Tag: Materials

Posted on

Wing work – 2/16, and a better idea

Yesterday (2/16) I cut and glued in some corner blocking I had missed on each end of the aileron and the ends of the aileron bay. Lesson learned: that would have been a lot easier had I done it before the geodetic bits and plywood stiffeners had been installed.

I’m getting to the point where I kind of need the torque tube bearing blocks installed. Then there are the 3/8” spacers, which the plans call out as pieces of PVC pipe. I figure, since I’m going to CNC machine the bearing blocks anyway, why not just make those and the spacers one piece? I pulled up the design in OpenSCAD and added the spacer. I gave it a slightly larger ID than the bearing block so it doesn’t add drag to the aileron control. I 3D printed a couple samples to use for fit & function testing. If that goes as expected I’ll get a chunk of 1” UHMW and pass the design file to Stew for machining. I’d planned to use some 1/2” UHMW I have for the bearing blocks, but I’ll keep that for now and use it for something else.

3D printed test part. It’s difficult to see but there’s a step in the bore for the torque tube.

Posted on

Spar update 10/29

Work continues on the spars. Over the past few days I’ve put the wingtip bow supports on all but the upper main spars. Hopefully I’ll do those today or tomorrow.

I’ve been looking for the aluminum stock to make all of the wing attachment fittings. I need a mix of 6061-T6 and 2024-T4, in two different thicknesses. The 6061 isn’t too difficult to find, but as yet I haven’t found anyone that has the 2024 in stock. In fact, Wicks is the only place that even claims to carry the size I need, and they’re out of stock. I’m ordering the 6061 and bushing material. Irritatingly enough, the instructions call out the size of tubing used for the bushings but not the material. I’m fairly sure it’s 6061 AL tubing, and fairly sure it doesn’t matter if it’s AL or 4130 steel.