Jun 06, 2022     Parts for VP1 - (0.5 hour)       Category: Controls

A big benefit to the EAA Builder's Log is connecting with friends you never knew you had. A fellow VP1 builder, Dave from Byron NY, called after he saw that I was building a VP1. Fortunately he had some spare hardware he was interested in selling real cheap. I bought them and now my plane has taken a big step forward. Thank you Dave

  Jul 18, 2020     rudder pedals       Category: Controls

with the outside temps in the high 80's or low 90's I did a little work on the airplane. I built the rudder pedals and tested the fit of the rudder shaft for ease in movement and level. I had to pull the aft end of the fuselage outside to clear the garage ceiling.

  Jul 05, 2020     polymer       Category: Controls

Thankfully a 3 day weekend. During the night I thought that perhaps my trusty Dremel Tool could save the day again. The Dremel can be run at a very low speed to keep from melting the plastic. Also a few years ago I had purchased some carving bits for the Dremel.
Side note: The Dremel tool has been a versatile tool throughout the building process. Many times a little glue drop will be in the wrong place or a little bit of wood will overhang and prevent a tight joint. Using the Dremel with either the cutting bit or a carving bit makes the small adjustments needed.
05 July 2020 the Dremel tool was able to trim the inside (ID) of the bearings to make a snug but not too tight fit on the rudder tube.

05 July 2020 the close fit on the rudder tube left me with a little time to cut the cable fairing for F4.
The only difficult part was the longer stainless steel bolts needed to attach the fairing. Fortunately AN bolts were not specified so I used a couple ��ainless bolts in the shop. The plans called for a ��ick fairing and my material is ��Also nothing except magic marker would write on the plastic so digging around my shop I found a purple marker.

05 July 2020 the holes line up so when cables go through they won't sand away the wood on bulkhead F4.

  Jul 04, 2020     Bushing       Category: Controls

cut two 4” x 4” pieces and placed in the lathe for turning. This proved to be a little more difficult than I first thought. The arms for the chuck for the lathe hold onto about �nch of material. The ��terial needs to be trimmed in to ��In order to do this I made a smaller than 4” x 4” “spacer” out of ��ywood. This way the chuck holds onto �� plastic while I can cut away �� also tried a short video of turning the bearings.The block can be seen in this picture with the plywood block behind the plastic. Carefully turning these plastic blocks into rudder bearings.
4 July 2020 after trimming the blocks down to 2 ��D I placed them in the drill press with an adjustable bit and cut 2” ID holes. The aluminum tube for the rudder has a 2” OD. So this should be perfect. Damn no!!! Either the adjustable bit was slightly smaller or the aluminum tube is slightly larger. Not a problem (or so I thought I started on the ID of the plastic bearings) the rest of the day (about 2 hours) I tried to file away the inside of the bearings. My half round rasp files and rat tail files did almost nothing to the bearings. I did purposely try to find very strong plastic materials for these bearings.

  Jun 28, 2020     polymer       Category: Controls

June side note: ordered plastic for the Rudder Bushings. A few varieties of plastic is available. According to the plans “Teflon” is called for. In 1969 Teflon was probably a more available and less expensive product. Now more plastics are available. Some builders use Delrin (an Acetyl Homopolymer) some sites use the terms Acetyl Copolymer and Acetyl Homopolymer as interchangeable. The other plastic that is used in industrial settings for bearings is UHMW. I examined the characteristics of a few of these options and fortunately had a structural engineer working for me part time in my office (the New York Naval Militia). He compared the plastics and recommended the UHMW. Delrin was available in 3 inch diameter rods. This would make turning the bearing very easy but one side effect to Delrin is an increased porosity at larger sizes. Some forums identified mold showing signs of growing on the Delrin. I decided to order a �nch thick piece of UHMW 4” x 48”. These I will try to cut into 4” square pieces and turn on the lathe to 2 �nch stepped rounds for bearings.

  Jun 28, 2020     control stick installation       Category: Controls

Today I installed the control stick assembly under the seat. More work than I expected because of aligning it down the center line of the aircraft. Another minor mistake shows up in this set of pictures. I placed the seat support forward of the mark - this placed it 1 " closer to the fwd bulkhead. this also placed the control stick mounting hardware inside the seat support. I had to cut a "tunnel" in the seat support to mount the control stick hardware.

  Jun 27, 2020     stab pulley       Category: Controls

mounted the stab pulley mount

  Jun 19, 2020     Control stick       Category: Controls

Picked up the control stick assembly from the auto body shop that fabricated it for me. Really great workmanship!