07/09/2008 - Push rods for both wings & flaps

Bob was hear today, so we pushed on making the push rods.  Once again pipe cutters were used to give a nice straight edge.

To get the spacing correct for each of the rivets for the large push rods, Bob came up with a very good idea.  Draw a hex bolt head on the bench, draw out from each corner a line as shown and then drill out the centre of the drawing (to about 25mm) and place the tube with the rode end in it, into the hole.  Then just copy the lines onto the pipe, worked like a charm.

Drilling was made easy by using the pillar drill and a v shaped pipe holder to keep it central.  The blind rivets took a little pulling as there are 24 of them to do when doing both push rods.

The smaller pushrods were also cut to length as per the plans, but instead of riveting these, they are being sent off to be tig-welded instead.  Should be a nice finish.

The fuel tank jig was modified to accept flaps & ailerons and work started on putting the first set of rivets in.  About 20 done so far, before calling it a day.

Yet another shot of the belcrank !