DR-1 (Sands): Builders Group

Jim Bruton · 12 February 2006, 01:13 PM

Wow! approximately 18 months since we began this forum, we have hit 1000 posts.... nice activity! and congrats to AAC Cadet leader on getting the brass ring.

it will be interesting to see how we have all progressed in another 1000 posts.... hopefully it will be less than another year and a half, but that would put us nearly at Dayton 2007, and we'd better see some other results than Fritz's and mine!

And AAC Cadet Leader, don't have to be stranger, please drop in more frequently and tell us how clever we are- we need to hear it from time to time!

Fritz Kempf · 12 February 2006, 03:58 PM

Pete
The gussets are bent around a piece of pipe that matches the radius Ron says. The trick is this; you weld the end of the tube to the pipe in the direction in which you will wrap it. The next step is what Ron told me to do so don’t yell. Remember the debate about heating the tube to bend it; well as much as you are not supposed to heat the tube, you heat the tube. Ron said only use a little heat, a rose bud tip works well, do not turn the color of the tube, and the heat is only to relax the memory. If the tube turns red it will distort, keep your torch moving the length of the tube and don’t keep it too close. You may lose the first 6” until you get the hang of it, also make sure that it’s .060 wall. Two people work best, put a vice in the center of the room so the other person can walk it around, the person working the torch should push on the pipe also. There may be people out there that have a better way, this is just what Ron said to me.

I’m posting some pics of my progress on my axle box, the first pic is the two pieces bent, the second is the finished product. This box is made to Ron’s plans, it was a real pain to build, I had originally thought that this looked like it would be fun, I was terribly mistaken. Ron had told me that you can make the box using aluminum angle and just order the four pieces from Wicks. But since I had access to someone with a brake, I thought I would save myself some time. In the end I think it took longer. Although the aluminum angle presents some problems if you put it on the inside then you have the problem of the anti-rotation plate not being able to come out. If you put them on the outside then it will cut away at your rib quite a bit and you will need to fill in the spaces between where the plywood goes for the ribs. I could have put the angles on the inside because I have left out the anti-rotation plates because I’m not putting brakes on mine, but I think most of you are.

Good Luck
Ed

Dogtail2 · 13 February 2006, 08:59 AM

Ed

thanks for the bending info. Ill give it a try for my tailskid loop.
Thats a beautiful looking axle box. Was it the sheet metal bending that caused you the most trouble, or something else?

Pete

AAC Cadet Leader · 13 February 2006, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Bruton

Wow! approximately 18 months since we began this forum, we have hit 1000 posts.... nice activity! and congrats to AAC Cadet leader on getting the brass ring.

Congrats to you Mr. Bruton for your successful association of Red Barons (and some streaked Lozenge Barons).

Quote:

And AAC Cadet Leader, don't have to be stranger, please drop in more frequently and tell us how clever we are- we need to hear it from time to time!

You are indeed clever, cool dudes!

I stop in on this thread at least once or twice a week to take a peek at how you are progressing. Quietly cheering you on. I'll even pledge to make each one of you a silk scarf to wear during and to commemorate your first formation flight together.

franzkait · 13 February 2006, 05:16 PM

no heat at all

Jim Bruton · 13 February 2006, 06:19 PM

Franzkait, where are you when we need you? lol! Thanks for the photo!

Fokker210 · 13 February 2006, 07:23 PM

AAC Cadet Leader,
It's nice to have a cheering section - even a quiet one !
Maybe one day soon we can take you up on the scarf offer - I know I would be proud to wear mine !

Fritz Kempf · 14 February 2006, 05:00 AM

Pete
The bending was ok once we understood that we needed to increase the radius of the bending die with another piece of bent metal to keep it from cracking.
The rivets were the worst, not having ever done this before and not having the tools was a big disadvantage. First you order the rivets, then you find out that the washers that you need for the wood strips were not included. So now you order those, luckily you realize that you also need the rivet set tools (Wicks $31.00 you get five, you’ll only ever use one) for your new pneumatic rivet gun (Craftsman $35.00), so you order that too. Now you think you’re just ready to rivet the world together, thank God you can’t; we just don’t need to be that close to France!

Now you invite some one over who knows what there doing, the first thing they ask is: where is your “bucking bar”, of course your response is what the heck is a bucking bar?

Well it’s the thing you need for the other side of the rivets and I didn’t have it. So I happened to have a nice chunk of slightly rusty metal, not what you want for finish work but ok for trying it out. The next question was where are the “Cleco clips”; my response: what the heck is a Cleco clip (Wicks $.42 each or $38.00 per 100 then you need pliers to install them (Wicks $29.75))? Well it’s the little clip that clamps the hole next to the hole that you are riveting to keep the joint tight. For this app. A wood clamp worked fine, but Clecos would have been better. So after all this we start riveting, it was loud as hell and jumped all over the place leaving nice little rings on the aluminum, luckily it was just a test piece, which made him ask do you have a regulator on that beast? NOOP! (Regulator $15.00 home depot).

I never did buy the bucking bar, so I struggled with other inadequate items to get it done which were very painful to my fingers. Trying to reach the rivets in the center was a pain too, and if you plan to use the countersunk rivets because of the anti-rotation plates, you’re really in for some fun. Then if you hadn’t had enough fun yet just wait until you try to match the holes on the plywood to the holes on the box and keep the plywood straight!

Franzkait
Nice rings! While we were doing Jim’s I was wondering if we used a smaller pipe could we get away without heat. What size pipe did you use; if you don’t mind me asking? Thanks for the pic.

Ed

Fritz Kempf · 14 February 2006, 06:34 AM

This axle box has got my interest going. Ron seems to have made this way to hard. I have attached a pic of the axle from Voss’s Dr1, as you can see it is much different than Ron’s. The box seems to be one piece like Achim’s is on pg 28 of his thread, without the angle on top. Granted this is the prototype landing gear and it may have changed. The other thing is that I don’t believe this box needs to be .063 T3 Achim’s is certainly not and neither could the original if it was made in one piece. Has any one else made this part of the project, I would like to hear your input.

Thanks
Ed

Jim Bruton · 14 February 2006, 07:45 AM

so what would happen if you just used some - i use this word carefully - beefy aluminum angle at all 4 corners instead of the aluminum box? where the ribs attach (with their small 1/8" ply boxes) is a small design workaround, but overall, does the aluminum box play all that critical structural role that you can't get with 4 pieces of strong aluminum angle?