[RVG8tor]

Well I think I found a great use for floss. The RV-8A has 2 extra bolts holding the engine mount to the airplane, the plans call for the bolt heads to be forward and then you put the nuts and washer on though a 3/4" hole on the belly side, then this gets a stainless cap put on it. Well I could get the washer and nut on but for the life of me I could not figure out how one gets a cotter pin in there. My first thought was to just use an all metal lock nut, I figured the call out for castled nut was due to the heat because these are the exhaust, but all the others are also castled, by assumption there is in a fire you would not want the nylock melting and the mount nut vibrating off.

Well I then tried various methods to try and get the bolt into the small opening and then into the hole. Since the bolt is drilled at the threaded end it was a simple matter of looping floss through the hole in the bolt, I used some safety wire with a hook to pull the floss out through the hole, then pulled the floss to bring the bolt up to the hole and with some finger work through the hole while pulling the floss the bolt came right through.

Now the torque can be set from the nut side and not guessed at. Of course if these bolts have to come out it will take a magnet on the sting because things tend to roll back between the layers if it gets loose in the hole.

I hope this helps some other builder wondering how you cotter pin that nut according to the plans.

 

[Mike S]

Great idea.

Wish I had thought of that.

One more to add to the old bag of tricks.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[mcencula]

Dental floss trick #2

This may be old news, but in case someone finds it helpful, floss can also be used to align washers in a tight space. Just thread the floss through the parts in the right order, then when you pull the floss tight, everything lines up. The floss is thin enough that the bolt will slide right through.

In this case, I'm using it to align a washer on each side of the control column bearing between the flanges of the weldment:

 

[panhandler1956]

Perfect!

Thanks Mike! You just saved me hours of frustration putting my controls together! I fought with the hardware when I fit everything the first time and I've been dreading the repeat! - not now. Dental floss to the rescue.

Plus if I'm careful I can reuse it - no, not on my teeth!

 

[humptybump]

Floss to the rescue - again

I decided to retrofit a 5-point harness to a finished RV-8. Yikes!

Well, while it was no cake walk, dental floss was the solution to get the job done.

I fabricated the plates for the crotch strap but to fit it in meant knocking out the spacer tube and resizing it; then trying to fit it all back in. Given the center section is all riveted and covered, it looked impossible.

I tried several different methods until I found one that works. It requires one extra bolt the same size as is already in place (or anything of the same diameter). It also requires you slightly sand a bevel on the bottom of the crotch strap plates.

Thread the floss from the back of the center section, through the hole and down until you can reach it. Thread it through you resized spacer. Now thread a wire from the front side of the center section, througthe hole, and down. Connect the wire to the floss and pull it back through. You should now have the floss running all the way through the center section with the spacer floating in the middle. Using our spare bolt, "fiddle" it through the center section from back to front making sure it goes through the spacer. It will be loose but that's OK.

Now, using one of the original bolts, slide it front to back so it is off a tiny bit to the bolt running back to front. This will hit the lip of the spacer and push it backward. Now, take your third hand and wedge the crotch strap plate down and ease the front bolt out a little until he plate is down enough to align the holes. Finally, push the front bolt all the way back, expelling the temporary bolt.

Repeat for the second bolt.

 

[N282S]

Arghhhhhh!

This may be old news, but in case someone finds it helpful, floss can also be used to align washers in a tight space. Just thread the floss through the parts in the right order, then when you pull the floss tight, everything lines up. The floss is thin enough that the bolt will slide right through.

In this case, I'm using it to align a washer on each side of the control column bearing between the flanges of the weldment:

This makes me sick. Just sick.

But, next time...