Door question

Happy New Year everyone!

What a better way to start 2022 than continue working on the doors....said no one ever!

I am using the usual mods...areosport handle, plane around latch and McMaster seals. I haven’t installed the seals yet just working on the 1/4” gap all around.

My question for those who have gone before is.....how much pressure are you experiencing when opening closing the handle when your finally done? When you look at the design of the door closing system it’s all about grabbing the two outside pins and center cam and pulling that door into the bulb seal to crush it. How much pressure are you seeing on your door handle. I seem to have to really reef on the handle to close the door. I can’t see this as being good over the long term.

Any thoughts?

I had that problem initially. The fit between the Planearound pins and the fuselage mounted receptacles was really tight and exhibited exactly the same issue you note. I figured something was gonna break along the way.

The fix was to get the appropriate sized reamer and ream out the fuselage mounted receptacles and the hole through the bulkhead. Worked like a charm.

If you want, we could make that reamer a pass around tool in the -10 community. You're welcome to be the 2nd user.

Lemme know.

Reamer

What size would you need? I just inherited a large box of reamers, might just have one to pass around...

The one I used was a 7/16 spiral flute chucking reamer. Chinese brand from Amazon, as I recall. You could accomplish the same thing with a file, but it wouldn't be as pretty.

Kyle Boatright said:

The one I used was a 7/16 spiral flute chucking reamer. Chinese brand from Amazon, as I recall. You could accomplish the same thing with a file, but it wouldn't be as pretty.

Click to expand...

Hi Kyle,

I think you are on to it. When I remove the Delrin cabin blocks the handle closes nicely. As soon as I reinstall the blocks boom I’m into the tight fit. I’ll try and get a reamer here if it’s not crazy $ as shipping to Canada may be a pain.

Thanks for the speedy reply!

Keith

Weefle said:

Hi Kyle,

I think you are on to it. When I remove the Delrin cabin blocks the handle closes nicely. As soon as I reinstall the blocks boom I’m into the tight fit. I’ll try and get a reamer here if it’s not crazy $ as shipping to Canada may be a pain.

Thanks for the speedy reply!

Keith

Click to expand...

I suggest reaming each block with the corresponding hole in the bulkhead at the same time (assembled). My guess is my (and maybe your) blocks aren't exactly perpendicular to the pin path which creates a slight bind, correctable by reaming.

I had a real dichotomy going between handle force with the seals in place and without. Seals off: butter-smooth. Seals on: could hardly get the handle to latch. The short outside handle didn't offer enough leverage to even operate the door. Decided not to grind off more of the doorway flange since I had molded in place a custom-fit ridge of epoxy-flox for the McMaster seal to grab onto (using scrap pieces of the seal as a female mold in place). I didn't want to destroy that work, so instead I ordered the smallest bulb seal McMaster had and swapped that out with what I was using before. Immediate success. Doors close easily now and no discernible wind noise/air leak.

I have a buddy who went with the McMaster seals on his -10 and his doors bulge enough in flight to see daylight at the front corners, so I know it's possible to mess this up. I think his problem was with the angle of the pins and the hole locations, such that his pins pull the doors inward but not also downward.

ETA: I also recall having to enlarge the doorframe holes and Delrin blocks just a smidge with a rasp file. Not very much though.

Bill Boyd said:

I had a real dichotomy going between handle force with the seals in place and without. Seals off: butter-smooth.

Click to expand...

Just to show that all these beasts are hand-built and therefore different. My latching mechanisms were tight as a tick without the seals before I reamed the holes. After reaming the holes, they were butter smooth and adding the seals didn't change that.