My Old Hands Need Help!
by
Daniel J. Dyke
The Porsche 917-10 is one of my favorite cars to see visually on the track, but when the guide holder broke on the chassis I decided to make not only a more sturdy holder, but one that cured another problem. If you put some of the early 917-10s on a loose piece of track and look at the track from the end, the guide does not go as deeply into the slot as it should and could. It needs lowered. A broken holder that positions the guide too high is an open invitation to fiddle with the design. The plan was obvious and the course of action was set. I was going to make a new holder out of plastic and brass. Why am I so exuberant about this project? When you are close to retirement age everything is a big deal.
The first step is to make a wooden prototype out of a popsicle stick and then trace the design on to plastic and cut it out. Everything was going smoothly until I tried to hold the brass collar to file it. The tubing was cut on a modeler's cut off saw from Harbor Freight, but in cutting there was a small imperfection that had to be filed off. My problem was I could not hold that little piece of brass with my fingers. There is an old modeler's trick that was applied to this situation. Find a drill bit that slides inside the brass and you can hold the brass at the tip of the bit easily and file it smooth. It is very easy to hold that little fellow with this method even with my old hands.
After the collar is made it can be epoxied to the tongue quite easily. The car will be running when the epoxy dries.