Hello everybody,
well then, let's start 2019 with fresh power and full motivation.
In the old year I had still registered in the Dental laboratory
ChiliDent for another ultrasonic cleaning, in order to clean the
Early LWT Intertank (FUD) of the support wax.
Last Friday I visited the Dental lab,
wherefore I packed not only the
IT but also all
Track Shoes and
Main Sprockets, in order to speak about their still pending cleaning.
The cleaning in the ultrasonic bath took place again under the same conditions as the first time with
TICKOPURR 60 (20 %) at
approx. 70 °C, whereby I turned the flat lying IT every half hour by 180°.
In the interim, I've read further in
Scott Phillips's book
Remove Before Flight, which I can really recommend because it's easy
, and was even provided by the nice guys with espresso and fresh soda.
Here is an image of the
IT after
2 h cleaning, on which unfortunately one can not see too much, at least but so much, that still some areas remained with wax residues, so cleaning was continued for a total of
4 h.
After that, the IT had adopted the familiar white color, which is generally a sign that all wax remains are removed and the IT is completely cleaned, which can be seen very nicely in these images.
And with this result, I was then more than satisfied and could ride home after appointment for the next cleaning.
Here are a few shots of the
clean IT after my return, on which one also can recognize well the details of the
Close-outs.
And even in the provisionally installed state, the IT looks really good.
Here again for comparison the uncleaned tank after Shapeways' delivery, which this time, unlike previous prints, had strangely felt rather oily, which I was wondering about.
Now it really fits to the real
Lightweight Tank (LWT) ET-8, as flown for the first time during
STS-6, which finally satisfies me absolutely - All's well that ends well.
