Andy Stephenson

Piano wire isn't accurate enough but you may be able to use silver-steel.

The problem with cutting down a motor shaft is that all the dust will be drawn straight onto the magnets. I have cut down motor shafts in-situ but the main body of the motor needs to be bagged. I take two sealable plastic bags and poke a small hole in the bottom of each. Put one inside the other and poke the shaft through from the inside making sure the hole is a good fit around the shaft. seal the inner bag and the outer one around it. Why two bags, to be certain of a good seal. The shaft can now be Dremeled off. Before unbagging the motor make sure all the dust is cleaned off first.

3° seems like an excessive amount of side-thrust but it depends on the prop pitch and revs.

I use a socket from a set if I can find the correct size. With the open end towards the bearing, it gives a convenient flat side to push against. A drill press is usually sufficient to do the job.

If using the right sort of browser, float the mouse over the link but be absolutely sure not to click on it and the real link address will appear at the bottom of the screen. If it looks nothing like the link in the text or it has a suspicious country code it's probably a scam.

No one has mentioned the use of heat, a gentle blast with a filming gun is to be recommended in cases like this just don't be tempted to use a flame. PS see above.

60 Amp connectors on slide switch for only £3.35. What could possibly go wrong!

Providing you only press on the race that is the tight fit then I can't see how you can do damage whilst fitting them. I'm sure they don't heat up every crankcase in the factory where they make them. It is damaging to press on the wrong race as the force across the bearing will indent the balls into the other race and leaving it running rough from new. Drifting them out on the other hand is not so much of a problem, providing they don't get skewed too much in the process.

I have flown both and I think the Wot4 handles more consistently of the two.

As far as I can remember, Lasers have a 3rd bearing at the back end of the crank that supports the drive for the timing pinion. It may be worth looking into this but if you do, you will need to make sure the valve timing is correct when you reassemble it.

There's nothing wrong with using Schottky type diodes they are as reliable as any other simple semiconductor and they don't dissipate as much power in the form of heat.

I agree on the diode approach because it may happen that a fully charged battery is switched into a fully discharged battery through the receiver bus. Without diodes, a high current would flow from the charged battery to the flat one which may damage the switch, the wiring or the connectors which are not rated for this level of current. There is a penalty in terms of voltage drop through a diode but the Schottky type has only a small drop of 0.1 to 0.3V . If this is a problem, then adding a cell to the pack would more than compensate.

I was always dubious about the 5cell battery thing because as far as I could see Specky sets were suplied with JR servos in the early days very few of which had a 6 volt rating.

Toggle switches have a single point of contact whereas a slide switch has multiple points of contact with phosphor-bronze fingers. I would never use a toggle switch for a receiver but you do see some expensive offerings with them built in.

There a lot of fake OS No8 glow plugs out there which may be your trouble as they really don't perform like the real thing. See below...

I suppose you can always deregister after putting in the return.

If I really want to make a purchase from Mecoa I will ask my brother who lives in the US to get it for me, problem solved.

How does a private individual go about getting a VAT number and does that mean sending in returns in every quarter from then on even if there is nothing to report,

I suspect the particular canopy I painted was PET not polycarbonate, I assume they are not in the same group of plastics. When I was at tech college one of my fellow students not only filled some holes in his crash helmet with car filler after it fell off his back-rack he also resprayed over it to disguise the repair.

I was looking on the Mecoa website with the possibility of buying some engine spares but when I looked at their policy regarding sales to UK I was astounded to read this... http://www.mecoa.com/uk.htm They take a really hardline on the VAT thing and seem to be suggesting that a private individual ordering from them must be VAT registered, really? Is there anyone here who could untangle this guff and say what the real situation regarding foreign suppliers who won't handle VAT at their end. Many thanks for any informed replies.

I tried a test with some car retouch spray on a canopy I took of a model I am refurbishing. It worked as well as anything I've tried before. It didn't leave the canopy brittle and survived the crease and thumbnail test the next day with no flaking. I sprayed the replacement one and fitted it, no problems.

I have seen this exact effect with a flat battery which is dropping its voltage as soon as the load of the servo motor comes in.

I altered one of our club trainer TX switches to a long-lever momentary one and installed it on the left side as we fly mode 2. This makes training much easier and allows a quicker release.

If it's one with a plastic back plate, the oil probably leaked out past it as they don't seal properly.

You could always solder in a coin cell holder so you won't have to solder to the cell itself.