Baffeling ??? Also need

[Victor Gisclair]

Brakes

Lee I redid my brakes for my last annual. I had done them before but this time I made sure that the shoe and the liner were in line. It took a while to do this. Only about a 1/4 of the shoe was hitting the linner. I could not do a run up at 1500 rpm. Now I can hold it with full power. Quite a difference. When I make a real short field landing and have to get on the brakes I have to be careful not to nose her over. What I am getting at is if the brakes are set right they work great.

[Yellow Duck]

Re: Baffeling ??? Also need

Guess I will need to get you to show me. Pulled the engine and gutted out the interior. Also sanded the firewall and have it about ready to paint.

[Yellow Duck]

Re: Baffeling ??? Also need

Ordered a set of baffels from Wag Aero. Not for the T-Craft, but will look at them and see if only minor modification are necessary. If not will return them and proceed to fabricate a set. Sure looks like lots of work to get it right. Unless I'm not looking at it right.

Has anyone made any Carb heat muffs. or heater muffs ? Those are the expensive ones.

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Baffeling ??? Also need

I made my own full set of heat muffs. Yes, it is a fair bit of work. They are not beautiful, but they are functional. If I do another set I could do a better job.

Good ideas about sheetmetal work and what it takes are available at tinmantech.com. Kent White was my source of inspiration. Still, I needed help in the welding department and I have a lot to learn there.

I started with .040 H0 (full soft) , 3003 alloy aluminum. 6061 alloy or any weldable alloy would be fine. It might have been better to use .050 aluminum to have more to work with, especially where I had to do some serious metal stretching.

There is also a fair amount of metal shrinking to do and it helps to have a slapper or a "big whapper" to get your shrinks looking good. If I do this again I would make a special corner slapper from hardwood covered with leather to get the inside corners as smooth as possible -- there is some serious metal shrinking going on in there and it helps to be able to hit it a good lick. My inside corners wound up being about .060 thick. Kent White shows how to use a block of Delrin and make a large hammer head which fits on your rivet gun -- THAT WORKS GREAT! Too bad I learned this after I was finished.

If I do this again I would probably build smaller segments and TIG them together then smooth them out. At the least I would cut pie shaped wedges in the inside corners and weld them back to minimize the shrinking required.

I had photos on my old website, but it died. I believe I have the old photos if anyone desires them.

I made my own male mould from wood and Bondo. You only need one mould because all the parts are pretty much a subset of one long C shaped mould. I hammered my muffs with dead blow mallet and a homebrew wooden mallet. Tin Man sells better tools for someday when I can afford them. I annealed with a propane torch my work many times because I am not a great tinsmith and sometimes I split the metal. Get a set of Tempil sticks from the welding store so you know exactly how hot you are annealing.

The hardest thing to do was to keep the sheetmetal held firmly against the mould -- it likes to slip around. I used all sorts of clamps in all directions to hold things still.

The slip joint between the muff halves can be riveted up from a strip of aluminum. My originals were spot welded, but I used rivets because, like I said, I'm not a great welder and had a friend do my welding.

In order to widen th emouth of the muffs to go onto the exhaust stack, I used a shotbag (homebrew again) and a mallet and just tapped them into shape. Dollies from Harbor Freight work well for this purpose also. I had to fudge the beaded joint at the mouth of the muff by using a rounded metal rod and lightly hammering into a groove cut in a wood block. (Can't afford a beading tool just now -- ChaCHING$$)

If you have access to a good TIG welder, then a few goofs are no big deal because you can just splice pieces into the bad spot(s) and keep going.

For what it is worth, my experience with Wag Aero baffles are that they are HARD, THIN metal and crack out very quickly. Perhaps I would use then to assist in making good moulds and send them back. I used my old baffles and made female moulds for the back baffles. These came out pretty nice because the bends are not too difficult. I used .032 aluminum Also H0. You have to figure that all the vibration under the cowl will work harden your baffles soon enough so why start out with hard metal?

[Yellow Duck]

Re: Baffeling ??? Also need

Thanks Mark, printing out your letter for reference. Can't find a sheet metal man around here. There are plenty, but none wants etra work. If the ones from wag doesn't look good or doesn't work. Then, I are a sheet metal man ? lol

Looks like some type of alum cylinders should work for the muffs.??? Vic said he used cyl. ends and reg sheet metal wrapped. Will check his out. I have my old ones, even if they are old, makes good patterns.

Mark, where is Bulverde located? I am very acquainted with TX. Give me a jumping off spot.

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Baffeling ??? Also need

Lee,

Bulverde is a wide spot in the road 25 miles north of San Antonio -- which is why my Avatar is a picture of Randolph AFB with a formation of T-38s.

I hope you can find a sheet metal guy, or perhaps like myself you will find amusement in pounding on metal and making lots of noise.

[Yellow Duck]

Re: Baffeling ??? Also need

We head out to Austin on occassion. My grand son lives there. No sheet metal man yet. Will see how the unit from wag aero works. If not will give it a try. Also the heat muffs .

[Yellow Duck]

Re: Baffeling ??? Also need

Update on baffels. Ordered the ones from Wag aero. Doesn't work.

Took mine apart for pattern, looks like I will be able to fabricate myself, without to much problems. Will pick up my Alum today.

Repaired my Cylinder from Sentry Aircraft Cylinders. Was Cracked. Replaced barrel and did values, plus all my exhaust gaskets, and induction tube rubbers and value cover gaskets for $475, Should be here today or tomorrow.

Found engine mount had a couple of chaffing and indentions on one tube, will put football patch on those. Also ordered rubber for engine mounts and all new bolts and nuts for the mount.

Rewired my Tubro Alternator, added a night light to view the instruments, just in case I arrive home a bit late.

New SS exhaust will be installed. But have not figured exactly how to fabricate the heat scrouds. Any suggestions????

[crispy critter]

Re: Baffeling ??? Also need

Lee,
It sounds like your hand is feeling better.

[Yellow Duck]

Re: Baffeling ??? Also need

Still having to do lot of thing one handed, but it is getting better. Thanks. My cylinder came in last night. Will install that today. Get a better feel of how the baffels are suppose to fit.

Finished the two front sections (of the baffels) yesterday. Doesn't look that bad.

I used the .025 3003 Alum, as Suzie had said she used. A little soft, but shoud be good for the baffels. Don't know about the muffs, may need something thicker. Suzie, did you use .025 for your muffs also ?

The heat schrouds should be a challenge. Will figure something out.

Have the floor boards back in, and the battery, and all wired up with the alternator, plus added an red light just in case I need to see my instruments at night (all of them. AS, Altimeter,compass. Guess that is about it. LOL

Beautiful day today.

Mark, thanks for the info. Printed it out. And Suzie, thanks also for the pictures, been using them.