Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

[number17fan]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

some nice pictures of BMB in her previous life can be seen here.

https://www.thomasgenth.de/SeafuryD/indexeng.html

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

One more try! Keeps telling me it is too big. Just a small photo, smaller than the one "BMB brakes".

Larry... might be the file size.. (not dimensions) a fairly small .jpg can be pretty large in file size if not saved with some compression...

I hate to make it harder than it is!

What program do you use to save the images??

Wayne

[kiwiracefan]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

im loving this thread, its awesome that you are sharing all of this bluffman, and TJ, thanks for the insights of what you guys did with BMB to make her Critical... just found this clip on you tube, check out how low CM gets at about 33 seconds.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJFXJWXPVOM

again, its great to read just how much goes into making an unlimited racer.

[luscombe]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Bluffman and TJ please keep it up this is rivetting stuff hope there is lots more to come in the story of BMB / CM
regards from the land down under

["Race" Driver]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

This is a "test", my brother Ron, (MUSNTCHIT) has been trying to send some photos without any luck. I am tryingto send one to see if I can make it work. Larry

Maybe Ron should come and do some Reno Air Race Art....I've seen alot of his work over the number of years that I've been active at Indy...My all time favorite has always been the "First Turn, 1957"!!!! .I didn't put him together with you and Air Racing until you mentioned that a couple of days ago Larry! I've been busy getting things together here so I can pull out tomorrow morning and be at the field tomorrow evening.....

Can't wait to walk the pits and see everyone!!!!! Or at least drink their beer!!!!!

Race

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Am going to try to post this photo again. Wayne, I am scanning with HP Photosmart, and saving in MS documents file. This time I am trying to send as "thumbnail." Maybe this will work. Larry

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Am going to try to post this photo again. Wayne, I am scanning with HP Photosmart, and saving in MS documents file. This time I am trying to send as "thumbnail." Maybe this will work. Larry

Larry... Try saving it as a .jpg or .jpeg and if the program asks you for a quality level, hit at about 80%

Also, save it at no more than 800 pixels wide (height does not matter)

Try that..

Wayne

[TWD]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

The CM Trailer was loaded by 4pm (a new record). We'll launch in the morning. 2.5 hrs with the trailer and .5 by air. Gotta love Northern California!
As my father would say "see you on the ground."

TJ Dwelle

If someone could post or PM me on how to post a picture or video, I'll try to shoot some this weekend and download sunday PM.

[smokeyjoe]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Larry Please continue !! this has been great !!!

Don't stop now !!

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Have been real busy helping some friends ith their Formula 1 racer for Reno. I will get back to BMB posts soon. Larry

[Flyer57]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Just to keep this going while Larry works on the F-1. Tommy built the exhaust pipes by hand. He started with 2" Conduit. it was a marvel to watch. He cut bent welded cut bent and welded for I can't remember how long but it was well over a month. some of the pieces were only a couple of inches long each pipe had to be attached to the exhaust port and the next piece was cut bent and fitted into place then he would mark it, pull the whole assy. off take it back to his bench and weld it on , Then go back re-attach it to the port and build the next piece. When he got done with that and every pipe was, if I remember, within 1/2 inch of being the same length. We loaded it all in my truck and put sixteen 20 foot lenghts of Stainless Steel Tubing on a bed rack and I headed off to LA. I don't remember the name of the place I took it to but they took Tommy's configured pipes and ran them through a machine that made a computer model of them then took the S/S tubes and put them in a machine that bent them into the shape of each pipe. Due to the distance from the top and bottom cylinders to the stock opening in the cowl for the exhaust pipes I think they all were all about 5 feet long when finished. The finished pipes were even closer in length. When they got back Tommy mounted all of them and then had to fashion brackets to be welded on near the end of the pipes to tie them all together. It looked absolutely awesome on the plane, but it took us several hours to assemble the first few times we put them on. TJ may remember his first time with that puzzle too. But when we put the cowl on they all stuck out of the opening where they were supposed to be.
To let you know about the precision work I learned how to do from these guys. If you made something and it didn't look quite right or didn't fit perfectly you didn't file it or bend it. You stopped, threw that one in the trash and built it again. That was one of those things I learned several times on this project. But patience was something else these guys had. I was never once told "You can't do that." These guys were great teachers as well as master craftsmen.

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Well, Reno has come and gone, unfortunately with tragic events. Those we lost will always be in our hearts and minds. I find it somewhat difficult to resume my ramblings regarding BMB/CM, but I will do my best to get back into it. I must mention that the F-1 racer I was helping out on did pretty good, with our rookie pilot Bill Garrison flying "Dancing Queen", Race 22. Second in his Bronze heat, and was transferred into the Silver due to some pilots withdrawing from competition because of the F-1 accident. He finished 5th which was more than we expected going in, and all the crew was happy with that.

My post #87 with the picture of the landing gear, and me fitting the brakes is kind of where I left off. The landing gear was completely dismantled, and inspected, Magnafluxed as needed, etc. I had bought a set of Frank Sanders' F- 102 wheels and brakes along with his spindle assembly for adapting this stuff to the Sea Fury gear. The gear struts that were removed were found to be cracked, so I got another pair from Frank, and they were cracked also. Then I got another pair from someone, maybe Loyd Hamilton, not sure. Again, cracks showed up. As I recall they were longitudinal cracks due to stress bearing over a long period of time. I decided to make new struts, and bought some 4340 steel tubing and we machined them to look exactly like the originals, and had them nickle plated, and all the mounting holes were indexed properly so they would replace the originals easily. We made 4 or 5 sets, and I don't recall who bought the extra sets. The fitting that attatched to the top end of the struts where the articulating arm fastened were both cracked also. They were an aluminum sand casting, and machined to fit the top of the strut. We machined new ones from 6061-T6 aluminum billet, and I think we made 6 sets of these. (we always made extra pieces of about everything) Sanders and Hamilton got some of those, but I don't remember who got the rest. They were real pretty, I had them Gold Anodized. I must say, rebuilding the landing gear was a real job, lots of parts! Fortunately my wife Sandy loved to bead blast parts, she got a big kick out of taking an old rusty or badly painted part and making it look brand new. Everything but the "nickle" struts were Gold Cad plated, even the wheels. Gotta rest my fingers a little bit, then I will "explain the canopy" Larry

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

The canopy caper went like this.......... We had built the windshield and "razorback", and I climbed in the seat and had Ian take a piece of aluminun strip abut an inch wide and clamp it to the windshield and bend it back over my head to the razorback to determine the shape of the canopy so that we could make a "plug" to send out to have the canopy made. When we got the plexiglass canopy back I again climbed into the seat and had the guys put it into place. HMMM! It only cleared my head by about an inch and a half! Someone made a comment, "Isn't the pilot going to wear a helmet"? So, I imagine most of you either saw it in person or in a photo, the canopy had a rather large "hump" at the rear. Time was becoming critical, and I didn't want to build another "plug" to send out, so I called the guy and told him to add a couple of inches to the original "plug", at the rear, and get it to me as soon as possible. So: "what you saw/ or have seen is what we got!" Strange how technology evolves isn't it? Larry

[Pylon1_Mark]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

This is still my top story 2 read here - very much appriciated sir

[bluffman]

Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD

Looked like Mike Brown had a pretty good fire inside the cowling. Too bad! He could have beat the "Bear"! Looked great with the BMB/CM wings. He has sure done a lot of good things to his Sea Fury, nice canopy too. He'll give them a run for their money next year, I am sure he will fix whatever gave him the problem. Those guys are pretty smart! The 3350 powered aircraft have got the "Merlin" boys covered I think, and I don't think the "Griffon" egg beaters are the answer for the Mustangs either.