I got a little more done today. I jigged and welded the ends to the rod that connects the control sticks together and to the aileron cables. I used a thick 48in ruler to lay it out. I set a couple of scrap metal taps exactly 18 1/4 inches apart to act as stops for the layout. The stick bases are 18 inches apart and the 1/4in compensates for half the diameter of the control stick bushings. I then took an eyeball to the gap of the tubing and saw my trusty plastic ruler slipped right in. I was able to clamp that to the ruler. I then made another eyeball to center the ends on the tube and came up with using a 5/64ths drill bit underneath each end. That made sure the bolts were in line with the tube and themselves. I also made sure the ends were parallel with the tube and then just tacked the pointy end of the reinforcements to the tube. I didn’t want to twist or rack the assembly in the jig through tacking. Once I was satisfied with that, I lightly tacked the sides and checked again. A little tweaking and after I took it out of my jig I welded the ends for good. It’s not perfect, but pretty dang close.
After that, I started cutting the .072 washers to weld to the control stick ends. I don’t have any .072, but I do have .071 and that will have to do.
