Brief Description: Final Installation of Aileron Cables: 2
Spent most of the day swaging the 2 aileron cables. This involved undoing the turnbuckles (one more time!) and swaging the nicopress sleeves on each cable. Swaging is essentially squeezing the metal sleeve around the cable so hard the two become welded into one ... without any heat. But it still takes a lot of energy - aka elbow grease. For each cable swaged, the FAA requires 3 complete "squeezes" with the swaging tool to ensure a completely secure loop. Additionally, each squeeze is tested by measuring its diameter using a gap tool. So for each cable loop, you need 3 unique, separate squeezes on one nicopress sleeve that all pass the gap test. Messing this up is bad because you can't just remove a badly squeezed nicopress ... you have to cut it off. And when you do cut it off the cable is now too short to use so it's back to square 1 for that particular cable starting with the purchase of a new cable and all the hardware that goes with the swaging part.
Since the area behind the seats is so cramped, I can't use a normal swaging tool as normal tools are about the same size as bolt cutters. Instead, I use a portable tool (seen in image one) which uses the power of two tightened bolts to impart the squeeze. The process is slow as the bolts have to remain even with each other throughout the squeeze. Using a socket wrench, I alternate between bolts at around half turn intervals. It also becomes muscle intensive as you reach the desired amount of squeeze so there's a bit of a recover time between each of the three squeezes.
Anywho, all of the cables are now swaged and ready for final assembly
Cut out view of the Zodiac showing the routing of the control cables through the fuselage.
Swaging the left aileron cable using a portable swaging tool.
