Drilling the Electric Elevator Trim Brackets.. December 11th, 2006
I’ve decided to install electric trim in my plane. Instead of messing with a wheel and a steel cable going from the cabin to the elevator, I’ll be messing with a motor, switches, and wire going to the trim assembly. I’ll have a nice switch on the stick that I can use to trim the plane.
The plate where the servo is mounted does not come pre-punched. The plan gives some approximate measurements of where the brackets holding the servo should go.
I marked the recommended distances, but decided to offset the bracket by just a little bit to keep the servo arm centered in the slot. The picture below shows my test fitting:
After drilling the first hole with a cleco clamp holding the bracket and plate together, I just used clecoes for the rest. The second bracket’s location was determined by putting in the servo and marking the location where the bracket falls.
As you can see in the picture above, the bracket on the left protrudes slightly from the open slot. This is not an issue since it doesn’t interfere with anything. I still decided to file it down to follow the contour of the place just so it looks pretty.
Deburring Deburring Deburring.. December 10th, 2006
I’ve spent the last few days deburring the left elevator components. This time I drilled everything before deburring the two spars, the short rib, and the counterbalance skin. After drilling, I started deburring everything (i.e., edges and holes). I think this made things go faster, but I can see how it’s easier to get cut when working with the sharp aluminum edges.
No pictures this time, as deburring is pretty boring…
Starting the Left Elevator December 2nd, 2006
The left elevator has been coming along. I haven’t been spending much time on this lately, but I finally got the whole assembly clecloed and drilled tonight. Drilling the lead counterweights went MUCH easier this time, using drilling lubricant and turning the drill very slow.
