Dr. Balsa's F4U Reno Racer requires a custom-made mount for the radial engine he is going to use. Rather than modifying an aftermarket mount to fit the radial, which can have mixed results, Dr. B asked SMAC's president, Chad N., if he could possibly make a suitable mount in his machine shop.
Could he? Do fish swim? Is the sky blue*?
[*Well, usually the sky IS blue, right? Though sometimes it's other colors too. Sigh. The point I'm trying to make is that Chad is a master machinist, so of course he could make the mount- and do an excellent job, too.]
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| Chad started with a scrap piece of billet aluminum. After it was mounted on the mill and leveled, he milled out the central hole. |
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| After the hole was milled, Chad remounted the workpiece so he could mill the outline. In this photo you can see that he has a dial indicator touching the aluminum. This is used to make sure the piece is mounted perfectly level on the mill's work table. |
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| Chad is milling the outline of the piece. It takes a lot of skill and experience to do this by hand- especially keeping all of the curves identical on both sides of the workpiece. |
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| At this point, the outline of the part is complete, and he has drilled out the mounting holes. Chad still has a few details to take care of, but it's essentially finished. |
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| Compare the template that Dr. Balsa provided with the part Chad turned out. Excellent! |
The radial engine needs a few more hours of running to make sure that all the moving metal parts are wear-fitted and properly adjusted. By that time, the mount will be ready for fitting the radial to the aircraft.
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