Bald Eagle Aviation

[51fixer]

Some shots of the P-51 MLG disassembly-

Scissors separated.

Upper Bearing and shuttle ring on top of lower strut.

Lower bearing, retaining nut and seals on lower strut.

Detail shot of V ring seals.

Upper bearing unthreaded.

Upper end of lower strut where upper bearing threads on.

Pile of parts that hide inside the strut.

Inside of upper strut.
Rich

[51fixer]

Back to the Dry Ice Blasting-

Inside of the blast Machine. It is an older SDI-5. Basically a snow cone maker. There are 3 blades that rotate shaving the media from the hopper.
I have found for this a combination of block and rice pellets works the best.

5 lb blocks layered in the hopper.

Rice pellets fill the hopper.

Close up of pellets.

Containers that the Dry Ice comes in. 500-700 lbs in a container.
Some paint blows off in a heartbeat. Others are stubborn.
One thing it does is clean in an incredible way. I cleaned the brake dust off of my front wheel of my F150 in less than a minute.
Areas in the wing that hadn't been seen since day 1 with gobs of oil/hyd fluid/gunk dried on cleaned so quick there isn't anything to compare it to.
Rich

[Airplanejunkie]

Some paint blows off in a heartbeat. Others are stubborn.
One thing it does is clean in an incredible way. I cleaned the brake dust off of my front wheel of my F150 in less than a minute.
Areas in the wing that hadn't been seen since day 1 with gobs of oil/hyd fluid/gunk dried on cleaned so quick there isn't anything to compare it to.
Rich

I'd be interested in your thoughts on how well the dry ice blasting would work for paint removal on thinner and maybe slightly softer aluminum.

[51fixer]

With the period extras that came with the L-4 Jim and his son have put together a display case in the lobby.


Rich

[51fixer]

Further adventures in Dry Ice-

Fuel tank vent lines. The shiny one is blasted. Material is 52SO tube and CO2 didn't mar or mark the soft annoy. It even left the PN etched in place.

Both cleaned up.

Comparison of middle Wing Flap brackets. 1 is blasted. I left the needle bearing in place and only placed a bolt in its bore. No grit enters the bearing although the grease is blown out requiring re-greasing.

Rich

[51fixer]

While removing some of the Green paint applied back in 1980 during a rehab of Bald Eagle we found some workers artwork-

This is the back side of the main spar in the R/H fuel cell compartment.






I've heard of Flower Power, but here is the Flower Rivet-



Rich

[51fixer]

Looking like some mad scientist-
My son doing some CO2 blasting on Bald Eagle




Rich

[51fixer]

Some more CO2 Blasting pics-
T-6G
Baked on exhaust, oil and dirt on the SS Dishpan near the exhaust. Normally requires solvents and elbow grease to clean up.
Before-

After-
I reduced pressure and only used block CO2 which shaves to very fine dust.

I didn't even wipe with a rag after cleaning.

P-51 fuel bay liners. These are an early resin/fiberglass material made in sheets.They had green overspray on them which I used the low pressure blast method to remove.
It didn't seem to erode the liners but did remove the overspray.
I already did one in the pic.

Both done.


Rich

[Trey Carroll]

This dry-ice stuff may be the greatest thing since sliced bread it appears!

[Jim Beasley]

No. The "greatest thing since sliced bread" is when Rich lets me fly the darn plane and doesn't disable it!

This dry-ice stuff may be the greatest thing since sliced bread it appears!

[51fixer]

No. The "greatest thing since sliced bread" is when Rich lets me fly the darn plane and doesn't disable it!

This dry-ice stuff may be the greatest thing since sliced bread it appears!

Secret British visitor coming-
Maybe he'll ground something and take the pressure off of me.

Rich

[Django]

The cleaned up fiberglass pieces really take the cake. Impressive process!

[richkolasa]

How's the weather, guys?!!


Rich

[Jim Beasley]

Rich didn't have to ground the planes (or the bikes) today

How's the weather, guys?!!


Rich

[51fixer]

Newly rated Corsair Pilot-


Picture taken at a undisclosed TX location. Another one of those secrets.

Rich