Eagle3
09-14-2005, 01:49 PM
Working for THOY
I was working for a small outfit back in 1992-93 called Memorybank. They're not important, in fact, they're gone, but for about 8 months they cut my hours in half. Needing something to do while waiting for a position to open up at U of M Rich asked if I'd like to help out with THOY. The money was good and the perks (all the free damaged parts I wanted) were enough to say "sure".
The location couldn't have been better. Rich was leasing one of the barracks of an old Nike Missile base located on the North side of Willow Run airport. The base was set back in the woods and very scenic. Next to the barracks was the old base theater that U of M uses for FCC testing. U of M also leases a lot of the other barracks for storage. Other than that there was a caretaker that lived on base and that was it. I'd work at Memorybank til 1:00 PM and then drive out to the base. There was gate at the main entrance that was kept locked and then you drove about a quarter mile to get to the base. I worked there alone until Rich, his wife and two daughters showed up around 6:00. We'd work together until around 10:00 and call it quits. The main work room was a rocketeer's dream. Boxes and boxes of parts. Bandsaw for cutting fins, drill press for cutting custom legnth tubes, centering rings, and bulkheads. A main sewing table where we made the chutes. Built kits here and there. It was Mecca. *LOL*
Rich's wife did all the bagging and shipping. She also gathered all the small parts and bagged up subassemblies like engine mounts, recovery kits, bulkhead kits, etc.
Rich and I would usually cut fins, tubes, or chutes. All THOY kits had three fins, so to cut fins we'd tape three big sheets of aircraft ply together, trace out all the fins we needed in rows. Then we'd use the band saw to cut out each row and then cut out individual fin sets. We'd use a belt sander to clean up the sets.
Rich had the coolest idea for cutting tubes and I'll try my best to describe it here. I'll use a 2.6" tube for an example. He had a long coupler for the 2.6 with a 1/2" dowel centered in it. You'd chuck the dowel in the drill press and stick a tube on the coupler. Now comes the part that's hard to explain. We'd take a drill press vise and put a fresh #11 blade in it. We'd set the vise flat of the drill press shelf so the blade was parallel to the shelf. The shelf was off set to the side of the tube by about a 1/4". You'd put marks on the tube where you'd want to cut it. Now, move the tube up or down so the blade was even with the first tube mark. Turn on the drill press (low speed) and gently press the blade against the tube. Doesn't take long to make a nice clean even cut through the tube. You also want to make sure the tube is spinning AWAY from the blade. :D
Chutes were a lot of fun to make. We had semi circle patterns that we laid over folded ripstop nylon. After cutting the shape out with scissors we'd serge the edges. This takes a bit of practice to get good at it, but it greatly improves the look and durability of the chute. Then we'd fold it in half a couple of times to make creases for shroud line location and sew them on. Rich was real picky about his chutes and he had the best out there at the time.
The one part I disliked making the most was centering rings. They were made with flycutters and they had to be sharpened a lot. That was always a pain. Otherwise a dull blade would easily splinter the ply and all the time you spent on the CR was wasted.
We had a lot of fun working together. Rich and Jackie were great to be around and very generous. For Christmas that year they gave me a Falcon and Condor kit. Working every night like that didn't leave much time for a social life though. Eventually I got a nice job offer here at U of M and had to say goodbye. There are a lot of cool mid and high power kits out there now, but THOY kits will always be special for me.
I was working for a small outfit back in 1992-93 called Memorybank. They're not important, in fact, they're gone, but for about 8 months they cut my hours in half. Needing something to do while waiting for a position to open up at U of M Rich asked if I'd like to help out with THOY. The money was good and the perks (all the free damaged parts I wanted) were enough to say "sure".
The location couldn't have been better. Rich was leasing one of the barracks of an old Nike Missile base located on the North side of Willow Run airport. The base was set back in the woods and very scenic. Next to the barracks was the old base theater that U of M uses for FCC testing. U of M also leases a lot of the other barracks for storage. Other than that there was a caretaker that lived on base and that was it. I'd work at Memorybank til 1:00 PM and then drive out to the base. There was gate at the main entrance that was kept locked and then you drove about a quarter mile to get to the base. I worked there alone until Rich, his wife and two daughters showed up around 6:00. We'd work together until around 10:00 and call it quits. The main work room was a rocketeer's dream. Boxes and boxes of parts. Bandsaw for cutting fins, drill press for cutting custom legnth tubes, centering rings, and bulkheads. A main sewing table where we made the chutes. Built kits here and there. It was Mecca. *LOL*
Rich's wife did all the bagging and shipping. She also gathered all the small parts and bagged up subassemblies like engine mounts, recovery kits, bulkhead kits, etc.
Rich and I would usually cut fins, tubes, or chutes. All THOY kits had three fins, so to cut fins we'd tape three big sheets of aircraft ply together, trace out all the fins we needed in rows. Then we'd use the band saw to cut out each row and then cut out individual fin sets. We'd use a belt sander to clean up the sets.
Rich had the coolest idea for cutting tubes and I'll try my best to describe it here. I'll use a 2.6" tube for an example. He had a long coupler for the 2.6 with a 1/2" dowel centered in it. You'd chuck the dowel in the drill press and stick a tube on the coupler. Now comes the part that's hard to explain. We'd take a drill press vise and put a fresh #11 blade in it. We'd set the vise flat of the drill press shelf so the blade was parallel to the shelf. The shelf was off set to the side of the tube by about a 1/4". You'd put marks on the tube where you'd want to cut it. Now, move the tube up or down so the blade was even with the first tube mark. Turn on the drill press (low speed) and gently press the blade against the tube. Doesn't take long to make a nice clean even cut through the tube. You also want to make sure the tube is spinning AWAY from the blade. :D
Chutes were a lot of fun to make. We had semi circle patterns that we laid over folded ripstop nylon. After cutting the shape out with scissors we'd serge the edges. This takes a bit of practice to get good at it, but it greatly improves the look and durability of the chute. Then we'd fold it in half a couple of times to make creases for shroud line location and sew them on. Rich was real picky about his chutes and he had the best out there at the time.
The one part I disliked making the most was centering rings. They were made with flycutters and they had to be sharpened a lot. That was always a pain. Otherwise a dull blade would easily splinter the ply and all the time you spent on the CR was wasted.
We had a lot of fun working together. Rich and Jackie were great to be around and very generous. For Christmas that year they gave me a Falcon and Condor kit. Working every night like that didn't leave much time for a social life though. Eventually I got a nice job offer here at U of M and had to say goodbye. There are a lot of cool mid and high power kits out there now, but THOY kits will always be special for me.