Welcome to the NavList Message Boards.

NavList:

A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding

Compose Your Message

Message:αβγ
Add Images & Files
    Name or NavList Code:
    Email:
       
    Reply
    Refilling an A10-A bubble
    From: Greg Herdt
    Date: 2023 Mar 4, 16:26 -0800

    In the late 90's I owned a type C bubble attachment made by the late John Lykx which used an A10-A bubble assembly along with a mounting fork for a nautical sextant and a simple homemade lighting system..  I foolishly sold the attachment about ten years ago and I have been sorry ever since.   Thinking that I might be able to build my own A10-A bubble attachment, I recently acquired an A10-A aircraft sextant that has two bubble assemblies, one of which has a bit of fluid in it, but not enough to form a bubble.  I was able to find an A10A manual online, but it appears to be lacking the details that I am looking for on how to fill or service this particular bubble assembly (I have filled A-12 and AN5154-1 bubbles in the past and this looks similar) and which liquid to use (I have xylene and mineral oil on the shelf for the aforementioned aircraft sextants).

    Is there anyone out there who would kindly walk me through the process of filling these bubble chambers?  I am almost certainly missing something obvious, but want to proceed with caution and do this right.  I have read the excellent article on Bill Morris' site regarding restoration of bubbles, and was planning to use that as a starting point, but it looks as though at least one of the bubbles that I acquired will not need a full rebuild.  I am already looking for a machinist to make the fork attachment that I need, but don't want to go too far down that road until the bubble unit is working satisfactorily.

    I would be grateful for any insights that anyone could share.

    Best regards,

    Greg

       
    Reply
    Browse Files

    Drop Files

    NavList

    What is NavList?

    NavList is a community devoted to the preservation and practice of celestial navigation and other methods of traditional position-finding. We're a group of navigators, navigation enthusiasts and hobbyists, mathematicians and physicists, and historians interested in all aspects of navigation but primarily those techniques which are non-electronic.

    To post a message, if you are already signed up as a NavList member, start a new discussion or reply to any posted message and use your posting code (this is a simple low-security password assigned when you join). You may also join by posting. Your first on-topic messsage automatically makes you a member, and a posting code will be assigned and emailed to you for future posts.

    Uniquely, the NavList message boards also permit full interaction entirely by email. You can optionally receive individual posts or daily digests by email, and any member can post messages by email (bypassing the web site) by sending to our posting address which is "NavList@NavList.net". This functionality is similar to a traditional Internet mailing list: post by email, read by email, reply by email. Most members will prefer the web interface here for posting and replying to messages.

    NavList is more than an online community... more about that another day.

    © Copyright notice: please note that the rights to all messages and posts in this discussion group are held by their respective authors. No messages or text or images extracted from messages may be reproduced without the explicit consent of the message author. Email me, Frank Reed, if you have any questions.

    Join / Get NavList ID Code

    Name:
    (please, no nicknames or handles)
    Email:
    Do you want to receive all group messages by email?
    Yes No

    A NavList ID Code guarantees your identity in NavList posts and allows faster posting of messages.

    Retrieve a NavList ID Code

    Enter the email address associated with your NavList messages. Your NavList code will be emailed to you immediately.
    Email:

    Email Settings

    NavList ID Code:

    Custom Index

    Subject:
    Author:
    Start date: (yyyymm dd)
    End date: (yyyymm dd)

    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site
    Visit this site