More control system

Following my last post I have been making slow progress at completing the control system.

I received my machined firewall bearing housing back from my machinist contact. I had two made. One for me and one for Marc Oppelt.

Don't mind the bearing in this photo. It was the wrong bearing. I replaced this with a sealed precision bearing.

I also ordered materials, hardware and rod end bearings for all the push rods. It was fun to fit the inserts and rivet them together.

Here are my control stick yokes. The plans call for a simple steel tube. The CG Products sells control yokes similar to these for Long-EZ and Cozy aircraft. I thought this was a good idea, I Marc and I welded up a couple of sets. I had them powder coated and they turned out great. In hindsight, I think I should have just gone with the plans tube. I can't figure out what problem was solved by making a more complex part. Still I am happy with the result.

 

Here is the yoke installed on the torque tube. You can also see the custom ball bearing and retainer as discussed in the previous post.

Here is a nice shot of "the office" showing the control stick and throttle quadrant.

I posted this earlier, but here again is the B-8 grip that I reconditioned.

Here is the throttle quadrant after I polished the control arms. My plan was to anodize them, but before I could get the process down, I found great success with polishing the aluminum.

Engine mount and control system

So, after not a lot of activity with this project, I have made some progress. I rearranged and cleaned up the shop, replaced the florescent tubes (what a bid difference that made).

I distracted my self for a few weeks experimenting with anodizing aluminum. A process I may use to finish off some interior control parts (canopy latches, etc.). More on that another day.

But, now on to real progress. Yesterday I glassed the main spar permanently into the fuselage. This followed some thoughts about the engine mount. I will likely install an o-320 engine and stronger engine mount hardware is probably warranted. After some discussion with other builders I settled on 1"x1"x3/16" stainless steel extrusions. Why stainless steel? Well mainly because 4130 is not available in an extruded form. I would have had to purchase the steel plate and had it bent at extra cost. The stainless is not quite as strong as 4130 steel, but much much stronger than the plans 1/4" 2024 aluminum. Here is a picture of the mount test fit:

 

I still need perform the final fit and installation of the steel engine mount extrusions, but in the meantime I have started some work on the control system. The CG Products (Cozy Girrrls) sell a complete Long-EZ control system for just under $700. This complete kit is very tempting and I am sure is a good value. However I think I can save some money by completing the system myself (with some help). The plans call for phenolic block for the control system bearings. The Girrrls sell a housed ball bearing to replace the phenolic for $50.00 ea. my solution was a flanged ball bearing from Mcmaster-Carr and a simple 1/8" bearing retainer. Total cost for both bearings is about $25.00 including shipping.

Here are the bearings after aloziding the retainers and bonding the bearings into the retainers with Locktite compound.