Neptune48

No trouble here in Arizona, hemspilot. Sorry.

It might be a bit early to buy a 3D printer still. Printers with the kind of smoothness and resolution you need for models are still very expensive. Also, once you buy one, you are locked into its increasing obsolescence while the state of the art continues to improve. Having a commercial site print small, relatively infrequent jobs places the cost of keeping up on them, and they can distribute that cost over a large customer base. You should also consider the learning curve. You'll have to experiment with your printer to find the design limits, which means a lot of scrapped m

Habu2, I appreciate your effort, but unfortunately, you are correct. The site does not cover ground equipment except for the starter cart, which I am also scratch building. Every other Blackbird site I have found online does much the same. And for a chuckle, I thought I'd list the references in my library which also do not address the subject: CIA A-12 Manual-A-12 Ground Crew Manual 1966 CIA A-12 Manual-Photographic Equipment Manual CIA A-12 Manual- A-12 Flight Manual with Technical Data Change 1968 CIA A-12 Manual- Support Manual Grand Handli

X-Plane, One must admire your gift for understatement. "Does this help?" you ask, to which I must reply... Wow! Does it ever! I now know many times as much as I did before you posted this! Seriously, this fills in information I've been seeking on and off for at least a couple of decades. You have my gratitude, sir. I also contacted Mr Jeff Houlihan, Director of collections at the March Field Museum. He responded at almost the same time as your post. He confirmed the unit's purpose and sent this photo: If t

Does anyone know about this piece of ground support equipment used with the Blackbirds? A model number, drawings, its function, and any other information would be greatly appreciated. I've been told it's an "air/water separator," which makes sense as all the pictures I have seen show it operating in damp or humid weather. Air from an air conditioning cart or hangar installation entered the tapered end via a large hose and exited out the other end through a smaller hose that connected to the air receptacle in the SR-71 nose gear well. Here it is being used to prepare the jet to

Easy-Off oven cleaner.

Thanks much. I shall keep searching.

I am taking Strato's critique very seriously. My last print job out of Shapeways was most disappointing. Would someone be willing to recommend a preferred vendor? I looked at iMaterialise, but the design specifications do not support parts the Shapeways had previously been able to print in Frosted Ultra Detail with satisfactory results (i.e. minimum wall thickness of 1 to 3mm compared to 0.3mm supported and 0.6mm unsupported). Recommendations would be much appreciated. Thanks, Bruce

I keep telling myself, and all my friends, not to do that too! I stumbled on a car-stop in a parking lot while carrying a box of Chinese food to the truck. I fell forward, foot twisting, and got a spiral fracture in the fibula (the small lower leg bone). Didn't spill a drop! It's almost fully healed now, and I'm only wearing a brace. And I'll say it again: don't fall! Bruce

Pediatrics is child care medicine, practice by a pediatrician. A foot (and ankle) doctor is a podiatrist, practicing podiatry, like the doctor who is currently treating my broken ankle.

Maybe so, but not with me.

That makes sense. I don't know about present day, but the Navy still had mustang officers back then. The OIC of my department on Guam was a mustang LT who was desperate not to be passed over for the 3rd time for LCDR. My uncle was a mustang LCDR in WWII. Regards, Bruce

This has been discussed recently on other forums, which might be why no one has responded before now. The wings were painted White on top and ADC Gray on the bottom. A couple of reasons were given; one was to improve the laminar flow of the wing by applying a smooth coating of paint. The reason for the white top coat was supposedly to dissipate heat on the top surface which could interfere with the operation of flaps or other moving parts. I can't personally vouch for either, but this seems to be the consensus among those who claim to know.

Excellent point, Hoops. I had forgotten Navy is more rank-conscious than the other services. Following your analysis, I would add the last person on the list, Mr. Koenig, is the possibly the squadron's one and only Ensign. I would not have been surprised had they arranged them by rank and by time-in-grade! You would never have been able to decipher that! Speaking of rank and class consciousness, when I was serving in the Navy, the plan of the day would announce base social activities, extending the invitation to "officers and their ladies, enlisted men and their wives." That w

The answer in the linked thread is the only one possible. As stated, the ranks are at the end of their sleeves. The scrambled eggs on the cap bills indicate Commander or Captain. All the rest could be any rank from Ensign to Lt. Commander.

I think this is what Steve Jahn was looking for way back when.

At the risk of causing offense (which is why I hesitated to respond earlier), are you sure you are you using the ink printer film and not the laser printer film? Bruce

What? Carrying a box of Chinese food to my truck and tripping over a car stop? And to add insult to injury, even though I didn't spill a drop, the food wasn't all that good! Thanks, Bruce

Well, that just demonstrates that memory is the second thing to go. I'm mostly stuck in bed, keeping my fractured ankle elevated per doctor's orders, and trying to write from memory. I finally made the long journey down the hall to the man-cave and found that the the cutter does have markings. I must have forgotten that little fact because I just couldn't figure out the relationship between them and any measurements I had made on the work. I could tell that moving the pointer along the scale moved the blade farther from the center than the distance along the marks. I guess I just lack the

Along with Bare Metal Foil, I use a scalpel, which is far sharper than any hobby knife blade. The combination of the two means you don't have to apply much pressure when scoring the foil.

82Whitney51, Can you please give us a description of how you apply the calipers and ruler to the tool? My cutter does not have scale markings. Thanks.

I found some Aztec adapters at Amazon. Would this help? Bruce

I'm just relieved not to be involved with convention registration any more.

Maybe it's a state-by-state thing, or maybe the policy was reversed. At the time this stuff was being substituted, I bought 4 gallons at my local Lowe's, and depleted the stock, and I have not needed to shop for it lately. My information might be out of date. Update: I just went online and the local Lowe's now shows real Methyl Ethyl Ketone, not the substitute. Maybe that substitute product failed, or some regulatory agency came to their senses. Anyway, I'm pleased to stand corrected. The local Home Depot also lists real MEK. My local Ace Hardware Websi

Be very careful in the paint department of hardware or home improvement stores. MEK is off the market in many if not all of them. Instead they sell "MEK Substitute," a citrus-based cleaner that has no solvent properties when it comes to welding styrene. I have had to go to auto paint specialty stores in the greater Phoenix area to find the real thing.