Wireless Set No. 52 Canadian - Project

[David Dunlop]

The centre upper and lower front panel mounting brackets have now been cleaned, re-plated and reinstalled.

The last two for this part of the project are the upper left and right brackets and hopefully;;y I can get them done on the weekend.


David

[James D Teel II]

Beautiful work as always.

[David Dunlop]

Thanks, James. I am happy I can still at least muddle along.

Today I got the last two front panel mounting brackets cleaned, zinc plated and reinstalled in the upper corners, so I am now finished with that bit, but still have a little new research to sort out, hopefully in the next week or so.

In the meantime, I plan to work on the two Aerial Input Terminals, located on the lower rear sides of the case. Both seemed OK when I disassembled and removed them last year, but it's time for a closer look.


David

[David Dunlop]

I got the right side Input Aerial Terminal disassembled cleaned and re-plated this afternoon. The main component of this assembly shows up in the Master Parts List as:

STUDS, Brass, Special, ANF 10-32, 1-21/32 inches long, No. C1 ZA/CAN 8048

It is machined from 1/4-inch brass bar stock and once the wing nut is fitted, the end of the threaded shaft is mushroomed slightly to prevent loss of the wing nut. It would have been easier to deal with the shaft being drill through and a small D-Ring fitted, as you have to carefully press this stud assembly out of the brown phenolic resin plate it is fitted to in order to get the entire assembly free from the coil case.

I discovered the rear edge of the resin plate showed signs of the bcd saw blade bucking when the plate was cut, leaving some light tan marks on the edge. A thin coat of clear nail polish reduced the visibility of these marks by about 50 % so I was pleased you can still notice the damage but not so glaringly any more.


David

[David Dunlop]

I was able to reinstall the right side Aerial Input Terminal last evening and once the Stud assembly with its captive wing nut was back in place, made an interesting discovery.

I had assumed the mushroom effect applied to the tip of the shaft the wing nut moves on was simply achieved by a sharp rap with a hammer. However, as you can see in the photo of this assembly back in place, the newly cleaned and re-plated tip of the shaft revealed it had been struck with a small cross punch to achieve the mushroom effect. I was pleased another little detail finally came to light...literally.

Hopefully, I will be able to clean, re-plate and reinstall the Aerial Input Terminal on the left side of the coil case today.


David

[David Dunlop]

A productive afternoon today after all the errands were out of the way.

The left side Aerial Input Terminal assembly was stripped down, cleaned and re-plated. At the start of this I cleaned and checked the end of the stud behind the wing nut, and sure enough, it also revealed the mark from a cross punch used to mushroom the end of the stud.

When this terminal assembly was reinstalled on the left side of the coil case, I realized the only item left to deal with was the large Aerial Output Terminal located on the upper left side rear corner. I pulled it out of storage to see what work was required on it and was pleasantly surprised the metal work on it was nickel plated and in very good condition. A quick disassembly and cleaning and I was able to reinstall it as well. That just leaved three sets of hardware to clean and re-plate for the coil case and those can wait until I deal with the now pending work on the actual front panel of the Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A.

That should be fun.


David

[David Dunlop]

Apart from four different sets of coil case hardware that need to be cleaned and have a new coast of zinc plating reapplied, the next major step in restoring this Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A has to be the removal of the front panel from the coil chassis assembly, so that it can be stripped down of old paint, repainted and new luminous decals applied. This part of the project comes with some trepidation. The attached photos in this post are all of my spare parts coil front panel, which spent enough time in its life in a damp environment that its tuning/tracking assembly seized up completely and broke.

Once this panel is removed from the coil chassis assembly, there are only two parts still attached to it: the Tuning Counter assembly, and just under it, the Screw, Special, Brass post that forms the basis of the locking assembly for the tuning control. There is a large reinforcing plate fitted over the drive shaft of the counter. Two large spot welds secure it to the front panel and two of the three mounting screws that fasten the counter to the back of the front panel pass through the lower portion of the reinforcing plate. The third mounting screw sits just above this plate on the panel. When the tuning knob is in place, the reinforcing plate is largely obscured. The reinforcing plate prevents the front panel from flexing when the coarse tuning lever has been extended from the front of the tuning knob and can act as a lever which might otherwise bend the tuning shaft out of alignment.

When I was restoring the Sender, I had to remove a pair of these Counter assemblies from its front panel and the hardware all came free very easily. I have tried several times to remove these same item from this coil front panel with no success at all. Since those attempts, I have subsequently discovered the coil front panel is aluminum plate, not steel like the Sender front panel. I am now thinking that electrolytic reactions between the aluminum, brass and zinc, in conjunction with the dampness the coil was exposed to, may have fused this hardware solid. In addition, the hardware holding the Screw, Special, Brass in place is alarmingly tiny stuff: 2-56 zinc plated brass hardware I believe.

I am hoping I am correct about this spare parts panel and that the hardware will pop loose OK on the front panel for my working coil assembly, but it is definitely a concerning task ahead.


David

[David Dunlop]

Time to back track a little.

Back on Page 37, in Post #1097, I hd commented on finding numbers stamped onto the two phenolic resin side plates and bottom plate of the coil chassis: four digit numbers in blue ink. This was present on nothing coil chassis I have on hand and the three numbers on each chassis were matched sets. I hd assumed at that time these were possibly production control numbers, but looked rather sophisticated compared to the large hand written similar numbers found on the main component chassis of the 52-Set.

Well, when looking at the rear of the front panel from my parts coil assembly today, I noticed another faint four digit number, hand stamped in blue ink, in the upper right rear corner of the front panel, just beside a small circular Canadian Marconi Company inspection stamp with the number ‘686’ inside the circle. These markings bracket the two mounting holes in the front panel for the Plates, Phenolic, Calibration. When I checked this number ‘8798’ with those found earlier on the three coil chassis plates, they all matched. Interestingly, the assigned Serial Number for this coil assembly on its Data plate happens to be ‘8963’.

The dilemma is that the other coil assembly I have bears the stamped number ‘3978’ and that coil assembly is missing its data plate, and adding more mud to the waters is the fact serial numbering for the 52-Set started at ‘5001’. And the rear side of that coil front panel has been wiped clean at some point, probably during a workshop rebuild.



David

[David Dunlop]

A little diversion.

A couple of these Supply Units have recently shown up on the UK eBay site. They do, from time to time, but these two were useful as they had a lot of photos to examine and they were still in worn, but original factory paint and markings. A rare thing on this side of the Atlantic.

What struck me on both was that directly above their data plates, which are centred on the back of the chassis plate, was a stamped, four digit number which had been carefully varnished over to protect it. Finding one such arrangement would have been nicely odd, but two of them strongly suggests these numbers were important. My thinking went straight to them being yet another version of a Production Control Number for these supplys used until the final data plates were attached to the units.

Unlike the other components of the 52-Set where these 4-digit numbering system show up, neither of these were close to the final assigned serial numbers on their data plates, but both were very close to being 4,800 numbers lower. That is getting remarkably close to the possible total production run of 52-Sets, of around 5,000.

Close to 90% of the design of the ZE-11 Supply used with the Wireless Set No. 9 Mk I Cdn was carried over into the ZE-12 Supply that formed part of the 52-Set. Over the years of this project, I have heard a few independent stories that CMC encountered some production delays in getting the ZE-12 built. I am sure whatever those delays were, they could not have shut things down for the bulk of the 52-Set production run.

Some of these stories further related that Canadian Marconi Company was able to maintain full production flow by simply producing an extended run of ZE-11 Supply Units short term, to fill the gap. Chatting with Jacques Fortin about this earlier today, he confirmed that when he bought three surplussed fully equipped Cases, Operating Remote for the 52-Set back in the 1970’s, two came equipped with ZE-12 Supply Units but the third one contained a ZE-11. So perhaps, any Production Control Number system that was up and running for the ZE-11 Supply Unit was simply continued while ZE-11’s were built for the 52-Set and nobody bothered resetting it once the ZE-12 came on line.

Be nice to find more of these paired up numbers to see what they have to say. I also now have to take another closer look at my own ZE-11 Supply Unit. It came with my Remote Receiver for the 52-Set and these receivers used the same connector cable in both the 52-Set Remote and No. 9 Mk I Remote configurations.


David

[David Dunlop]

This little gem arrived in todays Post, much to my great relief.

I discovered it for sale in England back in November and purchased it one week before Canada Post went on strike. The vender was wonderful enough to get it all ready to go but put it on the back shelf until the strike ran its course. He was able to get it in the overseas mail finally two weeks ago.

Typically, this is a nice accessory to a wartime wireless set to have, but not essential. There were a lot of them surplussed out in the 1970’s, but they tended not to fair well in civilian life.

If one back tracks on this thread to around Page 30, Post #873, this will take you roughly to May/June of 2022 when I was trying to sort out a missing metal bracket in the Tool Box for the 52-Set. Via a process of examining the traces in the box and the tools that were in the box, the only logical use for the missing bracket would have been to help support the box the hydrometer came in, so I rolled the dice and based the final length of the bracket on being just large enough to hold the wooden box. The only way to prove the concept was to now find the needed hydrometer, and the correct one finally turned up last Fall.

The Parts List label was originally glued to the right side of the lid, you can see the trace of it there, and it should be easy enough to carefully steam press the label flat and re-glue it in its proper place. My guess at the size of the bracket was perfect. The box sits on it with just enough room for the small brass hinge on the right rear side to clear the back of the lid of the box, when the Tool Box is closed. The hydrometer box slides back and forth from side to side in the box as expected and is prevented from falling down into the interior of the tool box by the bracket on the right and the handle of the ball pean hammer resting on top of the partition on the left, as expected.

It has taken nearly three years to finally prove the concept of the recreation of the missing support bracket, but it has been worth the wait. I cannot stop grinning this afternoon.


David

[James D Teel II]

Oh that's a very nice hydrometer!

[David Dunlop]

It did take a while, James, and I wonder sometimes passing on items that show up at the wrong time, price or condition. I did pass up another one in the UK a week earlier because it had a badly stained case. I guess I chose the right wine to toast the Gods with this time.


David

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

It did take a while, James, and I wonder sometimes passing on items that show up at the wrong time, price or condition. I did pass up another one in the UK a week earlier because it had a badly stained case.

Not just stained: there was severe acid damage to one end of the lid.

I guess I chose the right wine to toast the Gods with this time.

David

Definitely.

Chris.

[David Dunlop]

I first posted on this back in 2022, on Page 27, Post #782, when I first got enough useful information sorted out.

Since that time, this project has been plodding along and as I found situations anywhere in the 52-Set where none original washers had been installed, made notes of the locations so they could all be replaced once I had sourced the required correct washers.

For the most part North American Standard Shakeproof Washers (usually called Internal Tooth Lock Washers) are easy to find but in the modern, prepackaged hardware world, are rediculous in price, often working out to a dollar or more each. While reaching the web again recently, I discovered Graingers, here in Canada, carry many of these washers in Lots of 100, for typically less that $4.00 per Lot, and they have a store just 10 minutes from home. Bonus!

I have been ordering these washers over the last few weeks and my wife donated a surplus crafting supplies box to my cause to store them in. The box was a great choice because the dividers are fully molded into the case so the smaller washers cannot slide between the compartments. And rather than labeling each compartment I simply did a single ID Sheet on the computer to pop into the lid, which can be easily changed out if and when needed.


David

[David Dunlop]

I picked this item up today at our local Prairie Command Spring Get Together.

My days of WIRE 5 work are over, but this chimney will be cleaned, primed and painted gloss white inside and an appropriate CMP green for 1944 on the outside. The 9-inch square steel plate on top, that has been factory punched to accept a 19-Set Aerial Base for the A-Set will be replaced with a 9-inch square of 1/4-inch thick brown phenolic resin plate and the vehicular aerial base for the 52-Set mounted in place of the original.

Put a couple of angle brackets on my Wireless Room wall to hold the chimney and the 52-Set Aerial Base can be displayed effectively. So the plan goes at this point.


David

[David Dunlop]

When removing the front panel from the Coil, Aerial Tuning Unit No. 2 A, it is important to remember the Tuning Counter Dial assembly is fitted to the Front Panel and will come off the Coil Chassis assembly with the front panel. If the Tuning Counter gear box gets bumped at all, the calibration between the dial readings and the actual position of the tuning V-Wheel along the coil will be lost. Not a good plan.

Before removing the front panel, it is best to dial the counter back down to its ‘0000’ position, which places the V-Wheel against its Stop at the left end of the Coil. See the first two photos attached.

The interface between the Dial Counter gear box and the Coil gear box is a simple, black Bakelite disk, free floating between the two gear boxes. It will easily fall out when the two gear boxes are separated. See the 3rd photo.

The simple solution is to tape the Bakelite Coupling to he Coil Gear Box arm, so it stays with the Coil Gear Box on the chassis. Then, also tape the Dial Counter Drive shaft to the back of the Dial Counter to keep the Dial Counter held in its ‘0000’ position. See the last two photos.

With all this prep work done, the front panel on the Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A can be removed from the coil chassis.



David

[David Dunlop]

The Front Panel assembly is mounted to the Coil Chassis assembly by eight round head, slotted, brass, zinc plated machine screws. See the first two photos.

The red highlighted ones in two vertical rows are made up of 10-32 x 3/8-inch screws with matching Shakeproof washers and hex nuts. The screws pass through two sets of holes in the brass angle frame of the sides of the coil chassis and are secured with the washers and hex nuts.

The two yellow highlighted screws across the lower edge of the front panel are 8-32 x 3/8-inch and thread directly into the two brass angle brackets mounted along the front edge of the bottom plate of the coil chassis. These two arrangements are shown in the 3rd photo of my spare parts coil assembly.



David

[David Dunlop]

I worked on getting the Front Panel assembly removed from the Coil chassis this morning.

I started by removing the top two sets of 10-32 hardware down either side. Relatively easy with a small adjustable wrench on the inside. Not so much with the bottom two sets of this hardware. Not much access room at all for anything other than a very this wrench or spanner. What eventually worked was jamming the hex nut with a small screwdriver through small corner holes in the chassis base plate corners so my large screwdriver on the 10-32 machine screw could break the tension of the Shakeproof lock washer. Getting these two sets of hardware reinstalled later is going to be a VERY interesting exercise.

With the six sets of 10-32 hardware removed, the two 8-32 screws at the bottom came out very easily and the Coupling assembly on the Gear Drive for the Counter disconnected quite nicely. A few years of dust and dirt have accumulated on the faces of the Coupling assembly, but that should clean off easily. The hardware was all reinstalled where it came from, with the exception of the two problem sets in the lower corners, but they were bagged and tagged for dealing with later.

When I discovered this front panel was aluminum plate a while back, I realized a suitable aluminum primer was going to be needed for the repaint, but decided the cost of aircraft green chromate primer was not in the books and chose a modern cream coloured primer. My plan was to aluminum prime first and then overcoat with standard grey primer to keep away from any possible variation in the top coat colour due to what it was sitting on top of when applied. It was quite surprising when all eht mounting hardware was removed from the front panel. The two problem sets of hardware had cut deep into the panel paint and the aircraft green chromate that was common from the 1940’s through to the era of the 1960’s rebuilds of the 52-Sets showed up clearly. The other hardware, which had not cur as deeply into the paint, revealed a grey primer over top of the green, and directly under the top coat grey.

The interesting thing now will be to see how easily the Dial Counter assembly wants to come off the front panel. It will not budge on my spare parts coil front panel and I am suspecting it is a result of brass, steel and aluminum bits all in contact with one another since the 1960’s rebuilt. I had no problem at all removing these items from the Sender front panel when I was working on it, but all the metals were steel with those two. Tine will tell.


David

[David Dunlop]

This morning was a good one.

The plan was the removal of the Dial Counter assembly from the front panel of the Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A and it all came together perfectly!

Three screws secure the Dial Counter to the front panel in a triangular pattern and all three sit underneath the Knob assembly for the counter, so the first step is removing the Knob. It is held in place by a ½-inch long Grub Screw located just below the hinge for the High Speed tuning handle and requires use of a Bristo Key to loosen it. Backing it up flush with the side of the Knob will work.

Once the Grub Screw has been backed off, flip the High Speed Handle up to its operating position. This will reveal the screw that secures the tension spring for the High Speed Handle, which threads into the shaft of the Dial Counter. Remove this screw completely and the Knob assembly will pull free of the shaft exposing the three mounting screw for the Counter. The top one sits flush on the front panel but the lower two are recessed into the reinforcing plate spot welded to the front panel to prevent it from flexing. The Locking Plate can be moved from side to side to expose the lower two screws for removal at this point.

On this assembly, all three mounting screws popped free very easily, which was a huge relief. The last step will be to remove the Locking Mechanism for the Knob.


David

[David Dunlop]

The first step in removing the Locking Mechanism from the front panel is to extract the small steel D-Ring from the end of the brass post that keeps the burled brass Lock Nut from getting lost. My wife’s collection of small jewellery pliers are great for this and I usually work with the curved ones to get the job done.

Once the D-Ring is removed, the Lock Nut can be backed off the post. There may be a nit of resistance as the nut moved up over the empty hole where the D-Ring sat. This is to be expected. After decades of the Lock Nut being backed up against the steel D-Ring, the ring will have mushroomed the brass post a bit and the Lock Nut is riding up over this mushroom for the first time. I usually run the nut up and down a few times to clear the threads and it then passes up off the post quite easily.

With the Lock Nut off the post, the spring locj plate can be lifted free of the post.



David

[David Dunlop]

The last step in removing the Dial Lock assembly from the front of the Coil, Aerial Tuning No. 2 A is the removal of the SCREWS, Brass, Special ANF 10-32, 23/32=inch long No. C1 (ZA/CAN 4831). It is held in place with three ANC 2-56 x 3/8-inch, brass, CS slotted machine screws, with matching flat washers, Shakeproof washers and hex nuts on the back side of the panel.

Here is where the SCREWDRIVERS, Electricians, 3-inch, IF 117350, from the 52-Set Tool Box comes in real handy. It fits the countersunk screw heads perfectly.

The 3/16-inch socket from my ¼-Drive set fits the hex nuts and all three came free perfectly. All three hex nuts still had their Shakeproof washers under them but only one flat washer has been found. I will have to try and find some others to replace the missing ones now.

With the SCREWS, Brass, Special out of the way, the last two items to remove from the front panel were the Data Plate and the PLATES, Phenolic, Calibration ZA/CAN 4361 to have as open as possible a front panel for stripping and repainting.


David

[David Dunlop]

Have you even been working away on your favourite military restoration project and you stumble across something that makes you wish the item you are working on could talk and explain its history to you?

I hit one of those moments last night with this project quite by accident.

While moving the front panel of the Coil assembly across my work bench the angle of the task light struck the front of the reinforcing plate spot welded around the hole for the Dial Counter shaft.

I freely admit I know nothing about spot welding equipment. We have a couple at the auto dealership where I work and there my knowledge ends. In the first photo today, you can see the two spot weld dimples roughly either side of the Dial Counter shaft. The head on this particular machine clearly had rounded triangular electrodes and the work is very neat and clean. This front panel is off my spare parts Coil assembly.

Now take a look at the second photo of the front panel I am restoring. This was the one I was moving when it caught my eye. What on earth happened here? It is absolutely covered in spot welds! What possible story is being told here? Was it training day on the Production Line? Were they having equipment issues? Is this post-production, service life repairs?

Add into that a technical question that suddenly popped up as well.

Any spot welding work I have ever seen produces a dimple on both sides of the items being welded together as they become fused. As per the last photo today, neither of my Coil assembly front panels have any trace at all of spot welding on the backs of them. How is that accomplished, I now wonder…



David

[David Dunlop]

These two items arrived in the afternoon Post from England yesterday, right after our 'Not a Snow Storm' blew through town. They are now safely in the Tool Box.

It was really nice to finally see and handle the smaller of the two screwdrivers. It is a short, stocky item with a good feel to it and would have been the only tool suppled with the 52-Set that the Operators would have been able to use on the slotted 1/4-inch hex head bolts used to secure the three main set components in the Carriers No. 4 and the Remote Receiver in its Case. I had to try it out with one of these bolts I found last year and the head of this screwdriver snugs into the slots in the bolt heads perfectly.

Now that I finally have this screwdriver on hand, I will be able to test it on some of the other larger machine screws found within the 52-Set to determine what else it would have been used for by the Operators.


David

[David Dunlop]

Before I can start stripping off the paint from the Coil Assembly front panel, I need to determine exactly where the new water transfer decals have to be positioned. That forms the basis of where the two luminous paint pads have to be placed on top of the new panel paint, when that painting is completed.

There are two axes to determine the correct placement of the decals: where their vertical and horizontal centrelines need to be placed. I have two panels to study for this information, which was a big help.

The easiest piece of the puzzle turned out to be establishing the vertical line the horizontal centre points of the two decals must rest upon. Todays photo shows that line to be along the right edge of the ruler straight through the middle of the main holes for all the tuning components and this line can be easily established on the newly repainted front panel when the time comes.

Where the horizontal centrelines of the two decals must come to rest vertically on the front panel was a little more challenging. The larger AERIAL TUNING decal at the top was an easy one to pin down. On both front panels, the horizontal centrelines were exactly 3/8-inch up from the top edge of the rectangular cutout for the Counter Dial.

The lower LOCK decal was a challenge by comparison. On my spare parts panel, the horizontal centreline for this decal was only ¼-inch below the bottom edge of the SCREWS, Brass, Special. On the front panel in the top, that I am restoring, this distance was exactly 3/8-inch from the shadow of where the SCREWS, Brass, Special had been mounted. Problem was that this shadow would be gone once the panel was repainted so a more permanent reference point had to be found. When I looked at the lower two mounting holes for the SCREWS, Brass, Special and checked the distance from them to the centreline of the LOCK decal on the panel to be restored, this distance was exactly 14 mm. Using that measurement and with everything eventually remounted, I will get the required 3/8-inch distance from the Screws, Brass Special to the centreline of the LOCK decal.


David

[David Dunlop]

Well, I am at another major ‘Learning Curve’ point in this project, so physical work has ground to a halt while I sort out a new process related to the water transfer decals I need to create for the front panel of the Coils assembly.

The actual, correctly sized decals have been done for some time, the tricky bit has been creating the stencils needed to lay down the rectangular, luminous, paint pads the decals end up resting over. These pads of paint will consist of a thin layer of flat white paint to help reflect the glow from the luminous paint, which is put down on top of it, once the flat has cured. I anticipate more than one set of these stencils may be required and the more identical they are to each other the better. That degree of accuracy is beyond my abilities and the prime reason I invested in a new Cricut Maker cutting machine a year or so ago. It can cut multiple identical stencils far better than I could ever hope to by hand with blades and rulers.

The paint pads have to be slightly smaller than the limit of the black area of the decals and just larger than the central printing, to work properly and look as close to the wartime original decals. If you check the photo of the decals I have made in Post #1065 on Page 36 of this thread, you will get an idea of just how the paint pads and overlying decals have to line up. The finished process, if all goes well, should look just like the originals but will have been constructed in reverse order from the originals. With the originals, the luminous paint pads were put down directly on top of the decal film. Black paint was then applied to mask out the lettering, Then any top colours like red, blue or yellow were added before a clear coat of sealer and varnish was added. If you shine a light across the face of your 19-Set today, across the decals, you will see the small ridge of the paint pad under the black paint. Hopefully, my finished decals will have a similar ridge look, the only difference being my paint pad will be under the decal film, not on top of it.

So at this point in time, I have a set of paint pad stencils draw and saved in the correct size on my computer spreadsheet and they print properly. That file has been converted to a format the Cricut cutter can work with and they will download. Just a few more steps to sort out before I can do some test cutting. If all goes well, my brain is already thinking about another stencil I might be able to create for another part of the 52-Set Project down the road.

I shall keep you posted.



David

[David Dunlop]

A major breakthrough this morning in getting stencil software to load and cut correctly with my Cricut Maker software.

I had been working with PDF and PNG files and they all erred out with off the charts excess file sizes that made no sense to me. So, this morning I decided to make a test file and convert it to SVG format in my Logoist 4 Software and then export it to my iMac. This uploaded perfectly to the Cricut software and cut perfectly on 20 pound Bond paper.

Now that I finally know how to do it, creating workable stencils, to be cut from file folder manila sheet, for the paint decal pads I need can move forward once again.


David

[Barry Churcher]

David I have been waiting to see how you make out with your Cricut. I would like to get one for stencils for various projects. Already it sounds a little complicated for a pea brained non computer savvy person like me.

"make a test file and convert it to SVG format in my Logoist 4 Software and then export it to my iMac. This uploaded perfectly to the Cricut software".
Cheers
Barry

[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