Hi again 'Guys'
Jo - hang on in there you will get there in the end and it will be all the more satisfying
Jason, the screws are commercial stainless 6-32 Philips pan heads modified to look like the original engines round head versions.
Contrary to virtually every other makers engines - if not all - the Eta 15s had these roundhead screws - everyone else used slotted cheese head - It did look strange at the time compared to others but I feel it now adds a certain character. I found impossible to get stainless Philips R/H hence the mod.
The Mk3 was assembled next and I managed to give it a run this afternoon. About the same as the Elite earlier not quite the crack and much steadier with the compression backed off. I only ran it long enough to get a couple of pics .....
Anodising the two Elites has not been without a few problems mainly based on using gold dye for the first time. However I've learnt quite a bit today - As you can see above the blue on the Mk 3 went quite smoothly but but the gold was a real pain. I did some test pieces first and acheived this lovely pale gold which was just right.
(Yellow was tried to just to see if it looked 'gold')
One head, prop driver and spinner then went in together and appeared to have anodised okay. They all went in the dye together too and this was the point when I was distracted by the problem with the piston hitting the register. Oops
they were left a bit too long and that pale gold turned into a much deeper shade - nearer bronze. No pics as yet but as Jason noticed you can see it in the background. For some reason the spinner appeared not to have been degreased thoroughly and was a complete disaster so was set aside while the same three parts for the second engine were done. This time the parts did not seem to anodise as well and despite a long soak they would only reach a 'biscuit' colour and two varying shades at that.
Heres some of the 'disasters'
After some thought it was decided to keep the darker shade as is and try to match the spinner from a second attempt. I had not tried to remove anodising before but knew that a soak in hot caustic soda solution was recommended. Got this heated up and in went the part - nothing happened at first then suddenly it 'burst' into action bubbling and fizing like mad. It was washed clean before degreasing as usual in washing soda solution and re-anodised. Lovely uptake of colour as close a shade as mattered but left it in the steambath too long without turning it - the colour leached out on one side - Another case of 'Golly Gosh' - isn't this fun
Stripped the 'biscuit' coloured parts and re-anodised and this time getting a good shade of gold but time was pressing at this stage and dinner was on hold
- I'll take some pics tomorrow.
Things learnt ? Gold appears to need more care than other colours. Hot Caustic Soda solution really does strip the anodising off. It also puts a lovely matt finish on which the anodising does not seem to affect - colour then is flatter than usual. The process though could be used to apply a dull smooth finish to self coloured parts - I did think about leaving it as was but it didn't look right. Colouring the last parts I left the driver in the dye as it seemd slightly lighter than the head. In the time it took to pop the head in the steam bath the driver had increased in colour. Aagh - but I tried putting the head back into the colour - after the soak in the steam bath to seal it and surprisingly it took up more colour - something well worth knowing for the future
Sorry for the lack of pics - it's been a busy day
Regards - Ramon
Bob - I'll save that one
