Title: Thems the brakes....
Time to install the brakes, or at least, the brake lines (the brakes were already mostly installed for the Quickbuild). I needed to somehow push the brake line through the landing gear. I sprayed some silicone spray on it and it went just fine on the right main gear. The left main gear, however, was a royal pain. I pushed from the bottom and pulled from the top at the same time and got nowhere. I sprayed silicone spray into the leg and rubbed it on the tubing and could finally push the tubing up through the leg, though it bent where I was pushing a few times. I grabbed the top when it came out with some vicegrip pliers to try to pull more up and eventually succeeded after a lot of silicone spray, pushing, tugging, and swearing. Part of it got badly kinked about a foot in, so I ended up cutting that part off. The brake line went through larger tubing inside the plane to protect it from rubbing on sharp sheet metal (the same sharp sheet metal that continues to cut up my hands) and I used some old garden hose and zip ties to make stand-offs at each rib where the tubing went through. Not gorgeous, but hopefully functional! I installed the aluminum bent tube at the brake lines so I won't have brake heat melting the brake line (I had read that was a problem) and got that tightened up. I also installed the T under the elevator pushrod. That would have been easier if the pushrod wasn't there yet, but it wasn't a big deal and I am about 90% sure I will need to work on those brake line joints again. Why? Because it is plumbing and plumbing hates me, so I fully expect at least one leak somewhere. In any case, I don't have the protective outer tubing on the brake line going to the console yet because I still need to figure out where that will terminate and how I want to run the brake line. I also installed the brake fluid reservoir. The instructions said to "Recut the threads using 1/8" x 27 NPT tapered die nut." Luckily, Yeol lent me one to use. Even more luckily, it seems that the 1/8" NPT (Male) to 1/4" Brake Hose adapter was already tapped to 1/8" NPT (as the name suggests), so the die nut really didn't have anything to cut. LATER EDIT: I really didn't like the loop for the brake lines going into the fuselage, so I got some 1/4" NPT Compression fittings, with the brass inserts to make sure the brake line doesn't collapse. The pictures have the requisite pictures of my bloody knuckles, because it is sheet metal and because the tubing is hard to cut!


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