Serenity - March 25 2007 |
Casting away and I am not happy with the mess it makes. My hands get so covered with resin. I should use rubber gloves but they get irritating after a while. I don't want to wear them for the hours I need to pour the resin for fear of eventually developing an allergic reaction to them. They are also hot and my hands get sweaty. Then again I don't want to develop an allergic reaction to the resin either. |
Well here is the test to see if the resin jig will work |
A No 11 Exacto blade to give an idea of the size of the mould and the antenna to be made. The 0.020" brass rods are cut to shape to fit into the recessed areas of the mould |
I flux the joints |
Using the Exacto blade I slice slivers of solder like bread. I then place these slivers on top of the joints |
Close up of the disks of solder on the joints |
I use a micro torch to heat up the brass rod, flux and solder until it all melts together. There was a worry that the blast from the micro torch wold blow the brass rods away but it seemed fine as I approached the parts slowly instead of blasting it at point blank range. |
And done. Success. The solder melted, the flux sucked it into the joints and the parts did not blow away. |
Close up. The resin is a bit singed but then you only need it to last for a few parts |
The newly soldered part is removed from the jig. A little cleanup can be done to remove excess solder |
And more parts being cast |
It has been frustrating waiting for the main body and parts to be cast. I missed Flan II. Not sure what I would have done there but I had several friends go down. I missed a deadline for Ad Astra a local con. I want to finish one for the Serenity Now Screening to auction away. I am running out of stuff I can do. For now I will continue to cast parts to make sure I have complete set of parts for when the main parts start to arrive. |
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