Brief Description: Design and Fabricate Aux Avionics Shelf
1530 - 1900
I decided to fabricate an aux avionics shelf to provide more mounting space for the various avionics boxes. It needed to be simple and utilize space between the firewall and the upper front fuselage sub bulkhead. This area is difficult to get to when the forward upper fuselage is permanently attached. What I came up with is a pivoting shelf. The pivot was forme using 3/4" x 063 angle. Small clips were riveted to the ends to allow for a pivot bolt. I also installed several nut plates on the angle, spaced at 1 1/2". This allows a shelf to be easily installed and removed if necessary while not removing the pivot angle. Once the final avionics layout is determined, anothe angle with nut plates will be riveted to the sub bulkhead. When the upper fuselage is installed, the shelf can easily be screwed to the pivot angle. Pivoting the shelf down until it touches the rudder torque tube yields about 3 1/2" vertically between the shelf and bulkhead. Electronics can be installed on the shelf, the shelf pivoted up to the sub bulkhead, and screwed to the angle that will be riveted to the bulkhead.
This area will still be more difficult to access but it will be useable.
Tasks today included fabricating the pivot angles and end clips, drilling and deburring all holes and edges, and riveting the nutplates and end clips to the angle.
