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Kupe's Zodiac 650B
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Date: 5-2-2013
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Number of Hours: 2.00
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Manual Reference: 6-W-6
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Brief Description: Aileron Bellcrank Support
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Today I went into fabrication mode. Using only a few handtools, I created 4 bellcrank supports out of 4 chunks of 1/8" thick extruded L angles (two of them shown in Image 1). A top-of-the-line vertical bandsaw would've been nice to have, but in reality I'd rather have better avionics or a bigger engine and forego the uber tool.
So, beginning with my first extrusion, I measured out the center point for the bolt hole and drilled a pilot hole into it. Then I took a 20mm diameter Dremel sanding disk and clecoed it to the extrusion. This gave me the required 10mm radius from the center of the bolt hole. I then drew 2 straight lines from the lower corners of the extrusion to a tangent on the 10mm radius arc. I had my shape drawn out.
Next, I clamped the annotated extrusion into a table clamp, got out the 32 teeth-per-inch hacksaw, sprayed a little WD 40 onto the metal, and began sawing. I was careful to stay off the lines I'd drawn so I wouldn't have to start over with new materials. The results were a rough, but workable bellcrank support as shown in Image 2.
Then I brought out my trusty files and began chewing away at the excess, filing ever more closely to the lines on the extrusion. Starting with a rough cut file, I made short work of the excess material and rounded off the corners from my hacksawing. I followed up with a fine cut file which brought the edges right down to the lines and gave them a polished look. Finally, I finished it off with a 3M 400 gril sanding block and updrilled the pilot hole to 3/16".
After finishing the 1st support, I used it to trace out the remaining 3. The subsequent bellcrank support fabrication went pretty fast after working my way through the first one (see Image 3).
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Two of the 1" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" extrusions out of the crate.
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The first extrusion after the hacksaw cutting.
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All 4 bellcrank supports ready for rear ribs #7L and #7R.
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