| This
page was updated on
10/04/2008
|
New
stuff! 2/1/07- Mounted the
throttle quadrants.
New pictures.
Click on the images to enlarge
them. Supersize the image by clicking on the sizing icon that
appears when you hold the mouse in the lower right corner of the
picture. |
|
Control Torque
Tube |
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|
4/30/06- While I waited for UPS to
deliver some more .050 steel sheet for the stick boots, I decided to
build the torque tube mounting sleeves. I reamed the 3/8"
sleeves before sliding them over the jig bolts. |
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| 4/30/06- This
is the jig that I made using the good old jig blocks, a couple of
1/4" bolts and some washers for spacers. Make sure that the
bolts are plumb in all directions before tacking the 3/8" sleeves in
place. |
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| 4/30/06- Here
is the torque tube cut to size, the 2 mounts finish welded and the
locating rings. |
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5/1/06- Finally, I
cut the mounts in half and fit them on the torque tube. Soon,
the mounts will get welded to the fuselage bottom tubes.
Go to top. |
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|
Control
Sticks |
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| 5/5/06- Next was the
control stick sockets. These turned out to be more complex to
make than I anticipated. I actually had to practice making 2
rejects before the 3rd was acceptable. |
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| 5/5/06- In this
sequence of pictures I'm trying to show that it is critical to drill
the 5/8" hole at the top of the slot exactly in the center of both
sides of the tube. I drilled completely through both sides
with an 1/8" drill first, then a 1/4" drill. The V-block helps
with this. |
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| 5/5/06- I ruined a
Unibit on the first 2 attempts so use your 5/8" holesaw instead. |
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| 5/5/06- The
5/8" hole is drilled through the center on both sides. |
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| 5/5/06- I first tried
cutting the slots with my bandsaw but I couldn't hold the tube so
the 5/8" hole was perfectly plumb causing the saw cuts to be off on
the bottom side of the tube. Instead, using my cheapy cutoff
wheel from Harbor Freight made it easy to cut both slots
individually and then trim them with the hand held grinder or file. |
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| 5/6/06- For a spacer,
I use 2 short pieces of the 5/8" square tubing that will be used for
the stick to stick connector. I welded them together. |
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| 5/6/06- With the
spacers in the slot, start squeezing the tube together from the
bottom up. I squeezed at the bottom, middle and top of the
slot without any heat. Don't worry about a smooth transition
at the top of the slot, it will take care of itself when you squeeze
it at the top. |
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| 5/6/06- You can see
here that the sidewalls are flattened against the spacer. On
the final squeeze at the top, I added heat with the torch above the
5/8" hole so that the steel wouldn't spring back at all. |
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| 5/6/06- I cut the
side plates out on my Harbor Freight $149 bandsaw. For cutting
metal, these bandsaws are the best value out there. Just throw
out the blade that comes with it, buy a fine tooth Starret
blade available from MSC Tools, tighten the blade as tight as you
can get it, and you will have no problems with
the blade jumping off or chipping teeth. |
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| 5/6/06- One end of
the side plate is drawn with a 1/2" radius and the other end with a
1/4" radius. After grinding the side plates to shape, put them
in the vise and squeeze them to match the transition in the tube.
Don't forget to use the spacers. |
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| 5/6/06- Tack weld the
side plates in place before grinding the corners of the flattened
tubing to match. |
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5/6/06- Finish weld
all around, finish file, and you are done.
Go to top. |
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|
5/7/06- To make sure that the pivot holes are perfectly in line in
the stick sockets, I shimmed them up level and drew a line down the
side with my 5/8" block sine it is close to 1/2 the width of the
tube. Then I flipped tube over and drew another line on the
same side and then made my drill marks between the 2 lines. |
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| 5/7/06- It is
critical that the 2 holes are on center and perfectly in line to
avoid any binding issues. |
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| 5/7/06- I cut the
bushings for the sticks 1-1/2" long and then drew and cut the 1"
washers out of .100 plate. I still have to weld them in and
grind the bushings off flush. |
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| 5/7/06- This is
the rear end of the linkage that connects the front and rear sticks. |
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5/7/06- I welded the
linkage bushings in and then ground and filed them flush.
Go to top. |
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|
Stick Boots |
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| 5/9/06- Making
the stick boots turned out to be a lot harder than just drawing the
pattern on some sheet metal and bending it. If you're not
careful, it's real easy to get a twist in it like my first attempt
here. Another piece headed for the scrap bin. |
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| 5/9/06- First I
made a bending buck out of some scrap 1-1/2" tubing and some square
tubing from my scrap bin. |
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| 5/9/06- For my 2nd
attempt, I decided to use a piece of 6"x12"x.050 so that I can get
better leverage for the bend, making it easier and more accurate
than the first try. |
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| 5/9/06- With
the extra length to pull on, the plate bent around the buck a lot
easier. |
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| 5/9/06- The bending
buck mounted in the vise sure made things easy. Be sure to
draw a centerline on top of the tubing and line up the center line
on the plate. |
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| 5/9/06- I clamped
some side plates starting 1/2 way down the tube and drew the sides
in tight but straight down. |
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| 5/9/06- Next, I
applied some heat evenly on both sides and the top so that the plate
wouldn't spring back. |
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| 5/9/06- Then I pulled
the plate 1/2 way out on the buck and evenly squeezed the top of the
boot to 1-3/8". |
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| 5/9/06- Before I made
the break in the sides, I drilled at the top where the break begins
and trimmed the sides off so that I would have an extra 1/4" inside
my bending block in addition to the 3/16" break. The extra
1/4" helps keep the break from slipping out of the bending block
while you're working on it. I used my pneumatic cutoff tool to
do the trimming. |
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5/9/06- All the parts
for the stick assembly are made. Now all I have to do is jig
everything square and in alignment then weld it together.
Go to top. |
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|
5/15/06- Once the control sticks were welded, I decided it was
time to drill the holes in the stick boot. This took a great
deal of planning to insure that the sticks would be evenly spaced
and plumb in the boot. First, I reamed out the bushing in the
stick to 1/4". Then I tacked one washer in position on one
side of the boot. I used 1/8" worth of shims on both sides of
the stick, clamped them in place and then drilled all the way
through the boot and stick. Finally, I welded the washer on
the other side of the boot. |
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|
Elevator Reverser & Walking Beam |
|
| 5/11/06- After the
sticks and boots drove me crazy, I built a couple of easy parts, the
reverser and walking beam. So far, these parts are pretty
straight forward and I didn't have to reject any. |
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| 6/30/06- The elevator
pushrod reverser mounts behind the pilot's seat at station 82. |
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| 6/30/06- Using good
old 1x2 jig blocks, I positioned the reverser using a smooth 3/8"
rod. |
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| 6/30/06- Welding the
reverser bushings in place was straightforward. |
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| 6/30/06- After
welding in the reverser, it was time to mount the elevator walking
beam. |
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| 6/30/06- The plans
say the 7/8x.058 mounts should be 1 5/8" long, but in reality they
are 4" long each. |
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| 6/30/06- I used a
heavy piece of 3/4" tubing to keep the long mounting tubes lined up
and prevent them from warping. The walking beam and reverser
rotate as smooth as silk. |
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|
Stick Control Torque Tube Assembly |
|
| 5/16/06- Once the
stick boots, sticks, and link rod are completed, it's time to
assemble them to the torque tube. |
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| 5/16/06- I bolted the
link rod to the top bolt hole in the boots and clamped boots to the
torque tube. Be sure to level the link rod so that the boots
won't be twisted on the tube. |
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| 5/16/06- Once the
boots are leveled and square with the tube, I traced around the
boots with my Sharpie on the torque tube. Then I took off the
boot and re-drew the actual cut line 1/8" inside of the first line. |
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| 5/16/06- Using my air
cutoff tool, made it easy to notch the torque tube for the boots.
Then I ground the opening to the line with the bench grinder. |
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| 5/16/06- When I
clamped the boots back on the torque tube, everything fit perfectly.
Be sure to level up the link rod so that the boots won't be twisted. |
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5/16/06- Here
is the completed elevator/aileron torque tube. Just don't
forget to slip the retaining rings on before you weld the boots to
the torque tube like I did. Now I'll have to split the rings
and weld them on- not as elegant. I'll weld the
aileron brackets on once I mount the tube on the fuselage.
Go to top. |
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|
Mounting the Stick Control Torque Tube Assembly |
|
| 6/13/06- I made up 2
simple jigs to hold the control torque tube in the center of the
fuselage. |
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6/13/06- Then it was
just a matter of tacking the mounts to the fuselage and the collars
to the torque tube. I had to split my collars because I forgot
to slide them on before I welded the stick boots on.
Everything worked out OK, but it was more work to carefully clamp
the collars in place for welding.
Go to top. |
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|
Throttle Quadrants |
|
| 2/1/07- I welded in
some 7/8x.035 tubing for the throttle quadrant mounts in the pilot
and passenger cockpits. |
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| 2/1/07- After
drilling pilot holes through the quadrant back plates, I aligned
them over the mounting tubes and drilled through the tubes.
Then I back drilled the tubes for the 3/8x.058 bushings and welded
the bushings in place. |
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| 2/1/07- Here is my
throttle mounted. |
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