Fabrication of elevator trim components and push rods was the order for this week. The trim motor housing was completed to the point of final riveting. At this point the alodine/prime sequence will be used to treat the parts before assembly.
The distance between the attach brackets for the trim bellcrank must be measured carefully to ensure parallelism for the faces, properly aligning the pivot bolt with the trim motor. Here an analog caliper is used to check the distance from the front edge to the back edge. After a number of adjustments, I was able to get the faces within .005″ of parallel.
The elevator pushrod is made from a 73″ piece of AT6-035 x 1.5″ aluminum tubing and an appropriately sized threaded insert. Here the circumference of the tube is measured for accurately drilling six evenly spaced #30 holes. After alodine/prime these parts will be connected with long shanked pop rivets.
A spring-loaded center punch is used to mark the six rivet holes 1/4″ from the edge of the tube. After processing on the drill press, the clecoed parts are checked for correct alignment.
Also during the week I finished the end cap for the rudder bottom. Looks nice.