Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

Hi Barry.

In truth, I am probably not as far ahead of you as you might think.i have always loved researching things for some reason. Once I get working stencils done for this part of the project I will try and document the steps. There are just three basic ones it turns out. The first will likely already be on your home computer and you have already played with it to some degree. The third is the Cricut Design Software which it easy to follow. It’s the middle step to create a SVG file that I just figured out. But more on that later.


Best regards,


David

[David Dunlop]

Here is a photo of the first successful test of these stencils cut on my Cricut. The cut was done on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of 20 pound bond printer paper. The curl is a result of removing the paper from the sticky cutting board. This will not be a problem when using much heavier card stock for the actual stencils.

You will note the paper is smaller than its actual 'Letter Size'. Even with an excellent grid pattern on the cutting board to line the paper up on, the sticky surface makes the process challenging and it is important, and a lot easier to work with, if the cuts you are making are square to the edges of the material you are cutting. Working with CNCs years ago, I remembered you can instruct the machine to perform a border trim which will be square to any other cutting and milling operations you will be performing on the material you are working on. So, I just had the Cricut trim a random sized border around the set of stencil cuts to see what would happen and it worked.

Another benefit of this test was that it confirmed the size for the smaller paint pad was perfect for its overlaying decal. The longer stencil, however, is about two 20ths of an inch too short, So I will have to adjust that for the next test cut.


David

[David Dunlop]

Earlier this week I made a trip up to the local Michael’s store to look for a package of card stock to practice cutting the stencils I need to create for making the luminous paint pads which have to get placed under the water slide transfer decals I am replacing on the front panels of the Coils, Aerial Tuning Unit No. 2 A, and the Supply Unit. I do have a quantity of old manila file folders on hand but was not keen on the idea of so much additional work cutting them up and prepping them.

Turned out the paper crafting hobby requires quite a selection of such material in colours, textures and weights, of which I was completely unaware. As I was standing in the isle trying to absorb all this new information, and make sense of it, a young clerk came around the corner and clearly saw a Geezer in Distress in front of her. What blew me away was she walked right up to me with a genuine smile, introduced herself and asked if she could help. It just kept getting better from there. I told her it was not a crafting project but the restoration of an 80 year old Canadian Military radio from WW2. Her eyes got a bit bigger, she kept smiling and she kept asking all the right questions. Once she knew what cutting machine I was using and the general size of the projects she picked a bundle of 110 pound, white, gloss finish card stock and handed it too me.

I thanked her and casually mentioned this was the most challenging stencil work I had ever done because it was important to get the stencils I was working with positioned exactly where needed. The work I had done with stencils years ago had all been hand cut and locations on vehicles were a lot more forgiving because the card stock would hide the details of the surface the decals were to be applied to, making lining them up a lot more difficult. She then cocked her head and asked if I had ever considered cutting the finished stencils on clear blank plastic stencil sheet? I replied I was not aware of it and she then proceeded to take me to the far side of the store to show me the product. The rack was empty but the system told her two packs should be on hand somewhere and if I did not mind she would see if she could locate them. I had something else to look for so did not mind so off she went. Not ten minutes later she was walking towards me with another big smile on her face waving the two packs she had found. I took both packs so she did not have to put one back on the shelf. She wished me luck with the radio and off I went to the checkouts. There, I bumped into her Manager and reported my experience. Staff like that are so hard to find these days.

As for the blank stencil material, it has solved all the remaining problems I have anticipated to date and with a little careful setup, one full sheet should be able to get all of the paint pads on the Supply Unit front panel done with the exception to the 12 Volt Power Input at the bottom left.


David

[David Dunlop]

After weeks of on again off again thinking about this stage of the project, I finally committed to starting it this morning.

Up to this point in time, 98% of my military vehicle and restoration work has involved, stripping, repairing and repainting steel items. The front panel of the Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A , as I noted earlier, is 1/8-inch aluminum Plate and the reliable green chromate primer I had last used for aluminum nearly 50 years ago, has all but disappeared from the consumer market.

Adding to that was another concern that my usual approach to stripping away old paint was by use of a pair of old steel putty spatulas and touching up with sandpaper as needed. I had visions of these blades cutting into the much softer aluminum and creating no end of problems, so decided the safer approach was to sand down the old paint carefully before the repaint work started. This idea came about as I was going to have to hand sand the small spot welded reinforcing plate behind the tuning knob due to the many weld dent in it.

The first photo today is the starting image of the bare front panel assembly prior to any sanding and the next two are various stages as I worked down through the Gloss Navy Grey top coat, a grey primer coat and the original initial Green Chromate primer.

The last photo is of the new base coat of a modern (hopefully reliable) flat white aluminum primer. I shall let that hard cure for a week and then give it an overcoat of flat grey primer.



David

[David Dunlop]

With 48 hours of dry time out of the way this morning, I gave the front panel a ‘2nd coat’ of primer, but this coat was the grey primer needed to go under the final colour top coat. If everything goes well, I should be able to get that done next weekend.


David

[David Dunlop]

Well here is what a test board looked like after an attempt to spray paint a finish coat on it with my new Preval system.

The paint is an oil based, rust resistant enamel the manufacturer advises not to thin, and to use Mineral Spirits for clean up work. Under that advise, the system could not get the paint out of the spray jar.

Step 2 was to start over with a new system assembly and thin with Mineral Spirits at 4:1, as recommended by the system maker, ensuring the filter assembly at the bottom of the intake tube was removed. Paint barely made it out the nozzle and produced the attached fine textured orange peel look. Not even close to what I need. Tossed that system as well.

Now I am thinking about what to do next. At least the colour is exactly what I wanted.


David

[Jordan Baker]

It’s hard to say from the picture but if it’s a dry dusty sandpaper feel to the paint it’s either too thick still or too much air pressure is being used. This causes the paint particles to dry while airborne. If the paint is too thin you would just have to do light coats and build up the colour. In the model kit world I am for a milk like consistency of paint for spraying.