Day Ten

Last night I tried to attach four little pegs to a flat bracket, as you saw. This morning I went to try and clean it up and at the very first touch it fell apart. Maybe this styrene glue of mine is old, has gone off. This part is, so far, the hardest thing I have tried to do. We are talking about sticking four bits of rod to something. Ach. Put it in the too-hard basket just for now. There has to be a way, I just haven't thought of it yet. No good working on something that is upsetting me. 

So I'll get on with something else. Early on we looked at the muffler. Here is that picture again to remind us of what we are trying to achieve.

I thought this might be difficult but really all I have to do is saw a piece of aluminium tube at the right angle, and I have no trouble with that. Any mess just gets filed away. Before I saw it I ream out the end of the smaller part with my knife as it will be harder to do once I cut the part free.The other section is long enough that I won't have any handling problem.

There's the first attempt. I got pretty close but the angle wasn't quite right. It's joined with superglue.

So I have another go. And another. This one is a keeper. Sixth attempt.

I have to say, I consider this an improvement.

































I'll keep this plastic part, the exhaust pipe itself. I need to do a few things though. I need to drill out the business end - easy-peasy. But where the exhaust pipe goes into the flame damper (that's what that big elbowy thing is - it was to hide any sparks or flames at nighttime) we have what looks like a nightmare. That disc on the exhaust pipe has to come off and so does the little collar. 

I don't know if you have Milo where you are - chocky drink. It comes with this steel foil seal, very useful stuff. I got this one out with the minimum of crumpling. I will try to make those fins inside with this material. The little hose-clamp part doesn't bother me, that will be fairly easy, but those fins/braces look hard.

Speaking of drilling, these are pin-vices. I have quite the collection as you can see but I use this aluminium one by Proedge pretty much exclusively because it is so light, meaning it is less likely to break the finer drill bits.

I want this yet thinner but we are in the danger zone; The plastic is starting to whiten under the stress and if I push it the rim will break. Still I have options. I can move the drill about a bit, angle it. And I can put the point of my knife in there and twiddle it ever so gently with the only force being the weight of the knife itself. With a blunt blade, not a sharp one.

Okay, we have been trying all sorts of things. As you can see, I tried to bend up the braces with the thin sheet steel. I am not doing too well, as you can see. But then, a stroke of genius! I decide that before I can put these details on I really need to put the plastic exhaust pipe and the metal cover together. There on the right, that's a cigarette filter, and it sleeves snugly inside the elbow joint. All I have to do is cut off a bit of it, poke the exhaust pipe through the middle, and slide the whole thing inside the damper. Then, when I've got everything perfectly lined up, I can inject diluted Aquadhere into the filter and it should set fairly firm. Now the whole thing will be stable enough for me to apply the last remaining details. Do I dare to put that dent in it? Knowing I could so easily break it? I guess I can do a trial with one of the earlier attempts. 

This is what I mean. I will fill those ejector pin marks, don't want anyone looking up my muffler and finding something wrong.

This cigarette filter was such a good idea. And on that high note let me bid you good night XD