found myself in need of a G-62ish engine for an upcoming plane i've been drawing up so i went digging through the junk at a local saw shop. amongst all the crap there was a reasonably decent husqvarna 61 that looked like it had been run over. got it tore down and was surprised to see that the cylinder looked brand new on the outside...just a hair of black near the exhaust but the rest was bare clean metal, no oil, no sawdust. never, ever seen a saw this clean...especially not one that's 25 years old.

anyhow, got inside the saw and the cylinder, piston and ring looked very good, well run in but no scoring or globs of baked carbon. then i got down into the case and things started looking very different: major rotting of the magnesium around the crank bearings. i can only assume that this is because the bearing bores are machined after the case is painted and therefore don't have any corrosion protection from whatever nasty stuff gets put into today's gasoline. looked like just pressing out a bearing would destroy the whole case....can't use this crap.

it was then that i remembered that i have a couple of bridgeports, lathes and other machine shop related equipment surrounding me

hasn't run yet, still need to sort out the ignition, carb and get some props but the hard part is over. more pics and details to come...

tired of that sloooow 1.8" HDD

flowers

no, this isn't about the israeli version of american idol but about building up a microstar2000 radio including a custom case. a lot of the work was already done before i decided to start posting here so if you see some stuff getting done real quick it might not be due to super fast work on my part

basically the microstar is a programmable encoder that is normally used to bring those good old american made radios back to life with a very rich set of modern features. kits that include the PCB with installed and programmed PIC, LCD and all other components can be had for around $50. this encoder design is the work of Gordon Anderson and more info including schematics and manuals can be found at his site: www.mstar2k.com so go check it out if interested.

for this build i am making a custom aluminum box that fits my hands the way i like and with all switches and buttons where i want them. i have already done up a daughter board that mounts to the encoder and soldered to it will be all the buttons, display, external connector for PC interface/charging, RF module connector and most likely something else i've forgotten.

the main purpose for this board is to eliminate as much wiring and connectors as possible and to save as much room as i can inside the rather small box which measures only 28mm (about 1.1") deep inside. this board is two sided and done up with the toner transfer method and etched using a mix of hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide....Continue Reading