Q: rv-10 engine mount holes used for stand?

[fehdxl]

Question for the group,

I want to use the engine mount holes to make up a wooden stand (along the lines of a tick-tack-toe layout) so that I can rotate the fuselage. Looking ahead in the plans, it shows a 3/8 hole will be drilled there eventually.

Anyone see a problem making those holes 1/4 now, and then going to 3/8 later as directed by the plans?

Thanks!

-Jim
40603

 

[DrivingManiac]

Just a quick 2 cents and I'm just a lurker dreaming around here, but wouldn't you be concerned about ensuring the centeredness of enlarging the hole after the fact?

Seems to me that with them being the engine mount holes, I certainly wouldn't want to muck around.


-Vic

 

[Mike S]

Welcome to VAF!!!!

Just a quick 2 cents and I'm just a lurker dreaming around here,

-Vic

Vic, welcome aboard VAF.

Glad to see you here.

 

[flion]

Vic raises a valid concern but if you carefully drill the holes with a step bit then you should be fine. Later you will drill one of the top holes to final size (and despite the instructions I think it is better to use a step bit or a piloted bit), and then use the mount itself as a drilling guide. Since that first hole gets drilled freehand, you won't be any worse to drill to the intermediate size.

 

[rleffler]

My only concern is that many find that the engine mount pilot holes aren't centered when they attempt to attach the motor mount. If you start to enlarge the pilot hole, it may not be positioned correctly when you attach the motor mount. There is a nice thread here on VAF that talks about this subject.

bob

 

[noelf]

Good description for the tic-tac framework. I did this for my -6A construction, and it worked very well. I used AN3-xx sized bolts through the firewall and internal structure. That gave me "lots" of room to later enlarge the holes when it was time to match drill the engine mount. Of the 4 corners that I used, only one mount hole did not align perfectly, so I only had to "move" one hole when it came time to match drill the the mount to the firewall.

I ended up attaching a short length of steel water pipe and flange to the tic-tac structure so that I could lift the front end of the fuselage, have the tic-tac structure clear the floor, rotate, and set it back down.