These bad boys were originally designed for wartime aircraft maintenance in mind. Very short to fit between the spars and tight gaps in the airframe, and aluminium to avoid the possibility of sparks when working on fully fuelled aircraft. I found some old advertising about these nifty devices.
I picked it up from a Carboot/Flea Market for £2.00 a few weekends ago.
Loved the look of it, and thought it could do with a quick going over.
STRIP DOWN
I gave it a strip down using some WD40 to get in all the nooks and crannys and release the bolts.
It’s such a simple little tool with not many moving parts, and only a couple of bearings, so this refurb is going to be easy.
After cleaning the inside, I got a good lot of paint stripper on the outside casing to take off what was left of the sorry looking paint.
I used a generic paintrstripper because it’s what i had around at the time.
after the stripping I cleaned up what was left and gave the lot a quick sand to take out the last little bits.
The headstock, I just went to town on with a wire wheel, to get all the rust and crud off it. It cleaned up really nice just with that.
PAINTING
Making sure all the surfaces I didn’t want painting were covered, I sprayed a self etching aluminium primer on the parts and they looked really nice.
After a 24 hour drying period I hit them with Aluminium Paint, and they looked even better.
I wasn’t sure whether to hit the lettering with Red or Blue, since I’d seen both on this period of drill.
I went with blue, as that was what I had available, and it looked more period correct from the photos i’d seen previously.
I used an enamel model paint and a small brush to do the lettering. Any spillover on the recessed parts, was quickly wiped away with some slightly damp tissue.
I have previously done quite a bit of painting models, so this part came fairly naturally.
REASSEMBLY
This went back together very easily. Greased the mechanism to keep it running nicely.
STILL TO DO
I will be making a new handle at some point when i get to grips with using the lathe, but for now, what is on there will suffice.
If you want to take a quick look at parts of the rebuild, i did a rudimentary video to accompany it.
Subscribe if you want to see more videos. They are improving every time, as i get my head round lightworks and other techniques (may be part of a future blog).
What I used for the refurb is the following
*THESE ARE LINKS SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT I USED AND GET THE SAME IF REQUIRED*
A large flathead screwdriver
Wire Wheels
Paint Stripper
Humbrol Enamel Paint
Primer Spray Paint
Aluminium Spray Paint
Detail Brushes
Toothbrush for cleaning
Any suggestions or advice, shoot me an email or drop a comment.
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