bach33089
Member
Well, I have sworn up and down that I want to remain within the context of the plans as much as possible, but the further along I get, the more room for MINOR improvements I see. I have NO intent on redesigning the airplane, but I have been contemplating a small change for some time and I wanted to see if anyone has tried it.
First some background, when my control sticks arrived, their bushing's inside diameter was insufficient to accept the correct bolt size as called out in the plans. No problem, drill press to the rescue, or so I thought. The drill bit broke off in the middle of the work, leaving a rather rough and abrasive surface, NOT GOOD for a bushing!!! Rather than order a new one from Van's I have been contemplating stealing an idea from a few friends of mine in the airshow business. The brass bushings just won't cut it with most of their hard pulls and they need to be lubricated often. The quick answer was to go to a Higher Performance plastic known in the trade as Nylatron. They have had tremendously good luck with it, as it is highly wear resistant and self lubricating. I am strongly considering machining my own Nylatron bushings for the controls. Has anyone done something similar? Also, does anyone see any problems or "gotchas" with this? The other good thing about this material is that its failure mode is NOT catistrophic, thus the likely hood jammed controls due to a bushing failure becomes almost non-existent.
Let me know your thoughts, this is a "too good to be true" scenario and some feedback would help me feel more comfortable going forward!
First some background, when my control sticks arrived, their bushing's inside diameter was insufficient to accept the correct bolt size as called out in the plans. No problem, drill press to the rescue, or so I thought. The drill bit broke off in the middle of the work, leaving a rather rough and abrasive surface, NOT GOOD for a bushing!!! Rather than order a new one from Van's I have been contemplating stealing an idea from a few friends of mine in the airshow business. The brass bushings just won't cut it with most of their hard pulls and they need to be lubricated often. The quick answer was to go to a Higher Performance plastic known in the trade as Nylatron. They have had tremendously good luck with it, as it is highly wear resistant and self lubricating. I am strongly considering machining my own Nylatron bushings for the controls. Has anyone done something similar? Also, does anyone see any problems or "gotchas" with this? The other good thing about this material is that its failure mode is NOT catistrophic, thus the likely hood jammed controls due to a bushing failure becomes almost non-existent.
Let me know your thoughts, this is a "too good to be true" scenario and some feedback would help me feel more comfortable going forward!