Roxey Mouldings ICI hopper part 7 - hopper 3.

Once all of the ribs are in place the half-etched rivet strips can be soldered on. I started with the vertical strips which butt against the ribs, ignoring the usual practice of tinning and sweating and just running a bead of solder along the edges. Note that the end strips need trimming to suit the hopper end angle, as do the angled strips that follow the outer side edges of the body;

Now the body is ready to be attached to the chassis. I used two pairs of neodynium magnets to hold the hopper and chassis together, which held them securely but still allowed me to make adjustments. I used a selection of rules, parallels and squares on a glass surface to check that the body sits squarely on the chassis;

Then once I was satisfied that all was square the two parts were soldered together, flowing solder into the 4mm dia. holes previously drilled into the chassis bottom plate (the instructions suggest drilling holes and using 8BA screws to clamp the body and chassis together ready for soldering, which seems like a lot of faff to me). At first I tried a 40W iron (my new Antex HP40), but that simply wasn't up to the job so I used my RSU, set at 3 volts.

Here's the joints prior to cleaning up, not a pretty sight but nice and sound;

So far so good;

All soldering done with my 25W Antex and 188 degree solder except where stated.

Paul.