Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Cut Down R5 Dome Screws

Tonight I had time to work on cutting down the R5 dome screws to the proper length.

The neck ring inadvertently separated from the rest of the dome, and I couldn't be happier. It had been working its way loose for a while now. This made tonight's work 100 times easier, and I can simply glue the neck ring back on at the end of this mini-project. I probably should have pried it off a while ago.



As I mentioned in yesterday's update, I need to cut about 3/4" from each of the six dome screws. I measured and marked where to cut.



I used the Dremel with the cutoff wheel attachment to cut each screw to the proper length.




The screws literally got molten red hot as the Dremel worked its way through. When the piece that was cut landed on the plastic workbench, it melted the plastic (see the mark to the lower-right of the cup). I used pliers to put the scraps in a cup of water to cool them down, and used a wet paper towel to cool down the remaining part of the screws in the dome.



All six screws have been cut.



Three nuts help prop the dome off the skins. (I will replace the foil tape and various other dome details later.)




And finally, I placed the rest of the dome on the neck ring. So far, so good!



Still some stuff to do, like panel painting, and some dome detail work.

1 comment:

James_R5D4 said...

R5's looking great! :)