Pastor John Posted February 19, 2016 Author Share Posted February 19, 2016 Thanks for your concern and support guys, the response I am getting is 'your work is not 'cost -effective for us' instead of "sorry we spent the same amount of time providing you with material so thin you cannot cut the vac form out when you told us it needed to be minimum of 0.5mm and rejected 2 orders of samples already for same reason." When businesses make a mistake they must be trained in how to make the customer guilty - I never learned the art of how to do that! So I am lookign at small trolley sized machines of my own and will try and invest in epoxy tough resins and vac material - not something I was wanting to do but I have numerous future projects that require this technology and keep getting let down! Wurzacher and Radders 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wurzacher Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 "Numerous future projects"? John, that sound interesting! So, I hope the new investment will pay out for you soon! Alburymodeler 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbadur Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 (edited) I am sorry to read this - but the good thing is that you don't give up and you are looking foreword with a new investment/equipment for future projects. I take my hat off to you. And I hope all AIMS-fans will support it. Alfons Edited February 20, 2016 by abbadur Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Vulcan32 Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Hi John, you are listed as a vendor at the Moson Model Show in April, is this correct? If yes, I´m looking forward to meet you. Cheers, Heinz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastor John Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 Hi Heinz yes indeed - looking forward to meeting you also Best wishes John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougN Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 (edited) Wouldn't it be easier and less costly (than buying equipment) to cast the canopies in clear resin? Would result in more sales as well. Edited February 22, 2016 by DougN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nichenson Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 Clear resin is very difficult to cast. It must first be mixed very carefully to avoid bubbles. Then it is suggested that it be placed in vacuum chamber to eliminate any bubbles that may have formed. Finally, it has to be pressure cast. You're looking at quite a bit of equipment to get it done right and on top of all that, not all clear resins are made equal. Some lend to canopies better than others. Can be difficult to find a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastor John Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 I have asked for quotes and it is just not worth it sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DeanKB Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 You can tell when the economy is doing well, when companies turn down work because it's not worth their while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastor John Posted March 24, 2016 Author Share Posted March 24, 2016 Hi everyone, Well I got my moulds back and sent them straight away to a factory I use for the vac form parts that go into other AIMS conversion sets and I got back what i asked for from this factory in record time and so here is the findings which will be good and bad but I hope on the whole good. Put ti this way once my 262 is finished i am starting a 388 with complete confidence if that helps? Ok I will try and break it down - as those of you who bought the first 50 know the nose vac does not fit very well and because the vac is 0.5mm think manipulation is difficult - this is an unsatisfactory state to leave things in. Commissioning and communicating with the factory that does the injection resin parts has been a disaster and I have spent the last year trying to get the problem sorted - thank you for your patience with me. I recently commissioned another factory to provide me with 3 different set ups - a 0.5mm suck over clear vac, a 0.5mm suck into vac and a 1.5 mm white suck into vac. The 1.5mm white suck into vac was so as to see if there was any possibility of getting a master from it that could be used for a possible clear resin product. The answer is no - the factory only had 1mm white card at hand and this gave a product after stretching of 0.5mm rigid white plastic but the definition of the detail was reduced and the part is too thin for resin casting which needs 1mm minimum. If thicker plastic had been in stock the vacform would have had next to no detail left so i am calling it a day on this research. The suck over clear vac gives a finished product of 0.36-0.4mm which is strong and rigid - but 0.1mm thinner than my original vacs and this is all that is needed to make manipulation much easier. The suck into vac gives a finished product of only 0.3mm which is not that strong but strong enough to be carefully cut off the backing sheet. It fits well but need help to make strong. Both suck into vac and suck over vac were prepped and assembled the same way - that is the front most sill was reduced by 0.5mm in a gradual arch to the centre section so that when on the model not so much of the canopy frame work appears above the external brace. The front section was added to the main section with thin super-glue using tape on the outside to keep parts together untill set. More super glue was run into the join from the outside once tape was removed. In the case of the thinner suck into mould an internal strip of plastic was added also to help keep the thin sections together. This was not needed on the 0.4mm vac. The cockpit tubs were equally treated the same way with plastic stip added to the sill leaving either a 0.3 or 0.4mm gap to wedge vac between plastic strip and resin external brace detail. When set the vac assemblies were slid backwards into these trenches all the way to the back. Doing this I was able to determine that perhaps the biggest issue has been not the canopy fit at all but simple shrinkage and poor design on my part of the cockpit tub. with both vacs what was needed was the whole front to be extended by 1mm - with the centre of the curve on the left side needing 1.5mm due to bad un-asymmetric modelling (silly boy Pike). And that is as they say that! Both 0.3 and 0.4mm vacs are crystal clear, easy to cut out and easy to fit to the cockpit tub after some slight modification. I am more than happy now with both the product and the how to model it and I hope you are to. I would like to send free-of charge to any of the first 50 customers 1x 0.3mm vac and 1x 0.4mm vac - I think I will be using the 0.4 vacbut you never know. Please contact me via my gmail - aimsmodels1@gmail.com - and give me your full address again and I will send you the parts. I am one bloody long winded modeller but this has been a painful issue for me and I am a perfectionist with a sensitive conscience so hate that things went wrong and people paid me in good faith, well there you go all sorted I hope. best wishes John mywifehatesmodels, Wouter and dutik 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastor John Posted March 24, 2016 Author Share Posted March 24, 2016 (edited) 0.4mm vac in place Edited March 24, 2016 by Pastor John Zero77 and mywifehatesmodels 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastor John Posted March 24, 2016 Author Share Posted March 24, 2016 0.3mm vac to the front mywifehatesmodels and Zero77 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dutik Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Ah. My old enemy... vac cockpits! - Kung Fu Panda Great to know that you found a way to fix the problem So we might now expect to see some build up Junkers within the next months? Hands up - who bought one? No more excuses - build it now Me? Great idea that I opted for the night fighter variant. Phew...! Regards - dutik Zero77 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Sounds like a great solution finally, John. I'm sure your customers appreciate all your hard work and dedication in getting this resolved. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Griewski Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Bravo Sir. Truly admirable root cause analysi. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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