Thursday, February 26, 2009

Formed tank


Formed tank
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker
Horrid job time. In theory making the tank is easy. The main wrapper is supplied half etched so there is no riveting. It's also formed very nicely with the main curve . All the builder has to do is make up the inner former and solder the wrapper to it.

Which would be fine except that the wrapper has to bend under the former as well. At the bottom edges there are sharp curves.

So I solder one edge to the former and start work. The metal bends nicely around the sharp bit and then over the top. Soldering iron access is pretty good and the former keeps things in place pretty well. OK so I bust off the legs at one end but then they are too thin and not essential anyway. More a vestigial leftover from the 7mm original.

It's the final bend that is the killer. You've got hardly any metal to grab hold of - less than 4mm. And the bend needs to be tidy. A combination of flat ended pliers and bits of wood forced the metal in the end but it was quite a struggle. If I do this again I think I might try and pre form the curve in some way. Trouble is I can't use bending bars as the corner is a curve not a fold.

Some days you wish you were building a whitemetal kit !

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