Serenity - March 25 2007

0032501.jpg
0032501.jpg

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.

0032502.jpg
0032502.jpg

Well here is the test to see if the resin jig will work

0032503.jpg
0032503.jpg

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

0032504.jpg
0032504.jpg

I flux the joints

0032505.jpg
0032505.jpg

Using the Exacto blade I slice slivers of solder like bread. I then place these slivers on top of the joints

0032506.jpg
0032506.jpg

Close up of the disks of solder on the joints

0032507.jpg
0032507.jpg

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.

0032508.jpg
0032508.jpg

And done. Success. The solder melted, the flux sucked it into the joints and the parts did not blow away.

0032509.jpg
0032509.jpg

Close up. The resin is a bit singed but then you only need it to last for a few parts

0032510.jpg
0032510.jpg

The newly soldered part is removed from the jig. A little cleanup can be done to remove excess solder

0032511.jpg
0032511.jpg

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.