DavzLSA progress

[Peter Bishton]

Dave
some good progress there on the fin - a nice piece of work.
Peter

[whee]

Nice work Dave! I found building the fin to be very rewarding. Was one of the first steps that made the fuselage start to look like and airplane.

[davzLSA]

Thanks for the encouragement guys, Im on vacation this week so I hope to get a lot done, ill be posting on my progress.

[davzLSA]

HI Guys, More progress to report today, finally got the horizontal stabs fitted and that pesky little tab the the elevator bearings attaches to welded in. I got the elevators installed as well. I have a full range of motion. As anyone who has installed these you know what a pain it is. Here are the pic.

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys, More progress today, got the tail wires fitted and the trim system in, still need to finish assembling the trim system, just have the parts fitted together. Ill post more later.

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys made a little more progress today. I got the elevator trim system drilled and fastened together. I found that my elevators will only go up 23 degrees so I will need to cut the elevator bearing tab loose and move it up some. That is a tricky part to get right. Comment and suggestions are welcome,

[Mark Goldberg]

Usually the stop that limits travel is a piece of tube welded between the two upper longerons. Mark

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys, More progress today, I got my elevator fixed, it now deflecting per the specs, I also got the idle arm installed. Hope you like the pictures,

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys, More progress today, I got the trim tabs cut loose from the elevators and got the hinge pins in, I now have functional trim tabs, I also got the front control stick built. Here are the pics

[davzLSA]

HI Guys, I have some progress to report today. I got a big start on my control column, I have the front stick built and the front pivot point for the cintrol stick and it is welded to the control column tube. Anyway here are the pictures.

[davzLSA]

Hi guys, got more done today. Im working on the control column I have the front half done, have the front stick built, I got the rear stick built and the rear box it goes in built today. I had to build that box 4 times before I got one I could live with. Welding .032 steel to .032 steel is a PIA. So I cheated on the last rear stick box. I used .050 for the narrow ends and overlapped the .030 over the .050 and used the excess .030 as filler. I got much better results. Here are the pics so you can see the progression, from left to right. My final part is on the far right.

[Chewie]

Easier than .032 to .090! Sometimes it seems each new type of joint has some unique feature that makes it an exception. They're all "exceptions"!
Check these out, they really helped me. https://youtu.be/M0uHBCkics8

[davzLSA]

Hey Chewie, thanks for the video links, I have watched those video several times and they have really helped my welding. I know about the .030 to .090 as well, when I built my sticks the lower part had that combination of metals as you know. Yes that was a PIA as well. I got it done but is was not pretty. My next steps are welding the rear stick box on the torque tube. I have the pivots welded in the box. How did you set up to make that big hole in the rear box? I was thinking of using a hole saw or maybe just grind it out with my burrs on the die grinder. How did you do it?

[BTAZ]

Dave

I just clamped the assembly well in my drill press and used a hole saw.

Slow speed and cutting oil is key.

[Chewie]

Actually I don't know, I was just throwing out random wall thicknesses. Truth is I purchased my sticks and related framework from Dallas Shell. I won't show you a picture of the assembly because we will both bow our heads in shame. He's a fine craftsman.

[davzLSA]

hey Brad and Mark thanks for responding to my questions. Brad that is sort of what I was thinking of doing. I have a mill and I can slow the cut to less than 300 RPM. Mark I considered just buying one also but after the fuselage debacle I wanted to see if I could actually build some part of the critter. Hell who knows I may just haul off and buy it after all.

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys, more progress tp report today. i finally got my control column together. My next task is to get it attached to the fuse. Here are the pix.

[JimParker256]

Just one comment from me... Shouldn't this control linkage be using castellated nuts with cotter pins instead of nylocks? It's critical to flight, and it moves in such a way that the nylocks could back off... I'm certainly no expert, but that's what my DAR seems to (rather strongly) prefer...

[davzLSA]

HI Jim, im just bolting stuff together for now just to check fitment, Before my inspection and flight all of the hardware will be replaced with new hardware and the proper hardware.

[JimParker256]

Yeah, I get that. I’ve got a couple of “temporary” fitments as well...

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys, More progress today, finally got the control column attached to the fuse. I took a little liberty with the front mount as you can see. for me welding straight lines is much easier than welding tube. Here are the pics.