Fitting control rods & rear seat channel
TLDR
- (Work in progress) Still tweaking control rods to rotate freely
Details
For almost this entire week, I am still tweaking the control tubes and shaving off materials here and there.
There isn’t many pictures this time because there is no visible work. The process is essentials: rotate, take the parts off, shave material, put it back, rotate and repeat the process.
Flap and elevator main tube
After I don’t know how many hours, I finally got the flap tube and front elevator main tube rotate free enough. so I riveted the 6 channel pieces to lock them in place.
Joystick
Then off to the joystick. I repeated several times of putting on the side skin and removing it just to get the angle correct between center fuselage and the rear.
It was really difficult to get the joysticks to move easily like the main tubes. Then I figured out that the channels were not squeezing the parts, it’s actually the 90 degree angle holding the rear bushing was bent at the wrong angle.
When I push my finger on the angle just slightly the control stick rotates perfectly. So I clamped the angle on a vise and unbent it just so slightly. I did this to both joysticks, and they all became much better.
Short elevator tube
This tube, again, proved to be very hard to get right.
The process is roughly the same as others. Shaving and testing and repeat.
I discovered that the 3 channels holding the tube together are not perfectly parallel. So no matter what I do it wouldn’t go frictionless. I temporarily connect the tubes and link rods all together, then tried to move them using the control stick. The force needed on the control stick was tiny. Aiden (my 10 months old) was even able to move the stick. So I think that’s a good litmus test.
I then riveted the short torque tubes together.
Rear seat channel
There are 2 channels that supposed to go on top of the short torque tube to hold the rear seat.
I gave them a test fit but to my surprise the rudder cable rubs against the channel. I decided to mod the channel a little:
- increase the hole on the channel to get cable go through.
- Add edge protector so even the cable rubs it has some protection.
- Add some silicon tape on the rudder cable itself, for the same reason.
