Work Day 22nd February 2020

T86. Yet more preparation work for repainting the pedestal and aerial assembly. The accompanying photo shows the top junction box primed and the side of the elevation gear box which has had lose paint removed to expose bare metal and the original paint colour. Note the circular access plates devoid of paint as it simply peeled off, probably due to the lack of an etch primer.

LCP: As for the T86, a continuation of preparing the internal walls of the cabin for a repaint, it’s not a quick job! Besides the tedious rubbing down we will also remove the reflectors for the lights (now LCD tubes and not florescent) for restoration due to spots of corrosion and discolouration. One observation was the heating and cooling thermostats are replacements for the originals but don’t appear to be an ‘official’ mod. The accompanying photo shows the thermostats on a frame that is secured by two bottom bolts, the top of the thermostat frame is floating in free space!

Away from Cosford some time was spent on testing second-hand power supplies to be used for bench testing boards etc. The usual problem of powering up circuits with old RIFA capacitors occurred, see accompanying photo.

Pete H

Work Day 15th February 2020

No work on the T86 this week.

Refurbished fan trays for the I/O rack have been refitted and individual filters fitted to fans on two trays. It has been necessary to fit fan filters as air, apart from the base of the I/O rack is pulled in from the cabin and as we work with the LCP doors open there is an ingress of dust.

Two accompanying photos shows a before and after of a tray fitted with filters.

Further work was carried out on the internal walls of the LCP, priming of bare metal and the covering of racks ready for a repaint. See accompanying photo.

Work has started of refurbishing the LCP’s internal roof struts, there are eight in total. We have an additional five struts recovered from LCP 1006 which will ensure that we have a set of serviceable struts as some have corroded adjusting nuts, other sheared screws. There is also evidence of some rough treatment to the struts by a heavy hammer. See accompany photo of struts awaiting refurbishment.

Pete

 

 

Work Day 1st February 2020

T86

When the T86 radar was recovered only one or two pieces of the original desiccator tubing remained. Over time it had perished, split and fallen off. The accompanying photo shows the refurbished top junction box cover with two new pieces of desiccator tubing fitted.

LCP

Further rubbing down of the internal cabin walls carried out in preparation for a repaint.

I thought I’d remove the rusty light switch above the main LCP door to give it a refurb. See the attached photo of the microswitch which is operated by the main LCP door. A ‘frig’ to stop the LCP lights being switched off when the door opens has been exposed!!

Away from Cosford six fans from two I/O rack trays have been refurbished. This task involves the dismantling of the fan, removing and treating corrosion, priming and repainting. When a fan is reassembled its sleeve bearing and oil reservoirs are re oiled. See the accompanying photos showing a ‘before and after’ and also the original condition of a fan blade. Refurbishing fans saves a lot of money!

         

 

I brought home the disk tray and the dish/launcher box from the computer rack. The disk tray looks to have a problem as the LOAD and DUMP lamps are always on, they should go off after a reset. I can test the disk tray at home on the A700 rig I have. The Dish/Launcher box has a problem causing the loading down of the + and – 6V supplies in the console. Brought both items home to work on.

Pete