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Broken piece - need advice to fix


StuartMont

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Good morning - the first photo shows a broken piece that happened when trying to complete a wheel assembly.  The left wheel in the third photo was a success.  The piece is so flimsy.  Should I punt and just write this off as another mistake?

I would love to hear thoughts on how you would proceed with this.

Thanks,

Stuart

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Based on the photos you provided, it does not appear that this part supports or bears much weight. Can’t you just glue it back together? If it is big enough in diameter, you could drill out each end and insert a small reinforcing rod of brass rod to reinforce it, but if it doesn’t bear weight, you probably don’t need to. Good luck. Nick Filippone 

 

Edited by Nick Filippone
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Thanks so much for responding.  The piece is barely .5 mm in diameter.  I tried gluing back together but as soon as i tried to attach it just broke again at the weak spot. You are right, it doesn’t support any weight.  I ended up putting it in place in two pieces and it seems to be holding, albeit a bit bent.

Thanks again!

Stuart

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You can also scratchbuild a duplicate from brass rod or wire and tubing in order to replicate the different steps in the diameter.  Then plastic to duplicate the crossbar of the A.  Can't find brass rod or wire that small?  Try music wire.  Since it isn't loadbearing, BSI IC-Gel would work to hold things together.  In order to have a uniform appearance, build two copies and replace both plastic versions.  Hope some of this helps.

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One more option is to get some styrene rod of the same diameter to scratch up a replacement section. You can cut away the damaged side, drill out the glue contact points into receiving sockets so that they will not be butt joined, then attach the replacement section. 

The part will have to support some weight down the road. It looks to be the upper attachment point for the mud flap on a Mosquito landing gear.

Edited by Stikpusher
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Thanks for all of the ideas. I have to think about wether it will ultimately support weight.  I provided this photo of the unbroken piece.  Zoom in and you will see a similar shaped piece on the other side of it.  It seems this would have been something to provide lateral stability of the gear which won’t be necessary for a static model.  The weight should go through the rod and up into the stout vertical supports.  The mud flap system was an independent assembly, at least in the model.  

This is making me think of my 35 years as a bridge engineer so it would be great to hear alternative opinions.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Buy a pack of acupuncture needles on-line.  They are fine enough that if you have a small enough drill bit, they will work fine in .5 mm plastic rod.  I always start there tiny holes with the sharp pont of a #11 Exacto blade.

 

Ed

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  • 3 weeks later...

It does not appear to be load bearing, so replacing with a scratch built part may be the best option. The up side of this is that it will help develop extra skills, and the worst that can happen is wasting a few bits of material if you have to do any re makes. I do a fair bit of scratch building and getting bits wrong and having to re make them is just par for the course. Just do not be put off at having a go. Scratch building is not as daunting as it might first seen and is mainly a matter of getting your head around a particular part assembly that you are making, breaking it down into the individual parts and thinking about how it can be put together.

No matter what happens, do not be worried about making a mistake. There is a very old saying that the man who never made a mistake never made anything!

Edited by noelsmith
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Noel, you are absolutely correct.  Being in England, you phrase it differently but the bottom line to Stuart is just do it.  If you don't try, you'll never know how good you really are!  Incidentally, I had a professional artist friend...now deceased...who would occasionally find prints of aviation art in stores, opined as to how good the work was and wondered who painted the original.  Looked for the artist's name and was shocked to learn it was him!!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I hope you guys don‘t think I was rude but I did not know these additional responses were posted.  I did end up fixing this, it looks a bit jury-rigged but only if you get real close 😀

I will do some homework to see if I can set notifications when folks post responses to my questions.  Don‘t want anyone thinking I am ignoring someone taking their time to help me.

Love these model planes.

Stuart

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No worries Stuart. I had some issues as well in the past. At the bottom of the page after you input your reply; you'll see just below the reply box, a slider that says "Follow topic" Click that so the slider slides to the right and you'll always get notifications of replies posted.

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