Ruxder weldment crack?

[wirejock]

I may have done a stupid.
I powder coated the rudder wedment.
http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...postcount=1639
Someone told me the rudder weldment has a history of cracking and loss of control. Doh!
Has anyone heard of the rudder weldment cracking. RVs have weldments everywhere. Some in areas difficult to inspect. I know others have changed weldment powder coat color. The only one I've seen crack is the steps. I even called Vans before doing it. Narry a word about changing color or cracks. Anyone changed color or seen cracking?
Oh well, back to the powder coat shop.

[D-Dubya]

I don't think you did a stupid. The original was powder coated white from Van's. And yes, there have been some that cracked in the past. I think that's why they now have the little gussets in the high stress areas to mitigate that issue.

And if makes you feel any better, we've painted over the powder coating with no issues (after about 160 hours).

[rvbuilder2002]

There has been a couple of parts on RV's over the years that have needed specific attention regarding inspections, and for the most part changes were later made to the parts to resolve the issue.

But the reality is, any part can fail or crack. That is why we do condition inspections.

Because of that, best practice is for parts to be finished in a way that will make problems easy to see. For weldments, that generally means very light colors (the lighter the better). That is why parts supplied in the kits pre-powder coated have always been either very light gray or white. These colors make cracks as easy to see as possible when inspecting them. Dark colors can making it nearly impossible. Black is probably the absolute worst choice (from an inspect-ability standpoint).

[JanRV6UK]

I have the very first rudder pedals that VAN did for the RV6 – Supplied non painted and with no gusset at the intersection of the 4 drops with the large tube. I had the gussets TIG welded in place (have been standard now for years) – and painted the assembly with 2 pack white – Any crack line will always be visible as a black line. So black painted .. Well ... black on black is not easy to see .. You may also consider that adding another paint layer on top of your black ... just builds up a thicker paint layer ... and any crack .. will need to be bigger before it manages to crack the paint – and be visible ... If it was me. I would use paint stripper and remove the black ... and paint it white.

[rhill]

You have to go way back to 1998 for this one in the RV6 list.
http://www.vansaircraft.com/pdf/sb98-03-1.pdf and http://www.vansaircraft.com/pdf/sb99-06-1.pdf

Cardinal gray was not my first choice.I've grown use to it over the years.Now I'm thinking of doing the panel with it. Build the ship You want!
RHill

[JanRV6UK]

SB99-06 .. that is the one ... How time fly :-)