jjglennon

jjglennon

Member
I'm making the fuel pickup tubes which require a number of slots be cut in the lower end of the tube and the end of the tube crimped shut. I've tried a hacksaw, a finer jeweler's saw, and a bandsaw to make the slots but am unsatisfied with the symmetry and the "look" of the slots. The hand saws allowed me to use a type of miter box I built so the depth of the slots is pretty consistent, but the slots appear too wide when made with the hacksaw (too few slots in the inch or so allotted to slotting) and too fine with the jeweler's saw (possible fuel draw problems later ?).

Question 1: How thick a blade is appropriate for these slots?
Question 2: Is it true that these slots act as a very coarse strainer? If so, why is it not appropriate to drill holes in the pickup tube instead of making slots?
Question 3: Don't most people put a fuel filter downstream of the tanks? If so, why slot the pickup tubes at all?

Thanks in advance.
John
 
Do yourself a favor and just buy Vans pre made pick up tubes. The already have a screen built in.
The plans built ones are fine, but they are just a gross filter of sorts. The vans ones have a full screen.
 
In the early days, that's all we had. However, Van's now offers a "pick-up screen" that does the job much better. Most of us have replaced the original slotted pick-up with the screen.

OK, so JonJay types faster than I do!
 
You might find it just easier to buy Vans pre-made one with a screen -

8-attach-fuel-pickup-inside.jpg
 
I, too, tried making my own, per plans for the RV-3. When I saw the price of the Van's screens, and saw how poor mine looked, it was simple to place an order......

Remember that a large number of E-AB Phase 1 mishaps are due to fuel interruption to the engine - a good filter can help solve that!
 
Easy to build per plans

John I used a very thin cutting wheel with a Dremel tool. Practiced a little on scrap then went for it. It is actually very easy to get good results . If you don't already have a Dremel or similar tool you might consider getting one. You will find hundreds of little jobs for it building the 6. :)
 
If you DO decide to do the plans version with slots, the big fun comes in getting the insides of the slots debarred. That was fun!

Seriously though, we all STRONGLY recommend the screen pick-ups.
Even though my slotted pick-ups worked well for years, I replaced them with the screens when I did the slosh removal.

And another plus, plus on the Dremel. I can't tell you how many I've literally worn out in the last 60 years.
 
With the factory tube, on my RV-3B, I had to increase the bend slightly, maybe 5 degrees or a little more, and drill the hole in the mounting plate in a slightly different location.

With those, it's a good change.

Deburring the slots was a real pain, and in fact was the reason I bought these. Cutting the slots worked best with a hacksaw. The Dremel cut-off wheel did a terrible job. Anyway, the home made ones are in the trash and Van's version is going in the tanks.

Dave
 
Does anyone have any idea why in my recently bought 8qb kit, that Vans would ship me precut slotted pickups with no screens? Are the pickups with screens only a upgrade to be purchased separately?
 
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