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 | Got any nifty ideas, hints and tips to help your fellow-modellers? - then
this is the place to share them with us!
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| Looking for a bit of help or advice on solving some little problem - here's where you can ask for it!
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getting into a tight corner
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IT MAY BE TRUE of other models also, but if you own a
Shuttle helicopter you will know that access to the glow plug is
very poor, with the cylinder head of the engine tucked away underneath
the model and in a recessed area, giving very little room to get at the
plug, as you see on the left. Most glow plug spanners are far too long
to even get into the recess, let alone fitting them on to the plug and
being able to apply any leverage. |
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To overcome this problem, I made a very
useful little right-angled spanner as pictured here. It is actually made
from a normal plug spanner and, in my case, an old feathering spindle
that had become very slightly bent in one of those unfortunate little
incidents to which helicopter modellers in particular seem rather prone! |
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Here are the parts. One plug spanner cut down
to 25mm in length and one feathering spindle (already threaded) or a 6mm
steel rod (100mm long), threaded one end to take an M4 nut. This size
thread leaves a nice little shoulder at the base of the thread which is
useful when fitting the rod. |
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Drill a 4mm hole right through the spanner
head, then enlarge one of the holes to 6mm to allow the rod to
pass through. The threaded end will go through the 4mm hole, and the
shoulder at the base of the thread prevents the rod going through any further.
Fix the nylon nut and washer in place, and there it is. The f. spindle
is threaded both ends, so I put a second 4mm nylon nut on the other end
of the rod, but it could have been cut off and the end chamfered off.
You see the rod in use on the left. |
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Once you have loosened the plug, or when
putting it back in before final tightening with the spanner, you can
save a lot of fiddling if you rotate it by using a piece of tubing (fuel
tubing or similar if the silicone tube is a bit slippery) pushed over the plug 'spigot' to act as a flexible drive.
I expect most experienced modellers know about this one, but when you're
new it can take a long time before you find out this little dodge!
Useful idea for putting nuts on in awkward places, too, apparently. |
[26.02.00]
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