Sunday, April 17, 2011

Rivetting play!!

Problem with putting holes in things is plugging them up again..Work continues on rivetting up the cockpit section.Spend mornings in the office and after lunch sneak out to belt some rivets in..Like meditation :)Breathe deep,rivet..Brrrrrp....Touch Brp.....Next!!!
Aerial bracing is continuing with pieces being nailed together finally.There are a lot of small gussets holding it all together so a slow process.
Also work has started on making up internal fitting brackets for the various cockpit parts and controls.First is putting the IFF Remote contactor.This is the first version of IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) ever to come out in a fighter aircraft.it works as a clockwork mechanism in a waterproof box sends out a radio signal 15 seconds in every minute,warning home radar not to scramble on you..
Also is restoration work on our original bits and pieces with sandblasting and repainting..








Lots more to come!!Onto the pics..

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Busy bees..

Large crowd today with the most volunteers we have had..ever with 8 guys and gals all hammering away together..A huuuge thank you for turning up :)
With the month of May being "Displays month" we have thrown all efforts into finishing off the cockpit section.This requires a huge amount of rivetting and finishing off various components.We are going to give this Pit an ID so will keep this a secret of which one it will be.
Also the Tropical Box is 99% finished so will be given to the Museum as a display piece when finished.Just awaiting on some info on RAF Canteens.
Simon our Machining slave,errr awsome worker continues on punching out precision tooling and small Spitfire parts..
On the jig our frames are being removed for straightening and are to be sent off for heat treatment to bring them up to proper T3 hardness.
The Aerial brace assembly Mk21,876,356,345,353 is about ready to assemble with all parts being "correctly" made now.It,s the simple things in life.
Another area that is making leaps and bounds is our restoration arm with the sandblaster running hot removing decades of rust and dirt to reclaim a viable spitfire part.Thank you to Tracey for putting in the hard yards in writing up a program to keep accounts of all our parts and keep us organised.
Also many thanks to Robert and Lauren who are now our official First Aid and OH&S people..They will keep track of our health and safety in the workshop so we all go home with all limbs attached.Lauren also makes a mean cake ;)
Is starting to cool off now here so a resergence of energy coming into Winter is helping..





onto the pics..

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

More Shiney bits



Here are some more bits that we have been working on..Frame 6,Frame 7 and the control box diaphragms and Tropical ration box.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Is it nearly Easter?

Can,t believe it is four months into the year already.Where to begin..At the beginning will be good ;)
Start date was pushed back this year due to asbestos removal onsite so a bit of reorganising was done to start off the year.With all the rear frames finished other than straightening and heat treating the plan was to continue forward on the frontal frames up to the Firewall.At this stage we are 99% there with just a few lightening holes to be formed.This is due to having the correct size dies being machined.
We were having a lot of drama with the aerial brace not fitting up and not looking the best so the decision was to remake a lot of it.With that nearing completion again and the forming up of the control box diaphragms we will soon be looking at skinning the fuse.
Also nearing completion is the pilots Tropical Emergency Ration box.The search for an original will be on for an original Canteen will begin soon.
Soon we will have the parts needed for our bottom fuel tank,engine saddle and horizontal stabiliser from the Waterjetters to begin construction.Also our Spine Longeron is in the process of being bent up in preperation to be curved to suit the Spitfires top profile.This means new rollers will have to be machined up.
Also the new year has bought us new volunteers so training them up to be proper little metal mashers is in the pipeline.
Design wise a lot of small stuff is being finished off and still awaiting a drawing or two to finish off the vertical Stabiliser.Also to be done is the radio compartment rails.
























Anyway here are some pics of our shiney bits...