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Europa #435 G-RODO Build Journal - 2022 02

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2 Mark on the prepared aluminium strip the position of an anchor-nut hole nearest the forward end. Position the strip again under the tunnel and hold in place with a cleco clamp. Adjust position until clear of pulley. Transfer mark to edge of access hole and double check with mirror that the mark aligns with the one on the strip. 3595.8
4 Mark a cross-line on the thwart-wise line marked for the pulley guard aluminium strip anchor nut location, using an anchor nut to aid positioning the mark. Leaving the guard held in place by the cleco clamps, drill through the marked position with 2mm long-series drill bit, to keep the drill chuck clear of the cleco clamps. Remove the guard. Enlarge the holes in the guard and the tunnel to 4.8mm. Re-fit guard with cleco clamp. Insert a 5/8" screw backwards in an anchor nut and drop the screw end into the hole to keep the guard aligned. Drill through the forward rivet hole 2.6mm, but can't get the drill to bite into the aluminium guard. Remove the guard again and clamp an anchor nut to it with a 3/8" screw fitted with a nut spacer. Rotate anchor nut wing to align with drill witness mark and drill through both forward and aft rivet holes. Re-position the anchor nut with the reversed screw in the tunnel hole, insert TAPK36BS rivet to locate it and drill the aft rivet hole. Check rivet length in tunnel holes - will need to countersink quite deeply.

Realise shortly afterwards that the above is nonsense - the rivet holes do not go through the tunnel! Will have to fill the unwanted holes in the tunnel at some stage.		 3596.7
5 Re-fit pulley guard strip in place with a temporary screw and anchor nut (carefully positioned with a finger, reaching through the access hole from above). Guard is now touching the pulley. Take it out and reduce the bend angle, but that doesn't seem to help much, I think because the tubing is pushing it down onto the pulley, and the bend is too far forward. Mark on the tunnel the position of the aft screw hole, using 2 anchor nuts for positioning. Flatten the bend and re-make it about 10mm further aft. Re-fit and it seems slightly better. Could be improved by making the guard more of a curve to follow the pulley shape. Before removing the guard, drill through the tunnel and guard 2.6mm at the marked point for the aft screw. Remove guard and add another bend line to approximate a curve. Still not quite right when clamped in place, but getting better. Remove, adjust, re-try, repeat until satisfied. Open aft screw-hole to 4.8mm with guard clamped in place. Remove guard, fit anchor nuts with short screws and spacers as usual. Drill aft rivet holes. Countersink rivet holes. Smooth all over with ScotchBrite wheel. Fit anchor nuts to guard with TAPK33BS rivets. Fit guard in position with 5/8" stainless steel button-head screws. Drill and file holes in access hole cover to clear screw heads. 3598.7
11 Make a building board for the balsa work using 4-off 300mm square cork tiles, stuck in 2 layers onto a melamine-covered chipboard panel with the joints staggered.

Try cleaning the adhesive goo off an edge of a polycarbonate fuse tray cover with unleaded petrol on a paper towel. Seems quite effective but take quite while for the goo to dissolve. So, put some petrol in a narrow trough and leave the covers soaking to soften the goo. After while, wipe off the now-softened goo, but it appears to have spread undesirably over the sheet and there is a smear that seems near-impossible to remove.
12 Try cleaning off the adhesive residue from the polycarbonate fuse cover panels by flooding petrol over each and wiping vigourously. Some improvement, but it's obviously not going to get it really clean, and scuff marks are starting to appear. Resigned to the need to make new panels.

Bring the cork building board in to the office. Lay the printout of the balsa cowl extension on it and cover with cling film to prevent adhesion. Using the aluminium template, cut out the 12 required balsa segments from one 36" length of 1/4" x 1" strip. Clamp the template onto the balsa each time to avoid slipping while cutting. Place the balsa pieces on the drawing, holding them in position with T-head modelling pins fitted with Peck Polymers pin clamps (both supplied by the Vintage Model Co) and bonding them together with Titebond II Premium wood glue. Leave to set.
14 On an offcut of plywood, rout channels as a former for a composite clip to secure the top of the fuel sight gauge, and the fuel weight sensor vent tube, against the seatback.

Prepare, in the office, pieces of polyethylene sheet and peel-ply for the layups on the balsa cowl ring and the sight-gauge clip. Also select suitable tube formers for the clip and a flat piece of wood for the clip layup. Remove the modelling pins from the balsa ring cowl extender and replace the cling-film under it with polyethylene sheet. Cut 1 off 310mm square of BID and 3 off 150mm squares.

Order 2 sheets of 2mm polycarbonate online to make new fuse cover panels.

Start garage clock. Mix a peg-1 (24g) batch of Ampreg 21, bring in to the office and sparingly paint the balsa ring with it. Wipe off some drips on the edges of the balsa. Lay the 310mm BID square in place, wet out and stipple. Apply peel-ply then another sheet of polyethylene. Put the wood sheet on top and wet out the 3 off 150mm BID squares on polyethylene sheet. Lay onto the tube formers a sheet of polyethylene, the BID stack, a piece of peel-ply, and another sheet of polyethylene. Press the layup into shape over the tubes with the ply former and weigh down with a bucket of lead weights. Leave to cure overnight and stop clock.		 3599.1
15 Take weights off yesterday's layups and remove peel-ply. All cured nicely. Trim un-wetted BID off close to inside and outside of balsa ring. Cut out another 310mm square of BID. Mix a peg-1 (24g) batch of Ampreg 21, bring in to the office and paint the balsa ring with it. Sparingly paint the edges of the balsa. Lay the 310mm BID square in place, wet out and stipple. Apply peel-ply then another sheet of polyethylene. Turn the whole stack over. Put the wood sheet on top and weigh down with the bucket of lead weights.

Check through the mods I have incorporated and update the website references to them.		 3599.6
16 Polycarbonate delivered.

Scissor-trim excess glass-cloth off balsa ring layup.
17 With a fine hacksaw blade in the pad handle, cut off the excess around the moulded clip area. Cut off a 10mm slice of the clip. Find a length of wood that with minor shortening can be used to jam the clip in place while bonding it to the seatback.

About to use the MiniTool jigsaw to closely trim off the excess cured layup around the balsa ring, but find the the oscillating shaft bearing is loose in the housing. Part-dismantle and try to secure the bearing in place with Loctite but some gets on the shaft and it seizes up. Dismantle further and free up the shaft with 3-in-1 oil. Maybe mechanical fixing might be better than adhesive. Measure for centre of bearing housing and drill 1/16" from one side. Tap M2 and find a suitable-length screw. Need to make a shallow counterbore in the side of the bearing to accept the point of the screw. Press bearing home in housing to put a witness mark on it for drilling, but after twiddling a drill bit against it by hand I can't get the bearing out again. So, lubricate the shaft and motor crankpin with grease and re-assemble. Use the MiniTool jigsaw to trim off the glass closely around inside and outside of balsa ring. Smooth down with Perma-Grit block and sandpaper.

Abrade the bonding areas on the seatback at the top of the sight-gauge, and the wings of the clip. Mix a small batch of Evo-Stik Control epoxy and apply to bonding areas. Position on the 2 tubes, cover with polyethylene sheet and then place the wooden mould on top to hold the wings down. Jam in place with the prepared length of wood against the tunnel, under the choke control

Using a scalpel, mark the outline of one of the original fuse cover plates onto one piece of polycarbonate sheet. Peel off the protective film outside the line to leave an obvious cutting line. Cut off waste pieces with fine blade in hacksaw, then file each side down to the line with millennicut file and smooth with coarse Perma-Grit block. Round off corners.

Mark outline on second piece of polycarbonate sheet as for the first.		 3602.1
18 Remove the prop and wedge from the clip at the top of the sight gauge. Looks reasonably neat now; the tubes seem well-secured and quite close to the backing stripes, although not perfectly straight.

Cut the 3 marked sides off the polycarbonate sheet. Find it's easier and faster with a coarse-tooth hacksaw blade. Because it's thin sheet, I had previously used a fine-tooth blade, but as I am cutting at a very shallow angle, the coarse blade is OK. File down to the lines on 2 sides with the millennicut file and smooth with coarse Perma-Grit block.		 3602.4
26 File down and smooth off the last side of the polycarbonate sheet. Clamp the 2 new pieces together with one old piece and drill through the fixing holes 7/32".

Considering alternatives to the disastrous tape-round-the-edge approach, try spraying about half of one of the old pieces of polycarbonate with 3M Photo Mount and pressing the legend film onto it. Not very satisfactory as the adhesive, although fairly translucent, is not actually clear and is also rather patchy in thickness. Try applying cyanoacrylate adhesive to the other half of the sheet, spreading it as evenly as possible with an old paintbrush. The legend film seems to stick down OK and is much more legible than the first half.

Print out 2 fresh copies of the fuse legend overlay film, with the grayscale at 70% instead of the previous 50%.		 3602.9
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