Glove box

[NC36061]

Re: Glove box

The metal handle (nickel plated?) was used in the '41 Deluxe for sure, and maybe some early post-war airplanes. Most BC12-Ds would have had the plastic handle, though.

Dave

[crispy critter]

Re: Glove box

I made one for Crispy out of a piece of curly maple.

[birdlegs]

Re: Glove box/'n stuff

Tribe; my panel had so many "revisions" that it fell apart when unfastened, I'd like to get another stock one.Where would I look for one. New or used?

[Robert Lees]

Re: Glove box

and installed an AN Directional gyro on the right side and a Narco Superhomer in the left

...and hopefully you have now removed all these gizmos? Just kidding.

Back to glove box handles...Joel, there is a small market here for these, and yes they are plastic. Mine melted in my "paint removal process" (but I'll have two new ones), but more importantly, can you do what Hank has been promising for decades, and do pretzel hubs (I'll have ten sets).

Rob

[Winston L.]

Re: Glove box

I have used a material that comes in a kit from Eastwood (automotive tools) that you can duplicate knobs with. It comes with everything you need, the resin and the soft mold rubber compound. If you have one to duplicate you can make as many as you want. Eastwood has a web site you can probably see it on there.

Winston

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Glove box

Has it really been DECADES Rob! I STILL have the mold for the glove box handles and the pretzel balls. Who wants to cast them? I know it will be years more before I get to it. Anyone serious about taking the manufacture process on? I have the molds, all I need is someone who has the time.
Hank

[cpirrmann]

Re: Glove box

Has it really been DECADES Rob! I STILL have the mold for the glove box handles and the pretzel balls. Who wants to cast them? I know it will be years more before I get to it. Anyone serious about taking the manufacture process on? I have the molds, all I need is someone who has the time.
Hank

I can make the time. PM me if you're interested in handing off.

[mikerice]

Re: Glove box

I saw nice glove box doors at the factory last week. I am not sure about the glove box and the handles and hinges.

[mulwyk]

Re: Glove box

Anyone know a source for the torsion spring that keeps the glove box door closed? They don't seem to have them at my local Ace Har..... I mean... Aerospace Supply store.

Bob Gustafson

[Guest]

Re: Glove box

Anyone know a source for the torsion spring that keeps the glove box door closed? They don't seem to have them at my local Ace Har..... I mean... Aerospace Supply store.

Bob Gustafson

Bob, check this out;

http://www.centuryspring.com/Century/GateWayServlet?action=com.relyon.suitesphere.components.CatalogActions.searchCatalog&destination=TorsionProdList.jsp&category=Torsion&searchType=byCriteria&configuration=ProductListControl@Torsion&configuration=SearchControl@Torsion

The spring with .035 wire ( the second one is close).

Dave

[Guest]

Re: Glove box

Can't edit my prior post this is the correct web address( I think)

http://www.centuryspring.com/Century/GateWayServlet?action=com.relyon.suitesphere.components.CatalogActions.searchCatalog&destination=TorsionProdList.jsp&category=Torsion&searchType=byCriteria&configuration=ProductListControl@Torsion&configuration=SearchControl@Torsion

[Guest]

Re: Glove box

Guess, not any how go to that site and search. Original spring is .55" long, .050" wire dia, and coil ID fits aover .1" rod. Dave

[Joel Severinghaus]

Glove box door handles: what price authenticity?

I have a new appreciation for that scene in the movie "The Graduate" where Mr. McGuire gives Benjamin one-word career advice: "Plastics."

I have looked at drawer pulls and cabinet hardware all over the Web, and haven't seen anything similar to the Taylorcraft glove box door handle.

LostnSpace kindly loaned me an original white plastic handle, and I took it to a plastics company here to see what it would cost to duplicate.

They said producing a custom metal mold to injection mold polystyrene could cost at least $3000.

The least expensive option would be to machine blocks of plastic using a three-axis CNC router. But that would leave the back side solid, with no concavity into which to put your fingertips. (Boy, that last sentence reads funny.) The material thickness of the original is apparently too thin to flip the piece over and rout out the back side.

Their best suggestion is stereolithography, which could produce exact duplicates in white ABS or polycarbonate. That's the amazing high-tech process whereby a laser builds up solid layers in liquid photopolymer. (See http://computer.howstuffworks.com/stereolith2.htm) For that, they estimate maybe $75 per piece, plus another couple hundred dollars engineering cost to take manual measurements of the original to make digital 3-D CAD drawings to program the stereolithography gizmo. They can also cut the mounting screw threads into the bosses on the back side of the handle. These modern plastic materials would be stronger than the original 1946 plastic, and presumably last longer.

So depending upon how many pieces the set-up costs get amortized across, the more the merrier, we're talking maybe $100 per exact duplicate white plastic glove box door handle.

Is anyone else restoration-obsessive enough to think that's a reasonable cost, and maybe want in on this?

Hank and Chris, are you going to proceed with that molding process you discussed above? What color is that material, can it be painted to look like plastic, and how durable is it?

Or does someone have a dusty box of original plastic handles sitting in a dark corner of a hangar somewhere?

[mulwyk]

Re: Glove box

Joel:

You make a simple casting mold for the glove box handle. Mold fiberglass around the outside of the handle (top and front). (Apply wax or mold release to the handle so you can get the fiberglass back off it.) And stiffen the fiberglass with a piece of wood before you remove it from the handle.

Then turn the handle over and do the same thing to the finger recess on the back. You'll end up with two fiberglass pieces with perfect negative reproductions of the front and back of the handle. Bolt or screw the two fiberglass mold halves together, fill them with casting resin and a little chopped glass (don't forget to wax the mold!). Wait an hour or two for the resin to cure...and then unbolt/unscrew the mold halves. Clean up the handle casting with sandpaper and paint it epoxy white.

You can even add threads to the handle by running a couple of bolts through the back of the mold and into the "cavity" area. Turn a nut partway onto each bolt before pouring in the casting resin. Then after the resin sets, unscrew the bolts and the two nuts will be left inside the handle.

Pictures of making fiberglass molds here....click on "Fiberglass Mold" about half way down the page or "Yoke Centerpiece" at the bottom of the page.

Bob Gustafson

[Joel Severinghaus]

Glove box handles

Gee Bob, you make that fiberglass molding process look easy. A few dollars of supplies from Wal-Mart sure beats what the plastics company was estimating. Brilliant.