Chronic's Research and Aeronautics Project (C.R.A.P.)

[TheChronicOne]

I ain't posted any memes lately so here's one:




I think it's neat....    might make an aircraft one day like this.

I had a MacGyver moment today with the busted lawn mower. I figured.... "what do you have to lose?" and decided to see if I could jury rig the thing and.....  well.. it's holding for now.     Some little doo-hickey came loose and disappeared (when it hit the street, I'm sure) but I just happened to notice a rod sticking out of the gas tank that looked like something should be on the end of it. With "whatever it was" missing, this rod became clogged fulla dirt so I cleaned that out and made a make-shift air filter out of paper towels and metal "twisty-ties." This rod is what allowed the gas tank to draw in back pressure to feed fuel to the carb. Now that the engine can breathe, it runs. Good stuff. I can use it again! I'll get the other things lined out in due time.

[DogfighterZen]

Good news indeed, Mac! 

[Old Wombat]

The crooked cut & the blades banging against the shroud (housing) sound like the shroud has bent.

Waiting for the blades to wear down is ... dangerous, as they're probably a harder metal than the shroud, which is what is likely to wear away.

Is the shroud a casting or stamped steel?

If it's stamped steel, there's a fair chance you can beat it back into something resembling level. You just have to figure out where the high point is &, if possible, where the actual bend is; support the bend line & use a rubber mallet (it does less damage than steel) to hammer the raised portion back down. May not be perfect but, possibly, better for the time-being.

[zenrat]

Apart from anything else belting at the shroud with a hammer is good anger management.  Very satisfying.


Regarding drawing the Indian scheme with permanent marker.  I've tried similar on a car model.  I painted it with white undercoat and "coloured it in" with felt tip pens and permanent markers.  It was not a success.  The tips clogged up with paint transferred onto them.

[scooter]

I had a MacGyver moment today with the busted lawn mower. I figured.... "what do you have to lose?" and decided to see if I could jury rig the thing and.....  well.. it's holding for now.     Some little doo-hickey came loose and disappeared (when it hit the street, I'm sure) but I just happened to notice a rod sticking out of the gas tank that looked like something should be on the end of it. With "whatever it was" missing, this rod became clogged fulla dirt so I cleaned that out and made a make-shift air filter out of paper towels and metal "twisty-ties." This rod is what allowed the gas tank to draw in back pressure to feed fuel to the carb. Now that the engine can breathe, it runs. Good stuff. I can use it again! I'll get the other things lined out in due time.

Yeah, I had to tear my mower down and cleaned all the crap on the throttle rod as well, since it wasn't letting the butterfly on the carb function properly.

[PR19_Kit]

Kit's 3rd rule of Whiffing:- 'Anything can be improved by belting it with a rubber mallet................' 

[Rheged]

Kit's 3rd rule of Whiffing:- 'Anything can be improved by belting it with a rubber mallet................' 

Any engineer knows you need  to hit it..........a good engineer knows what size hammer to use and where the blow(s) should fall (to quote my late dad)

[TheChronicOne]

The crooked cut & the blades banging against the shroud (housing) sound like the shroud has bent.

Waiting for the blades to wear down is ... dangerous, as they're probably a harder metal than the shroud, which is what is likely to wear away.

Is the shroud a casting or stamped steel?

If it's stamped steel, there's a fair chance you can beat it back into something resembling level. You just have to figure out where the high point is &, if possible, where the actual bend is; support the bend line & use a rubber mallet (it does less damage than steel) to hammer the raised portion back down. May not be perfect but, possibly, better for the time-being.

Poorly worded on my part, I meant for "it" to mean the cowling thing, which is made of plastic. There's all sorts of plastic housings that cover the belts and cables and stuff that channels the cut grass to the "exit." That plastic bit that hits will wear away and not be an issue pretty soon. The crookedness is from one or more of the wheels, basically.. when it hit the street it kind of sprung the metal attachment points. I've done a bit of prying on it and and it's not so bad but it's not exactly "factory tight" any more... there's looseness and play in them now and the height adjustment lever on one side is much looser than it was.

Apart from anything else belting at the shroud with a hammer is good anger management.  Very satisfying.


Regarding drawing the Indian scheme with permanent marker.  I've tried similar on a car model.  I painted it with white undercoat and "coloured it in" with felt tip pens and permanent markers.  It was not a success.  The tips clogged up with paint transferred onto them.

I got in some whacks on the metal portion (the aforementioned stamped metal "ring" down there) for sure. It had curled under right in the middle and was just barely making contact wit the blade. It's much better now.

I had a MacGyver moment today with the busted lawn mower. I figured.... "what do you have to lose?" and decided to see if I could jury rig the thing and.....  well.. it's holding for now.     Some little doo-hickey came loose and disappeared (when it hit the street, I'm sure) but I just happened to notice a rod sticking out of the gas tank that looked like something should be on the end of it. With "whatever it was" missing, this rod became clogged fulla dirt so I cleaned that out and made a make-shift air filter out of paper towels and metal "twisty-ties." This rod is what allowed the gas tank to draw in back pressure to feed fuel to the carb. Now that the engine can breathe, it runs. Good stuff. I can use it again! I'll get the other things lined out in due time.

Yeah, I had to tear my mower down and cleaned all the crap on the throttle rod as well, since it wasn't letting the butterfly on the carb function properly.

Luckily my throttle rod and housing was all fine. The rod I had to work on was a hollow one that an air filter (or screen of some sort... who knows, it was gone lol but the functionality is the same) attached to to provide back pressure to the fuel tank so that gas would "suck" into the carb. With the filter gone it became clogged full of dirt and couldn't breathe. I cleaned it out then "made" a replacement air filter out of paper towels. One day soon I'll dig up the parts diagram and order the proper part but for now this will work!    I've also made gaskets out of beer box material!


Anyway!! Good news is.... the repairs are holding and I managed to get my yard mowed so I've hesitantly loaded it back on the truck for use but if it craps out on me in the middle of a job it's going to be embarrassing as hell. I'll make more adjustments to the wheels if need be and might look into also ordering a couple new front brackets.

Working on my F-86 now. I'm cutting out and cleaning up parts. Might glue a couple things later. Going to have to cut out some things before I get too crazy, though. Goofy kit.... moulded solid with the gear doors closed but also has us attach a second loose set of doors to them for some sort of weird "Inception" door arrangement. Not trying to get too involved on this build but that's just too goofy not to correct. All the rest of the stuff is fine but that is just too silly for me even. 

[TheChronicOne]

Weeeeeeellll....    mower would not run and I had to leave three properties half way done. Spend the next 4 hours trying to get it to run for nothing. The whole time it's raining buckets.... it has rained heavy for 5 hours and just now starting to let up. I was paid ahead of time for these lawns which means I have money now so I'll have to go buy a cheap piece of poo-poo mower tomorrow just to get them yards done but it's going to be hell cutting wet grass. I dumped the other mower off where I bought it and they said they would look at it. I've worked on these things for years... it's something inside busted, I guess it started working the other day out of sheer coincidence. I repeated the fix with new materials and it didn't do anything. Maybe the carb is busted? That would be an easy enough fix but trouble shooting it involves actually buying one and throwing it on. I'm curious what the repair guy at the store comes up with.

I'm tired, wet, and un motivated so I give up on the one week GB. I'll be busy all day tomorrow in the heat and humidity trying to mow wet grass and that's after having to go buy a new cheap piece of poo-poo mower, dragging it all the way back across the city and assembline the stupid thing. Mainly just the handle and stuff but it takes TIME damnit. After all this is done I'll have about 4-5 hours til deadline and I ain't even glues the fuselage halves together so to hell with it.

Family probs man, I swear. If not for that garbage everything would have been fine. That's been the major problem the whole way through, in fact. I get far more support from strangers and friends than I do from family. Not sure what the deal is....   ever since I started setting my own hours and being independent it's almost as if it marked me for open season and hardly a week would go by without some sort of "sabotage."  None of this ever happened when I was punching a clock for someone else. 

Tomorrow's another day I guess. 

[TheChronicOne]

Well, I take that back, I think I'll give my build one last go. It might be therapeutic to get into some plastic this evening. I should at least try. 

[TheChronicOne]

Hell nevermind! I tried though! I kind of sort of finished cutting out the main gear bays but the one of the pieces I was trying to keep came off and that was all it took. I'll finish it one of these days. 

[TheChronicOne]

Going around looking at things. Old builds, other peoples' builds, and just pictures in general and I came across this and wanted to share.  An un-credited pic if a VC-10.

[NARSES2]

Family probs man, I swear.

As some one once said to me "we can pick our friends"

Hope things get better mate

[PR19_Kit]

What a splendid pic. A superb aeroplane in a superb colour scheme as well.

Not to mention a very atmospheric pic in its own right. 

[zenrat]

I can only speak for myself.  But it does seem that everytime I start to get ahead in life something will happen to knock me back.
A man once sang about "venomous fate".  Maybe he had something.