Cliffhanger

[pilotfriend]

I came out of the workshop looking like Fungus the Bogeyman. The back still needs carving!

[tedp]

....11 bin bags of foam chips is the score so far!

The funicular seems so easy but has turned out to be quite hard. The single winding motor does not work accurately enough and we shall now be using two step motors with a new bespoke electronic control unit.

Just looking at it gives me the styrofoam itch!

Funicular: why not use end switches like on a ship's lifeboat davits? Yes, yes, I know it's analogue, not digital, but it works, you know. What you'd need is a small lever on a microswitch tripped by the funicular cage when it's nearing the end of run so it stops. The winding motor should have enough braking power to prevent it overshooting the end of run.

[pilotfriend]

The problem is that they also have to stop in the right place at the centre station. Because the funicular is quite long, the fishing line does not always wind onto the pulleys in the same way, thus altering the pulley diameter. The variation is enough to ruin the effect. By using two step motors with our electronics, it will continually readjust the motor speeds so they always arrive where and when they are supposed to.

We have microswitches at the top and reed switches elsewhere as the cars must slow down before stopping.

The bloody cat is eating foam chips.

[Tigger]

That cliff get better all the time!  nice to see the prototype for comparison as well.

As for the funicular I can see it'll be fun!  Been trying to think of a solution but drawn a blank so far!

[pilotfriend]

If only. If it was, I would have eaten all the marzipan!  There are more pointed rocks to be added to the beach but this will be done later. Tomorrow we continue the nightmare. What you are seeing so far is the rough carving using a spade bit (with the point removed) on a drill. The next step is slow, using Dremel tools. Rusted broken bits of the Glenthorne Oak will lie between the rocks BTW.

[Tigger]

Love these photos John.  Super lighting.

[invercloy]

It's certainly picturesque, or at least it is without someone plonking a lido and a funicular in the middle of it  :P

I wonder if the car in the top photo is the one that belonged to the Butlins DJ who careered off there, it was all over the local news for quite a while.

[pilotfriend]

There you are Tom. Environmental vandels again. I think that photo is about the DJ if I recall rightly. Of course, many developments in the 1930s would never be allowed now.I must say though, those cliffs are actually inaccessible except by boat.

I also have a CD of photos tyaken from the air but cannot publish them.

[tedp]

Modelling a coast like that will take a lot of carving. It reminds me of SW Ireland. Even the car they ran off the cliff - the same is done on some of the offshore islands there.

[pilotfriend]

Indeed, but I never chose easy subjects.

The stepped rear of the foam is carved and sanded smooth (even worse mess). It is then coated with a thin coat of resin and dry micro and then one layer of BID is laminated across it to integrate the cliffs to give them strength. This is the Rutan method of aircraft building.

[Hobby]

So its actually an airplane's wing in disguise then...  ;D

[Tigger]

It'll never fly... ;D ;D

[Hobby]

Only because that railway that's on it creates too much drag...  ;)

[pilotfriend]

Put on a big enough and anything will fly

[tedp]

Put on a big enough and anything will fly

Engine?   ;D