On September 29, 1931, Flight Lieutenant George Stainforth flew a Supermarine S6.b to a new absolute world speed record of 407.5 mph (655.79 kph). Stainforth was award a trophy in the form of a miniature S6.b for his accomplishment.
I took some Brasso and Silver Polish and removed the tarnish from the propeller. It polished up beautifully and is evident that the quality of the Silver Plate was superb as you can see above on this 78 year old piece..
The number and depth of the dings and dents in the left float required removing the bottom rear of the step. It was about 70%separated already. The right float has fewer dings, although the location where the front float strut attaches is damaged pretty badly. We are hoping we will be able to repair this float without disassembling it. When all of the dents and as many of the dings as possible are repaired we will need to replate the floats with silver.
The amount of time and patience necessary to perform the delicate work of hammering out the dings and dents requires a person of great skill and dedication. John Hanks has that skill and dedication and we all are lucky to have him on this project. As with the artists that designed and made this trophy originally, it is a lost art and John has 70 plus years of experience to call upon.
THIS IS A PROJECT THAT WILL TAKE SOME TIME TO COMPLETE. ANY COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS OR HELP IS WELCOMED. I WILL TRY TO UPDATE YOU AT LEAST WEEKLY. KEEP CHECKING BACK.
spacer that holds the fuselage properly fore and aft with a hole that the dowel will slide into the propeller shaft hole at the proper height and angle to the floats.
In that we only have one float strut as a sample, I was concerned about what we were going to do to replace them. One of our fellow modelers here in Lake Havasu, Brent Daily, has a business making and selling high performance model boat propellers. These are cast from bronze and Brent has the equipment to cast our float strut legs. This solved a big problem we were facing. The process is where a special wax is carved, finished and polished for each strut. It is then encapsulated in a special material, similar to plaster of Paris, then that is put into a kiln to cook all of the wax and moisture out and then the cavity that is left from the wax is filled with the bronze. When cooled, the mold is put into water and the cast part is removed, trimmed and polished. After the final assembly and fitting is completed, the struts will be plated with silver.
Alignment Jig
The floats are sitting in a cradle to hold them parallel, with stops to assure they are aliened fore and aft.
We then built a jig to hold the fuselage/wing assembly at the proper height and angle above the floats.
We removed the propeller, turned a wood dowel to fit the propeller shaft hole . We measured several drawings to determine the proper height and angle with respect to the floats and built an upright in the rear to cradle the fuselage correctly. In the front we built an upright with a
If you need the best prop for your RC boat, contact Brent Daily at propworkswest@aol.com or his website :
