RE: Cloud Bound 4
Hi Mike, looks like your'e moving right along. Iv'e always hated doing those open stick fuses. I guess because I feel compeled to find the exact angle for every piece and then using my Craftsman disc/belt sander try to reproduce them, the angles and lengths exactly . . . mistakes abound and frustratin sets in. Even with all of the kits Iv'e built getting the two halves to line up correctly/squarely had always proved difficult for me. I have often ended up with a 'banana' shaped fuse when observed from above. I bought one of those magnetic building boards for which I only use for that, joining the fuse. halves step. The printed 1/4" grid helps greatly it ensuring things end up square when held in place with the magnets. I finaly came to the concluision that when one uses glues such as epoxy or alpheitic resin glue it dries at different rates depending upon it's thickness. That plus the different times of application results in a 'pulling' effect . . . ie: as the glue dries it shrinks. If you, as usual practice apply glue to one side then the other the first has a 'head-start' on setting up and will pull towards that side, warping the structure that looked square at first. Remember the thinner the application the quicker things start to happen, so although you mixed it at the same time as soon as you apply (thin it up) it it starts to speed up the catalitic processs and therefore shrinks faster (pulls harder) than a layer applied even only a minute or two later. The only way I've found to counter-act this effect is to be sure everything is held firmly in place, no wiggle room. Well I THINK that's what's happening, I'm not a molecular scientist or anything like that, it's what I think is happening.
Rick K
LSF 6493