Wasted a few hours trying to figure out what to use to make the F-795 flap push rods. I have 3 pieces of AT6-058-xxx tube, 4", 9", and 18". I need two 4 7/8" pieces. The 4" pieces are too short, the 9" piece will only give me 1 rod, and the 18" piece is marked F-447. Problem is, I could not find F-447 anywhere in the fuselage chapter, and there's not much left to build on the fuselage.
| I was going to cut out two loops in the middle of the flap hindges, but, yesterday, on VAF, I found this tip that really works. The rod will go in about 3/4 of the way, then it becomes too hard to push without using vice grips. However, if you chuck the rod in a drill, it will spin right in. |
| Now, we can fit the flap push rod. |
| For the right push rod, I cut a 4 7/8" piece off the 9" piece of AT6-058x9. That leaves a 4" piece that is too short for the left push rod. I'll have to use F-447, or order some more tubing. |
| This ain't gonna fit, what to do? |
| No problem, there's a hole in the table. Here, I have a smaller drill to insure that the tube is aligned. BTW, tomorrow I will figure out that using the drill press to drill these push rods is a total waste of time, but carry on for now. |
| Not perfect, but good enough (there's a discussion about this on VAF). BTW, the piece of wood is because the bottom of the vise jaw juts in, and I bent the tube the first time I tried to tighten the vise. |
| Dang! Down to the last few threads, and I ruined the cut. So, what happened? I thought I might have not drilled the hole deep enough, but I did. I spent a half hour tapping this rod. I backed out and cleaned the threads every few turns, but the last few theads were pretty tight. Van says to drill this to #3, but my tap table said to use 7/32" for a 1/4-28 tap. So, I thought maybe the hole was too tight. Edit 8/9/07: tomorrow I will figure out that #3 is the correct drill. |
| The second hole on the other end came out the same as the first. This time, I drilled the hole using a 7/32" drill, and the hole was plenty deep. The problem may be that the tap is not perfectly parallel to the hole, not quite sure. |
| This just ain't gonna cut it. I've always said that you need to learn some skills to build an airplane, and tapping a hole is just one of them. If I can't get this right, I shouldn't be building. Funny thing, is that I did learn how to tap a hole in the Air Force, and I never had this kind of problem. Of course, that was quite a few years ago. |