An excellent day indeed and huge thanks to Checkie and Jon for making wires do stuff. Give me pressurised kerosene in pipes and barometric capsules and half-ball servos every time because elastic-trickery has always smelt of hoodoo and witchcraft to me.
The other thing I'll say is that whoever decided an Orph' would fit in there was either monumentally optimistic, confident or clever - or all three. It literally fits where it touches and sometimes it does touch. The packaging is amazing to the point that there's no room to slot so much as a fag paper into any of the gaps and we're doing this with the sides of the boat off so we can go in through there! How the hell they ever did it with the hull skinned is quite literally beyond belief!
Technical Talk
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Renegadenemo
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Re: Technical Talk
I'm only a plumber from Cannock...
"As to reward, my profession is its own reward;" Sherlock Holmes.
'It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.' W.C. Fields.
"As to reward, my profession is its own reward;" Sherlock Holmes.
'It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.' W.C. Fields.
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jonwrightk7
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Re: Technical Talk
Yes, it was a truely excellent team effort yesterday with an enormous amount achieved. to see the old girl "alive" again was wonderful. As Bill said, how they got that engine and all the other systems in the boat with the available access is nothing short of amazing! yesterday was a great day!! 
The world is full of Kings and Queens; who blind your eyes, then steal your dreams..
Technical Talk
At the risk of boring all readers on this Forum, I too was absolutely amazed by how tight the fit is with the Orpheus. And it's not just here and there- it's tight nearly everywhere, even to the extent that parts of the fuel system underneath just happen to project into a fortuitous gap between two of the hull frames. If the engine was say 3" further forward, one frame would have fouled the fuel system. It's an absolutely amazing piece of engineering and a monumental credit to the Norris Brothers, Tony James and his Team at the Burrell Road Workshop that they managed to pull off what at first sight looks an impossible installation. Deep respect .......
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1 in 10 people understands binary. The other one doesn't
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Renegadenemo
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Re: Technical Talk
Just to set the record straight - we keep getting asked why we have so many Orph's. Th reason is that we got engine #1 years ago in mint condition but minus its fuel system, which has now been replaced with the original system as rebuilt by R-R but one engine wasn't enough - just in case.
Engine #2 was acquired years ago too with hours left on it on paper but it had been so badly stored that before we could think of starting it we had to clear lots of corrosion from the filter and inlet part of the fuel system and when it eventually went half of the fuel hoses failed and we had kerosene everywhere.
Engine #3 was a happy accident. We were offered it out of the blue and decided to take it just in case. It was seized solid when we took delivery, or rather the piston pump had picked up, but that was soon fixed and since then we've freed the pump and spun it on the starter to get the lube system working. We're going to rebuild the test rig so we don't have to steal parts off the boat then test #3 in the fullness of time. That ought to be enough Orph's.
Engine #2 was acquired years ago too with hours left on it on paper but it had been so badly stored that before we could think of starting it we had to clear lots of corrosion from the filter and inlet part of the fuel system and when it eventually went half of the fuel hoses failed and we had kerosene everywhere.
Engine #3 was a happy accident. We were offered it out of the blue and decided to take it just in case. It was seized solid when we took delivery, or rather the piston pump had picked up, but that was soon fixed and since then we've freed the pump and spun it on the starter to get the lube system working. We're going to rebuild the test rig so we don't have to steal parts off the boat then test #3 in the fullness of time. That ought to be enough Orph's.
I'm only a plumber from Cannock...
"As to reward, my profession is its own reward;" Sherlock Holmes.
'It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.' W.C. Fields.
"As to reward, my profession is its own reward;" Sherlock Holmes.
'It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.' W.C. Fields.
Re: Technical Talk
Unless a 701 comes along....
"You can screw a man down until he takes to drinking......take me to the fantastic place..."
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Renegadenemo
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Re: Technical Talk
I can just imagine what would be said were I to suggest we make a new inlet trunk and undo all the hard work that went into making the 38mm longer 101 fit properly! Plus, installing a 701 would leave us without a spare engine unless we kept a kit of parts to go back to a 101 at a minute's notice.Unless a 701 comes along....
We'd have to do it, of course.
I'm only a plumber from Cannock...
"As to reward, my profession is its own reward;" Sherlock Holmes.
'It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.' W.C. Fields.
"As to reward, my profession is its own reward;" Sherlock Holmes.
'It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.' W.C. Fields.
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no1traumanurse
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Re: Technical Talk
I hope you don't mind me jumping ahead 5 or 6 years. What are you plans for how she will be painted? A nice even colour overall with consistant number of layers below or are you going to try and replicate the, god knows, how many repaints she had in her life?
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Renegadenemo
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Re: Technical Talk
The RAF have kindly offered to paint her at Cranwell where they paint the Red Arrows jets but it's going to be as much trauma as everything else because of the way she was painted in 66/67. For starters the inlets appeared a different colour to the rest of the boat due to a single coat over a layer of yellow, chroamate etch-prime. It'll be yet another nightmare.I hope you don't mind me jumping ahead 5 or 6 years. What are you plans for how she will be painted? A nice even colour overall with consistant number of layers below or are you going to try and replicate the, god knows, how many repaints she had in her life?
On the plus side, we got the fuel tank to fit today and the front section of the canopy frame made. good day in the workshop today.
I'm only a plumber from Cannock...
"As to reward, my profession is its own reward;" Sherlock Holmes.
'It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.' W.C. Fields.
"As to reward, my profession is its own reward;" Sherlock Holmes.
'It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.' W.C. Fields.
Re: Technical Talk
Hi All, hope you guys are all well. I haven't been able to do any work on the Touchwood kit since March, as I've been too busy with finishing my college studies and working/trying to find work experience etc. Hoping to get back to Bluebird soon! In the meantime I've kept my eye on the photo of the day - so many amazing things being done. I loved hearing the Orph spooling up on YouTube, it's sounding in very rude health
Great to see the dashboard coming to life, and to see work taking shape on the cockpit canopy's pattern, I've been really looking forward to seeing that.
Great to see the dashboard coming to life, and to see work taking shape on the cockpit canopy's pattern, I've been really looking forward to seeing that.
Re: Technical Talk
Hi all. Finally got to the Ruskin Museum this morning, my first chance since around 2011. It was both fantastic and fascinating to see the sponsons up close, having seen only photos up until now. Must have been a pretty hefty job transporting/bringing them in! As a kid I remember being surprised by how big the ATL repro was, decades before learning it wasn't full size, so I get a good impression now of just how big the real K7 is.