Vixen Porta

[Alan64]

The Nord-like washers for joining the arm and storage-base, today in earnest, and the two bow-compasses for drafting and crafting the phosphor-bronze washers for the axes, are out for delivery today.  The two phosphor-bronze sheet-lets are expected to arrive tomorrow.

 

[Alan64]

The shortest from the listing, 4" in length, bow-compasses...

They will describe a circle 3.5" in diameter with ease, but will not spread much farther apart, not up to 4", but no matter, as these compasses are for that smaller.

The hologram on the boxes, and touting the HERO brand of bow-compasses, or some such nonsense...

The Nord clones are excellent...

Although I don't like that they're glued together as pairs.

They were a bit too large to drop into the holes, let alone flat at the bottom...

I soaked three glued-together pairs in acetone.  They separated rather easily afterwards, into singles.  The three pairs at right are still glued together, like the remaining lot, and with super-glue most likely...

Note the wider steps of the singles once flipped over, and just like genuine Nord® washers.  They can't be seen as they come, glued together like that, and sometimes unevenly, as shown within the three pairs at right.

I then drilled out the three holes, somewhat larger, and finally a single dropped in flat, at right...

I prefer them separated, and for an improved bite throughout.  Next, I will epoxying the arm and storage base, at last.

[Alan64]

The phosphor-bronze sheet-lets arrived this late morning.  It's in the afternoon now, here, as of this posting...  

That's 0.7mm at top, and 1.5mm at bottom.

The sheet-lets with their corresponding washers, their patterns?

But no, they will not be the patterns, for the most part, as there's slop, not a lot, although enough to make me imagine someone there at the factory walking into another room, and there, boxes after boxes of plastic washers, then to take some back for fitting...

Or, did the motions and pressures de-form them over time?  There's no way of knowing really, aside from cracking a new one open...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166858771333

By following this thread, you'd have a great mount, for the apocalypse, too.

[globular]

And imagine the dark skies after the apocalypse too.

[Alan64]

1 minute ago, globular said:

And imagine the dark skies after the apocalypse too.

Quite, with no batteries, no mains; a truly Herschelian experience.

[Alan64]

I washed the arm and storage-base, the two to be reunited in astro-matrimony.  

After drying with a towel, I placed them in the electric dryer, so to drive the very last molecule of water out of same.

They're cooling off at present.

[Alan64]

I used nitrile-gloves to handle the bolt-lets and washers when drying them, then I placed all of the parts into a tub...

They now require a final cleaning, also further de-greasing perhaps, and with acetone.

And then?

[globular]

11 minutes ago, Alan64 said:

And then?

a s s e m b l y . . . . ? 

[Slow down globular, we're only on page 4. Rookie error.]

[Alan64]

6 hours ago, globular said:

a s s e m b l y . . . . ? 

[Slow down globular, we're only on page 4. Rookie error.]

I have to mow soon, about an acre or less, definitely less.  It's getting shaggy, and I can't put it off any longer.   I live at the same latitude as Casablanca. 🐫

Edited August 23 by Alan64

[globular]

I quite like mowing. Satisfying. Unless done manually with a scythe. I can only imagine the mower you'll use.

[Alan64]

3 minutes ago, globular said:

I quite like mowing. Satisfying. Unless done manually with a scythe. I can only imagine the mower you'll use.

I have a Husqvarna, and about twelve years old.  It only has round 150-60 hours on it...

Edited August 22 by Alan64

[globular]

Are we talking...

or...

Here, the grass is growing much more slowly than normal.  Usually I mow it twice a week at this time of year.  This year, once every two weeks.
[This is a small close cropped lawn - not a large meadow]

edit - oh, you added a picture.  I was right then with my first one (my real guess)

Edited August 22 by globular

[Alan64]

1 minute ago, globular said:

Are we talking...

or...

Here, the grass is growing much more slowly than normal.  Usually I mow it twice a week at this time of year.  This year, once every two weeks.

I can't remember the last time I placed hands on a manual mower like that.  I'll tell you this, I didn't use it for long.  I used petrol push-mowers in my youth, in the city and suburb.

[globular]

7 minutes ago, Alan64 said:

I can't remember the last time I placed hands on a manual mower like that.  I'll tell you this, I didn't use it for long.  I used petrol push-mowers in my youth, in the city and suburb.

My dad had a manual one when I was about 10 years old - and I used it to cut the (small) lawns at home for him with it.
'Character building' apparently.
He then decided electric fly-mow hover things were a good idea - so I struggled with them for a while too.
When I grew up and got my own place it was petrol self propelled all the way.
[I've never had a big enough place to justify a ride on.]

 

Edited August 22 by globular

[Alan64]

10 minutes ago, globular said:

My dad had a manual one when I was about 10 years old - and I used it to cut the (small) lawns at home for him with it.
'Character building' apparently.
He then decided electric fly-mow hover things were a good idea - so I struggled with them for a while too.
When I grew up and got my own place it was petrol self propelled all the way.
[I've never had a big enough place to justify a ride on.]

 

I forgot to say that that's how often I've always mowed, once every fortnight.

[Alan64]

At long last...

The holes at left, of the arm, were saturated with the epoxy, if not filled completely...

The bolt-lets were cranked down until they came to a stop...

All parts and surfaces involved were cleaned with acetone prior to their reunion.

It takes J-B Weld at least sixteen hours to cure, but 24 to 36 hours is best before subjecting to use.  It's been almost 20 hours.

[Alan64]

Cotton-swabs and tissue dampened with 91% isopropyl, also a couple of toothpicks, had gotten rid of the excess adhesive.

I will need to fill round the socket heads with the epoxy, to hermetically seal the connection, and for all time...

I may even fill the sockets themselves.  I haven't decided yet.

I'll need to level this out with the epoxy...

I'd rather not sand it down flush, so as not to disturb the feng shui of the head.

The hole that saved the medallion from a fate worse than <insert here> will need to be filled as well...

In future, when priming and painting, I must first attach a wooden handle to this hole...

I may then prime and paint the two-piece more easily.

[Alan64]

The filling of the hole...

[Alan64]

Part of the sorting out of the magnetic retaining system for the medallion....

The system must be completed before the arm and base are primed, and painted, to avoid excessive handling afterwards.

[Alan64]

The gibbous-Moon shapes of common steel...

They conform to the inner wall round...

However, they will be epoxied to the backside of the medallion, like so...

Edited August 27 by Alan64