CharlieWaffles
Well Known Member
I was working on assembling the Control Sticks today and wound up with an issue. In the photo below, there is a bushing that gets fitted into the control stick base. The bushing is supposed to fit an AN4 bolt, which it didn't so I reamed it with a 1/4" drill bit. Then the bushing was supposed to go into the control base, but it wouldnt fit. The bushing diameter was .375 as expected, but the powder coated base was just undersized. I deburred the edge on the base thinking that would help, but the bushing would go - even with a plastic mallet. I then deburred the outside edge on one side of the bushing, still no go.
So I decided to try to ream the Control Base. I use a 3/8" drill and placed the piece in my drill press. I slowed it to the slowest speed (620 rpm) and applied a good amount of liquid Beolube. I VERY slowly lowered the bit and it wasn't more than a second or two before it starting smoking and the heat was obviously building up as the powder coating started to shrivel up and discolor. So I stopped, let it cool and figured I was going too fast. So I waited a few minutes, more oil and tried again, same thing.
So I'm wondering, did anyone else have to ream their parts or was I just unlucky? If you did ream them, any pointers on how to do this without smoking the piece and ruining the base?
I'm off to Van's again tomorrow to replace the bushings (just picked up the missing ones today) and another set of the stick bases.
So I decided to try to ream the Control Base. I use a 3/8" drill and placed the piece in my drill press. I slowed it to the slowest speed (620 rpm) and applied a good amount of liquid Beolube. I VERY slowly lowered the bit and it wasn't more than a second or two before it starting smoking and the heat was obviously building up as the powder coating started to shrivel up and discolor. So I stopped, let it cool and figured I was going too fast. So I waited a few minutes, more oil and tried again, same thing.
So I'm wondering, did anyone else have to ream their parts or was I just unlucky? If you did ream them, any pointers on how to do this without smoking the piece and ruining the base?
I'm off to Van's again tomorrow to replace the bushings (just picked up the missing ones today) and another set of the stick bases.