Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

I started sealing all the cut edges and drill holes this morning on the phenolic mounting plate for the Aerial Base C2. The manufacturer of the raw plate material said any clear finish would work, so I went with a bottle of clear nail polish. Super inexpensive and comes with a brush the perfect size for the job.

The first step was to lay on a strip of masking tap each side of the edge being sealed, leaving about 1/8-inch or more above the edge being worked on. This left a perfect little channel to apply the coating on and as soon as you can see the polish drying (about 20 to 30 seconds) you can then remove the masking tape and let the coating cure to 20 to 30 minutes. I found three coats gave a surface finish that looked like what I saw on the similar resin sheets used to make the chassis on the Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2A.

I did the drill holes on each edge I was working on at the same time as the edge. When I removed the masking tape from the bottom side of the plate, I left the top piece of tape in place long enough to carefully give the inner face of each hole a quick wipe with the polish brush. The less polish on the brush, the better.

With the plate finished, I will let it hard cure until tomorrow and start working on the cork gasket for the bottom side of the plate.


David