Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

[M Towsley]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

While we are on the placards, were the 50 pound baggage placards acid etch for the 1946 or something else? Thanks.

[Ron Coleman]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

Josh..
The lighter the type face and the softer the paper the faster you can print and stack with out offsetting on to the back of the paper...unlike printing on paper, metal doesn't suck up the oils in the ink, so it will dry slowly. You will have to spread out the work and be patient. Don't put the work in front of a stove, heater, or fan or dust will may stick to the ink and look like flocking. (fur).

If you are into silk screen, that is a snap! All home made equipment (mostly), can be small set ups, and is quick once everything is prepared. Messy, but tremendous potential. Everything from postage stamps, inst. faces to theater posters.

great fun..have at it

RonC

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

Ron,
Do you do Silk Screening? That is the one trade we don't have to do all of the different placards. Anybody else?
Hank

[crispy critter]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

I messed with "painting" the letters with a red magic marker. Not pretty, but that part will take a steady hand.

Two different types of sheet. The bronze is 30 ga., the bright brass is 36 ga.
The brighter stuff takes detail better but will be more fragile and prone to denting unless the back side of the embossing is filled with solder or glue or something like that.



Two different types of sheet. The bronze is 30 ga., the bright brass is 36 ga.



I have the capability to make embossed placards from just about any artwork you can supply. The speed limit placard was copied from the L-2 print.

Josh Brehm
Winterville, NC TF#910!!
Ship #1705

When you try to paint the raised lettering and emborder don't use a marker or brush. Try taking a rather firm sponge or stiff,fine foam pad. Make sure is is a block type with a very flat side that is larger then the placrds. Lightly dip the flat side of your foam/sponge in the paint and barely touch the wet painted side of it to the top of your placard. If you barely touch it without pressing the paint will only touch the top of the raised lettering and emborder....make sure don't soak the foam/sponge heavily in the paint,you just want t little bit of paint on it and....I think you get what I mean. It will leave you with a very nice looking placard with raised painted lettering.

[dalijohn]

Re: Interest?

Hank,

Still interested in the compass logo. I'll pm with address.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

Still have plenty of Compass Logos. I can send it out today.
Hank

One type of Mag switch cover should be next this afternoon.

[bashibazouk]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

Here's my latest quandary: what shade of red/orange to make the throttle knobs?




I've been experimenting with different shades of red. At first I thought just to make them bright red, but then it occurred to me that the ones I'd seen here were more orange.



The original one in this picture is REALLY orange. (I think I can duplicate that nasty crack, too.)

Jim Zanger's version looks like this:



So what do you think? Do you reckon they were originally red and faded to orange in the sun? I sent Forrest an email, but I know he's busy with Foundation stuff.

Thanks for your input.

Josh Brehm
TF#910
TC#1705

[bashibazouk]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

I'm planning on heading South to SNF in a little over a week. I hope to have some knobs and brass placards with me. The second batch of inked fuel placards are done. I ordered a harder rubber brayer with which to do the inking and it worked better. The trim placards are inking okay, but it's going to take some practice to get really consistent results. The trick seems to be getting a really even coat of ink on the roller and re-inking often.

I experimented with trying to age the brass a little with ammonia, but it takes awhile to do much of anything and it doesn't really darken the metal all that much. It's uncoated embossing brass and I scuffed it well to make sure, but the darned stuff still looks way bright. Sort of tacky, it's so shiny. The speed limit placards are really hard to read with all the glare. My thought was to get a little patina on the background then touch the raised letters with 400 grit emery paper. I think that would work, but I'll leave that up to the folks who buy them.

I've got the first few baggage tags etched on .020 aluminum. As you can see they can be stamped with whatever number you need for your ship. I cut them with scissors and did a poor job of it as evidenced in the photo. (That's a nickel for scale.)



Here's the same trim placard from a different angle:



Wow. That looks horrible. Doesn't seem so bad in person. I might need to try going lighter on the ink.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

Ah the joys of close up photography! Guys, they will NOT look that rough in real life! Straight lines and edges look REALLY ROUGH in a close photo.
When can we start putting in orders? I need several things.
Prices set yet?
Hank

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

those knobs were for Taylorcraft, Ercoupe and who knows about others....they were a red or black or Ivory or ???? I will browse around, actually the hold up with me has been week and half of Spring rain problems.
Flooded house, 6 " in basement , ruined a bunch of stuff ; good part is I found a lot of drawings from Taylorcraft past and they are okay. JUST finished with steam cleaning, flying first set of jumpers today , OUR field is wet we are going out of 4G3 dropping them into 2D1. YES I had insurance .

[Robert Lees]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

Here's my latest quandary: what shade of red/orange to make the throttle knobs?


Josh Brehm
TF#910
TC#1705

Josh: If you can, I would like one of mine rich deep red please, like the colour of your fuel cut-off guard. Even better would be the same rich Ercoupe maroon that John Cooper does for his yoke hubs.

The rest black.

Rob

[bashibazouk]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

those knobs were for Taylorcraft, Ercoupe and who knows about others....they were a red or black or Ivory or ???? I will browse around, actually the hold up with me has been week and half of Spring rain problems.
Flooded house, 6 " in basement , ruined a bunch of stuff ; good part is I found a lot of drawings from Taylorcraft past and they are okay. JUST finished with steam cleaning, flying first set of jumpers today , OUR field is wet we are going out of 4G3 dropping them into 2D1. YES I had insurance .

Wow! sorry to hear you've been flooded Forrest. Hope you dry out soon.

Josh

[M Towsley]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

Josh,

In my first Taylorcraft the throttle knob was very well preserved. It was definitely red. I think the orange color seems to come from fading.

A buddy of mine and I will be flying his L-2 to SNF. The guy owns a Mustang and Corsair, (and about ten other airplanes), but wants to take the Taylorcraft.

I will PM you my cell phone number and hopefully we can meet.

[Robert G. Hamm]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

Josh,

Had a “red” 1968 Pickup that by the 1980’s looked like I could work for the A&W Root Beer Co. Think the knob started life as a red one. Do you have the other cable handles labeled like in the picture? I would be interested in cleaning up my BC12-D to look like this one to look like this one.
Bob Hamm

[bashibazouk]

Re: Interest? Throttle knobs; wing tank & 131mph placards

Bob,

that seems to be the consensus. Red fades like crazy! I suspect white also turns an ivory color over time, too depending on the composition of the plastic.

No, I don't have those precise knobs yet. I need a good pattern and correct text. So far I have made a few samples. I turned a master out of a chunk of aluminum rod and polished it, made a mold off of that and cast a few samples. I just wagged the design for the pattern, so I'm not sure how close that is to original. It looked okay to me while I was making chips on the lathe:



This sample was white because I was casting white resin at the time and had some left over. Black or whatever color you like could be made available. I have thought about the red throttle knobs after getting a ration of dung from a buddy of mine who swears up and down that red is unacceptable for the throttle as that is designated the color for mixture control only. I maintain that it's okay since it was OEM like that, but I understand his argument. If I ever find a Beech-Roby adjustable prop, I'll make that knob blue just to make Dave happy.

All of my knobs are horrible, cheap lawnmower-type things in #1705. An embarrassment! I'm working on rectifying that. Mine are all cast onto the shafts. Are the originals threaded? Do they have a brass insert? My thought for now is to simply drill (& maybe thread for extra purchase) the knobs I make and then epoxy them on the shafts after I cut the old ones away. I'm guessing there's knurling under there to keep them in place.

If Tribe Members have an original knob that they would sent me, I'd be willing to donate a set of replacements engraved and painted per your spec in exchange (and I'll of course return the original, too). Barring that, I'd like to get a complete enough drawing to turn a master. Measurements of face diameter, stem diameter, length, etc. and a really clear photo would be great.

Thanks for any help,

Josh