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Ron's Web Site
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Date: 7-12-2009
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Number of Hours: 4.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Aileron Balance Tubes
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I made the aileron balance tubes using 40-3/8 long x 3/4 wide x .028 wall-thickness 6061 Aluminum tubing and lead tire weights. If I had to do it over again, I'd use steel conduit and less lead; there's been talk about galvanic action between lead and steal, but that doesn't seem to bother tire weights or the elevator balance weight, which is molded into the steel frame. I initially used a propane torch to try to keep the tube preheated, but ended up with only about 3 lbs of lead in the tubes, because the lead was solidifying as it dripped down the tube, resulting in air pockets. I resorted to using Acetylene soot on the Aluminum, which provides a guide that the temperature is right for annealing, which is about as hot as you want to get. Basically, you coat the tube with acetylene soot, then heat up the tube evenly until the black starts to clear. That's warm enough to melt the lead in the tube. I ended up with 5.6 and 5.97 lbs in the tubes. I tried drilling out the lead to get the 5.97 lbs down, but that is slow and potentially dangerous to the tube. I ended up heating the end of the tube and pouring out some of the lead. I decided to stick with 5.600 lbs on each side, which is .27 lbs more than Avipro recommends (5.33 lbs).
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Acetylene soot on tube.
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Both ended up weighing 5.6 lbs.
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Primed.
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