Zenrat's Flying Circus

[zenrat]

I had a Ford Econovan (rebadged Mazda E series) which had LH studs on one side.
Smaahy The Van.  SWB 1800cc 4 cylinder donk on LPG under the seat.  No air con and no power steering but I fitted a huge original 1980s radio cassette deck with graphic equaliser.

[TheChronicOne]

"If it ain't broke, fix it til it is!"   

[Rheged]

There may have been an incident where someone who shall remain nameless might possibly have thought the valve was jammed open when infact it was stuck closed and in attempting to force it shut with a pair of stilsons someone may have accidentally snapped the internal thread and broken the operating wheel.  Allegedly.

Things were further complicated by the need to use a blowtorch to remove the old valve.

Now I want rain so I can see if anything leaks.

Hehehe, been there, done that before. 

I try to go buy the old steam engineer's mantra (He may have been my Grandpa....) of when opening a valve fully, you open it to the stop and then back off 1/4 turn.

Then when you grab the handle you can tell if it's open or closed by the feel, if it moves it's open and if it doesn't it's closed.

That sounds just like my late father speaking! A heating design engineer, he learned his profession when designers had to do at least 6 months "out on the tools"  so that they understood what their fancy drawings meant to the blokes up the pointy end of the trade.

His other refrain to new designers was "It may look elegant on your drawing board, now imagine installing it down a trench on a rainy Thursday in November"

[zenrat]

I've done my share of rainy trench time over the years and hopefully I never have to do any again.

I have a new (to me) phone.  It has a much better camera than the old one so hopefully that's an end to the crappy out of focus WIP pics i've been posting.
This one I took without any additional lighting.  With the old phone it would have been a dark blur with crisply focussed tools in the background.  Now you can even clearly see the layer of sawdust that coated it when I was working on enlarging an old door.

It's an Arii Ki-46iii and it awaits zenrat industries decals.

[NARSES2]

A good looking airplane and a nice looking scheme

[zenrat]

Thanks Chris, it's the reverse of the scheme I used on the Caproni Ca 311

[Hobbes]

EH? I've got an 11 year old Renault on its last legs and I don't needs the engine on to run the air-con, radio etc. Sure it'll put a drain on the battery but not much.

No. The aircon definitely needs the engine running, because its compressor is driven directly by the engine*. So with the engine off you can have ventilation, but not air conditioning.

*: in some modern cars, it's run by an electric motor that draws far too much power to be run with the engine off.

[Rick Lowe]

EH? I've got an 11 year old Renault on its last legs and I don't needs the engine on to run the air-con, radio etc. Sure it'll put a drain on the battery but not much.

No. The aircon definitely needs the engine running, because its compressor is driven directly by the engine*. So with the engine off you can have ventilation, but not air conditioning.

*: in some modern cars, it's run by an electric motor that draws far too much power to be run with the engine off.

A conspiracy between the Car manufacturers and Big Oil?

Surely not!

But then, it's only a 'conspiracy theory' until it's a proven fact... but good luck proving it...!

Outta here before they come for me... 

[zenrat]

EH? I've got an 11 year old Renault on its last legs and I don't needs the engine on to run the air-con, radio etc. Sure it'll put a drain on the battery but not much.

No. The aircon definitely needs the engine running, because its compressor is driven directly by the engine*. So with the engine off you can have ventilation, but not air conditioning.

*: in some modern cars, it's run by an electric motor that draws far too much power to be run with the engine off.

A conspiracy between the Car manufacturers and Big Oil? ...

No, engineering.  Your battery wouldn't last long running the aircon without the alternator putting charge back into it.

No modelling this weekend as i'm on Uncle duty.
This has involved watching lots of Naruto (a ninja anime series - less shouty fighty than dragon ball z but still violent and too loud), Wall-E, and Maze Runner 1 & 2.
Disturbingly the chick in Maze Runner is the spitting image of a girl I work with sometimes.

[Rick Lowe]

True, but if they hadn't engineered it that way and instead gone with what already worked, the engine wouldn't have to run in order to recharge the battery...


... just saying... 

[zenrat]

Who needs air-con anyway.  My first car didn't have it and my second did but it didn't work over 27C*.  You got used to driving with every window open hoping the hair dryer like wind blast would cool youslihgtly by evaporating the sweat pouring off you.

*I discovered this on a summer trip North with Mrs z and two adult friends.  This was also the trip where I discovered that with 4 adults and their luggage on board the outside edge of the wider than stock rear tyres rubbed on the inner lips of the rear wheel arches.

[TheChronicOne]

OooooOOooh... the Ki-46 looks lovely... I do love the blue hues! 

I also have the the hairdryer AC in my truck and I hate it. One of the things I've been wanting to fix on it. That and the door is about to fall off.. all the little widgets and springs and stuff that hold it on have fallen off and I have regular bolts in the slots.  Kinda janky. 

[Rick Lowe]

Yeah, I have to say I usually only use it to demist the windscreen, and sparingly at that - due to the experience of a previous car gifting me a swimming pool in the front passenger footwell whenever I used it for periods of time... that and I'm too stingy to waste the petrol running it! 

[zenrat]

Battling with photo etch today for a 1/35 Kraz tank transporter.  Long thin guide rails which sit on the deck of the trailer.  Not one of my favourite things photo etch but I got one piece assembled and glued to the trailer deck and didn't lose any small parts.

[NARSES2]

When I got back into the hobby it has changed so much that I assumed the use of photo etch and resin was almost de-riguer. Whence I bought a lot of sets that are way to over complicated to use, for me anyway, and at the end of the day don't add much in the way that is visible to a model. There are somethings that benefit from its use however and this sounds like one of them.

I now sometimes use Eduard's Zoom sets or preferably the Yahu instrument panels which are cheap, ready assembled and great  Even when I use etch belts I don't tend to use all the tiny parts. Credit to those who can but it's a bit beyond my hands and eyes nowadays.

Is your transporter going to be carrying a load ?