Ironflight

Ironflight

VAF Moderator / Line Boy
Mentor
Have you ever run into a case where you have to run a few wires through lightening holes in ribs, and can?t figure out how to keep them from laying loose and chafing on the sharp edge? What is needed, ideally, is a good clamp (an Adel clamp is the right thing), but with the wires running perpendicular to the plain of the rib, the legs of the clamp are 90 degrees ?out? from being able to screw them directly to the rib. One way to fix this is to cut a strip of aluminum and put a twist in it ? but this generally becomes too long, and the clamp is unsupported too far out in the lightening hole. An easy and clean way to support the clamp is to use a piece of small aluminum angle, with one flange screwed to the rib, and the other acting as a base for the clamp. Cut away any material that isn?t helping to support the clamp (to keep it light).

A picture is worth a thousand words:
IMG_0051.JPG


Paul
 
That'll work!

I've often thought someone should simply produce a "90 degree Adel clamp" and save us the trouble

erich
 
And there is even an easy way to...

...secure the clamp to the custom bracket.

Slide a U-shaped clip nut (tinnerman U-type nut) over the far leg of the Adel clamp and just use a screw through a plain hole in the bracket.

This type of nut (NAS 395)

04-00366.gif


Use a Type B sheet metal screw (#8 or #10)

04-00171.jpg


By removing the nut, this makes installation basically a one sided operation, which is useful in other places on the RV.

In Paul's original picture, the adel clamp would be mounted below the custom bracket - with the clip nut on the lower leg - and there would be no loose nut to fiddle with...:)
 
Boy, do I remember those Tinnerman's Gil - where Van believes in the Nut Plate, Grumman believed in the Tinnerman! There must have been millions of them in the AA-1B.....

And the nylon mounts from terminal town - NOW I know where they came from! It looks like the same thing that are used in several places under the seat in the -6, which was built 20 years ago (and these look original)! Those are great if you've got one in the box - my little kluge was cause I needed something "right now" during the addition of some hardware, and had to make do with what was in the scrap bin.

Lots of good ideas here from which folks can choose! Just so long as they don't leave loose wire bundles flopping around lightening holes...

Paul
 
terrye said:
Or you could us a "lightening hole mount"!
s1osjs.jpg
[/IMG]
Available from Panduit under Products-Cable Management Accessories-Screw/Rivet Applied-Page 3 (item 11)
http://www.panduit.com/Products/Pro..._prod_cablemanagement&Nao=10&sid=12844C88DFE4

No I didn't use them yet, but I've still got the fuselage to go so maybe there.
Click to expand...

Looks interesting. We buy lots of Panduit stuff here, I think we'll need to get some for evaluation :)

Paul, nothing personal but I think Rick's angle mounts look better- almost certain to add a few knots to the top speed ;)
 
Rivethead said:
I'll take a dozen if you're buying 100.
Click to expand...

Well, they aren't cheap as little plastic thingies go, but perhaps relative to other aviation products...

At my place of work our supplier quoted us about $175 for quantity 100.
 
Angles here....

On my -7 QB-wings, we made up some angles and riveted them in place.
Instead of the Vans tube, we used a somewhat stiffer tube made for electrical house-wiring and used Adels to clamp the tubes to the angles.

That was better with the QB-wings since you can't rivet those angles on the ribs underneath the inboard skin. (You need a stiffer tube since the tube won't have so many support-points.)

Also, you need to make sure you install the tube alittle offset so the rod from the aileron bellcrank to the aileron doesn't hit the tube when the aileron is at max deflection.
(guess how I know that... hehe...)





 
No clamps used in our RV-6A

I drilled holes with a modified uni-bit (ground off to the maximum diameter needed for the task) attached to an extension rod through the ribs (not through the lightening holes) then inserted plastic conduit with cutouts in the side for pitot heat and tip tank senders. No clamps are required and wires can be pulled through if modifications are required later. I replaced the pitot heat wires in this manner.

Bob Axsom
 
ao.frog said:
On my -7 QB-wings, we made up some angles and riveted them in place.....
Click to expand...
Alf,

A close examination of your bracket design reveals that you discovered the same thing I did, most notably,
that a longish "ear" on the bracket was required to maintain acceptable e.d. around the bolt hole. It also
appears you used the same type angle stock I did. With a little imagination, you can see that if your bracket
had its edges rounded off to remove unnecessary weight, they would be virtually identical. My design was
heavily influenced by the type of brackets I was accustomed to installing on military aircraft.

2njggu1.jpg


NOTE: Not only are the plastic type brackets way more expensive per piece than simply making up a number
of your own brackets from common angle stock, I'm not at all certain that saddle type design will work in this
application. You have the bellcrank to deal with and I'm guessing clearance issues would be a show stopper.
Has anyone successfully USED the more expensive plastic type bracket available from Panduit? Pic's?
 
Rick6a said:
NOTE: Not only are the plastic type brackets way more expensive per piece than simply making up a number
of your own brackets from common angle stock, I'm not at all certain that saddle type design will work in this
application. You have the bellcrank to deal with and I'm guessing clearance issues would be a show stopper.
Has anyone successfully USED the more expensive plastic type bracket available from Panduit? Pic's?
Click to expand...

They are expensive. They do however appear to be useful for certain wire routing situations we encounter at the lab where I work, and some have been ordered. I'll try a test fit with some when they arrive, and report back. Still, I have plenty of leftover rib material from making (and remaking) empennage control surfaces. Good raw material for aluminum brackets, if the ED works out.
 
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