (?) captive nuts that came to light when I cleared the shelf last week. Never mind on we pressed and stripped the two units down to their components thus This revealed that the components had never been fully painted and those places where paint was present were the top surfaces. Thus I assume the paint to have "arrived" in the course of some touch-up works. So I cleaned everything back to base metal, whence not a single piece yielded up any markings, and now they look just so much more and more definitely UK in origin. The two thumb screws are of the type that engage in a U-shaped bracket on the side of a case and secure it down to a base (such as the shelf in 2035). Measuring them says such a bracket would be around the 2 1/2" to 2 3/4" above such an object's base. (I meant to measure the separation between them but lost it in the frustration of securing them with one flat and one spring washer and 2BA nut beneath the shelf where I could only just get my hand..needless to say several drops of things and retrievals by magnet were required.) Does that shine any sort of light on the matter to anyone out there with a greater knowledge of period equipment that might be Hudson used? I'm going to post details offshore to see if we can track down the story of them and perhaps why 2035 was so blessed. Whatever maybe today they went back into 2035 along with Angus's reworked wiring loom. All of this being part of the road to the installation of the bombaiming bench. btw if anyone has any of the light units, referred to as GFE (Government Furnished Equipment), type E-2 I'd welcome communication. Meanwhile other members of the small team (was it weather or post-rubgy viewing or otherwise?) carried on. Dave was sorting and prepping more Sunderland cockpit parts. Team1058 were making progress in the engine accessory area and expressing their thanks to Curtiss, hereon, for a recent sending of a photo bomb of the same area in another Harvard. The multi-dimensional shots clarified some issues around item placements not really clear in the manuals...but one piece still didn't make sense so close of play was called early and off they went with mutters about contemplation over a whisky or wine or two to resolve it. Down in the hangars there's work afoot (nothing to do with Dean and I you understand) but BXG has sprouted some new fixtures ...that's a teaser for events forthcoming :-) toodles
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Post by denysjones on Oct 7, 2023 20:22:10 GMT 12
I've started to install the various attachments for the bombaimer's bench, today's work saw this one fitted. It is the body of the screw jack and the trunion nut, another of Dean's home workshop productions as was the jack, that it works in and out of to raise and lower the bench front. You see it is mounted to, and pivots on, two angles which are attached to a floor structure cross member. None of the jack assembly was present till today and it raises an interesting question as to locate the nut I had to unbolt one of the angles from the cross member and ever so slightly bend the forward bracing part to one side to drop in the nut. Obviously someone at some stage has gone to the same trouble, with the bolts, so they could remove the trunion nut that must been there. As all six bolts were secure, but luckily came away without too much of a fight, I can't imagine anyone at the disposal stage or on the Holdaway farm doing this and then replacing the bolts so securely. Thus I now muse on the prospect that 2035, and perhaps some of her sisters, underwent some procedure to strip out gear related to the bombing function perhaps as a precursor to transport use? The irregular shaped hole to the left of the screw jack is the result of a nasty surprise when I removed a small pouch "thing" that was mounted there and found corrosion. It has now been duly cut out and the hole will be covered with a surface patch and a remade version of the pouch placed over that. The clear shaft at the top of the jack is for another pivot trunion, similar to the trunion nut but not threaded, instead fixed by the shaft and the nut and washer at the top. This unit pivots in two fixtures located either side of a cutout in the end of the bench...that will all appear shortly, hopefully.
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Post by agile on Oct 8, 2023 12:09:38 GMT 12
And from t'other end of the establishment. I left you with the canopy stripped and ready for media blasting. Unfortunately the conclusion of the firms we went to was that the canopy frame was too fragile for soda blasting, and that we risked distorting the structure. Instead, we fell back on a tried and trusted method - molasses. Molasses reacts with the iron oxide which then disolves into the solution. We've never tried it on this scale though: After 6 weeks or so (one disadvantage of molasses, especially when cold is that the reaction is quite slow), a nice skin of mould has formed under the surface, which we reached into with some trepidation: The canopy came out coated in delicious brown goo: Which quickly water blasted back to fairly clean metal: The tubular structure is brazed together (you can see the brass if you zoom in) and the flat strips are made of some unusual steel - very springy and shiny. A lengthy air dry with heat guns, and a light sand blast to remove a few reluctant bits of black Bostik sealant, and we're there: Just like a bought one: We'll treat the inside of the tubular structure soon to hopefully prevent any future corrosion. In the meantime I carried on tidying up the fuselage shell to eventually reinstall the canopy: And Dagy tidied up the strip that joins the canopy lower edge to the fuselage: Once the canopy was back we quickly riveted the bottom strip and windscreen support structure back on and got it temporarily re-mounted. I was keen to get it back on because of this: At one corner of the canopy, the original fuselage structure had a wedge tacked onto the top (someone must have got a bit carried away with their spokeshave back in 1945) and it had rotted too far to get the size right without the canopy. I soon had a suitable wedge glued and tacked in place. She looks good with the canopy and nose cone temporarily back on: Alas the canopy had to come straight back off to start the fabric with the usual narrow strips over the exposed woodwork edges: While the canopy was stewing and I was mucking around with the woodwork, Dagy has started removing components from the undercarriage bay for corrosion treatment. These brackets bolt onto the wing ribs and carry the aft end of the undercarriage structure. They're real multi-media - a folded/welded piece of steel plate, an aluminium casting and a piece of aluminium plate, all riveted together (with the usual magnesium rivets which crumble at the touch): More of Standard Motors' awesome craftsmanship is on display here in the form of generously slotted bolt holes: Dagy and Angus have also removed the smashed remains of HR339's wingtips. These will be replaced with these lovely NOS items obtained from the AMW Museum way back: Only one of these had all its lamp mounts and covers, so new ones were quickly made up (the weird triangular one is for the 'resin' formation keeping lights): The more observant will note that the wingtip above has a bonus rearward facing perspex lamp cover - this wasn't present on HR339, so Dagy did some rather tricky and clamp-intensive modifications to cover them up: Neat work: George with his two young helpers has pretty much rebuilding the second aileron, so we'll be starting them on enginer cowlings next: Thanks for all the support we've been getting - especially from certain forumites who have generously contributed to our funds. Cheers A
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Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 8, 2023 12:33:52 GMT 12
Terrific results on that canopy frame guys!
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Post by ZacYates on Oct 8, 2023 18:48:04 GMT 12
Hear hear, what a magic process!
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Post by ErrolC on Oct 8, 2023 20:21:48 GMT 12
Great work everyone! I plan to visit on Saturday, so hope to see you then. I've emailed Alex.
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Post by agile on Oct 8, 2023 20:32:07 GMT 12
Great work everyone! I plan to visit on Saturday, so hope to see you then. I've emailed Alex. Email inbound. See you Saturday.
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Post by aircraftclocks on Oct 9, 2023 0:55:06 GMT 12
I was also thinking of going to Ferrymead on Saturday. Hoping to see all the good work up close and in person.
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Post by Antonio on Oct 9, 2023 7:41:53 GMT 12
Terrific results on that canopy frame guys! Oh yeah. You guys rock!
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Post by agile on Oct 10, 2023 17:31:15 GMT 12
Thanks chaps! Our resident historian has emailed to remind us that 70 years ago today the winning aircraft in the London-Christchurch air race, Canberra WE139 touched down at Harewood having set a still-unbroken record time from Heathrow in the 'last great air race'.
Video (thanks be to Mr Yates)
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Post by ZacYates on Oct 10, 2023 21:07:51 GMT 12
I exist to serve. *hat tip*
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Post by denysjones on Oct 14, 2023 20:52:13 GMT 12
A varied day today..hosting a couple of forumites to start with. We hope you guys enjoyed your look around. 633Sqn were busy as usual on their assorted tasks and likewise Team1058. The latter had one of those what-the- moments when after spending some time last week looking for one particular engine control rod all to no avail Barrie today espied something in a totally different location which turned out to be the errant item. More progress! Dean and I spent some time on an on-going project we're working on down in the hangars but that will come to light soon. Meanwhile during the week I've been engaged with insurers, loss adjusters and roofing contractors trying to get things sorted to repairs on one of the hangar roofs from the big blow here on the night last week. In 2035 land the first task today was to install last weeks tubing makeup which was the final stage of the portside propellor deicer run from the fuselage to the aft face of the firewall manifold. Then onto the makeup of its mate starboardwise. Next moving onto the fitout of the bombamier's bench with the metalware needed to get it ready for installation. Dag did the woodwork for me a couple of years back and it's been waiting its time. In addition to the pieces shown here some weeks back Dean also dealt to the ones to mount the screw jack trunion to the bench so here it is while at the backend are the two hinge units next week I'll get onto the pin for the triangular hinge beneath the front of the bench so we're ready steady go for installation once the three downward recognition lights we've been generously donated, following my plea the other week, arrive and get fitted. Just fyi the circular hole in the bench in the last photo is to provide access to the filler of the deicer tank which will be hidden once the bench goes in.
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