Tail brace rods.

[t30mg]

Re: Tail brace rods.

It SHOULD have been with your plane! These are the little bits and pieces that make a whole plane worth so much more than a project. The little parts will eat you alive.

Are you sure there isn't a box or bag with your plane full of little parts you don't know where they go? If you find one, lay them all out on a gridded paper and take a picture. We will try and identify them from the grid location.

This could be fun!

Hank

No little boxes of hardware here. Darn it!
I wonder if the hardware stayed on the rods maybe? Who knows.....

I am the 3rd owner since it was damaged in '94 so plenty of times and homes for that stuff to be lost.

I'm ordering new clevis pins for the rudder and elevators, but what is the methad to retaining them?

Safety rings, cotter pins, safety wire?????

[t30mg]

Re: Tail brace rods.

Okay, wag areo can get me everthing but the nipples.

Any idea on those?

[Robert Lees]

Re: Tail brace rods.

When I had a set of tailbrace wires made, I looked at Buchanan's for the nipples.

I didn't use them, because Bruntons in Scotland made the nipples at the same time as the wires.

Buchanan's still exists...it may be worth asking them. They seem to do all sorts of nipples & rims, which aught to excite even the more fragile of posters here.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Tail brace rods.

The cotter pins weren't in yet when the tail photo I posted was taken. I'll try and get the hinges in the next photos. It's a little bit of a pain to get the hinge pins and the cotter pins in when you have big hands like I do, but if you get a set of nice electrical needle nose pliers it will be simple about the time you get the last few in. The SECOND time you have to do them you will be a pro at it.

Shame the bag-o-bits didn't stay with the plane but lucky that most of them are still available. Be careful getting the nipples. The wires and nipples have a weird thread and if you get something like spoke nipples with the wrong thread pitch you risk stripping the wire threads. Those wires were EXPENSIVE when I bought them! The nipples should literally spin on the wires. If you can't turn new nipples on new wires with your fingers, something is wrong. STOP before you damage the threads.

Hank

[flyguy]

Re: Tail brace rods.

I talked to Buchanan's a while back. They have all 32 pitch threads on their nipples. The ones on the stock tailwires are something X 36.

They have them unthreaded, but they are also UNDRILLED. They will do them custom if you order a few thousand.

DC

[Ron Coleman]

Re: Tail brace rods.

It seems like a couple of years have passed since I posted photo's of my thread rolling machines (no big deal, little things that used to be in every motorcycle shop). Here are some things that I think I know (until you convince me that I am wrong). The threads on my T-craft are CUT! Rolled threads can harden the wires which may cause them to crack. Cut threads and rolled threads should take different size nipples because rolled threads are larger diameter. If you are using hardware store hardware, it may not make any difference, but if you are using precision nipples they are not interchangeable.

I have delt with Buchanan in California. Not again! They will sell you what they want to, not what you need. Their attitude was (maybe still is) "this is what we have, you want it fine, otherwise don't bother us".

Now this is important!!! If you go with stainless wires and use stainless nipples it is important to use the proper lube on the threads. And you should turn the nipples on the wire slowly to keep them from getting hot. If you don't you will almost certainly bind the nipples on the threads and destroy the wires. You might twist the wires in half before you get the nipples back off. I have had to grind the nipples away on several occasions. I got the lube from Buchannans.

Why don't I use my thread rollers? My dies are for British motorcycle spokes.

Now lets talk about the load on the rods. I have flown several homebuilt airplanes with braided cable instead of rods. There was considerable slop in the cables (made my hair stand on end) but you could see in flight that there was no significant load on the cables. However, they took a slight jolt on landing. I can't imagine that the rods on the T-craft are under designed.

Relax a little

RonC

[Ron Coleman]

Re: Tail brace rods.

Please forgive me if I sound a little cranky, but it was a beautiful day and the apron is way too muddy to get the plane out of the hanger.

Ronc