A little progress XL H-58

[Chuck in Indiana]

Welded the horizontal stab mount bushings. Made and welded the vertical stab mounts.Fit up the rudder, and hinged it. Bolted the elevator halves together. Drilled the front and rear stab connectors. Clecoed the rear stab.

Whew! Doesn't look like much, but took several hours. Done for the day.. it's beer o'clock.

[Chuck in Indiana]

I mentioned back when I was making "parts is parts" that this page didn't pencil out.

If the stab connectors are 4", why is the elevator connector 4 1/2"?
I couldn't see any reason, so changed the drawing.
Edit: on further review, if I had to do it again, I would move the horn 3/8+" outboard.
 While I was at it.. I don't mean to be a chicken little here.. but that lightening hole behind the hinge line makes that .032" elevator horn awfully weak. I left that one out. If you are flying one with the original design, I would *look* at that elevator horn at each pre flight. I have a "Jesus pin" on Mouser that I carefully inspect the same way.
Holding things in location with my ever present Delrin while clecoing the stab and elevators..

Yay.. the first time it's all together. Still need to come up with rudder and elevator stops.

Well, I had to take a picture. 

Had my Sweetie come out to inspect it, (she was an inspector at GM in her former life, and you can't imagine her attention to detail) and she said it was ok.

[Kamcoman77]

I made my elevator horn a little differently. I wanted the cable eye holes in line with the hinge pivot. The end result gave me more weld area, too.

[Chuck in Indiana]

That's certainly a more elegant design..and only a smidgen (technical term) heavier. 

[Chuck in Indiana]

Adjustable up elevator stop, fixed down elevator stop, and rudder stops tacked in.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Spent the morning designing the rudder pedals and (hopefully) toe brakes, made up a kit. some assembly required. 

Fit up, tacked, and one toe brake pedal welded..

parts is parts..

[Chuck in Indiana]

Finished welding all that stuff. Ran some string lines to see where I need fairleads. Found I needed 10.. and stronger string. 

Parting off some 7/8"X .062 to .490" for the fairleads..

A little more progress.

[Chuck in Indiana]

For those that haven't seen Piper fairleads, here's how they work..

Got some stronger string, and checked the cable runs.

Looks good to me. I'll have to get my Lovely Assistant to come out and hold them while I tack them. Maybe tomorrow.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Before I can run the cables, etc. I need to rig the tail. That means I get to make that fussy little fitting on the lower longeron that holds two tail brace wires.
Drew it on the cad

Politely asked the computer how long I should make the blank, and she said, "with half inch flanges, that will be 3.0462, sir."  If someone finds this in the future, she just saved you a little thinking.
Cut them out, bent up the flanges to 45 degrees, and put it in my little HF bending machine.

These things are so cheap that if you do any fabrication at all, you really can't not afford one. For occasional use, it's fine.. and I just throw it under the work bench so it's out of the way when not in use.
Nothin to it..

Tack those bad boys on there, and another little job done.

[Chuck in Indiana]

There's another gotcha on the detail drawings of how to rig the tail. It shows the cable fittings, bent at 45 degrees, and says "Make 10." When I'm building something, I generally make up the small parts first so I don't have to stop construction to fab something. I really never gave it a thought.. just dutifully made 10.  
Uhh, there are 12. 3 sets of 4 at different angles. None at 45 degrees.  Just sayin..
In my best Captain Kirk voice, "computer, make two more of those blanks."

Time to start painting stuff. Here's my high tech powder coating oven curing a bunch of parts.

This is my Even Higher Tech Powder Coating Paint Booth(tm) 

Ooh.. shiny..

Custom made cooling rack..

Probably a good idea I used my "Miss Piggy" industrial N95. 

 

[Chuck in Indiana]

Rigging. For those of you that haven't rigged an airplane before..the horizontal tail normally sags a bit at first. Lift it until level, and fit the bottom brace wires so it can't come up any higher then level. That way, you don't lose the rabbit when tightening or loosening the upper wires to make the vertical fin perpendicular.
It is not only ok, it is approved in FAA 4313 to trim the "tits" off the ends of the cable thimbles to get a tight fit.

Cable swaging is much easier with 2 people, but my Lovely Assistant wasn't available this morning. So far, so good.. just slow.

Some heat shrink tubing finishes the job neatly.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Tail feathers rigged. We'll leave final tensioning until after it is covered.

Canvas bakelite just like they used to make aircraft pulleys out of.  This will go in the end of the control column to keep the cable from rubbing the aluminum.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Maximum performance takeoff test.  Either the airplane got so excited a little wee came out    or the roof leaked in the rain we had last night. (sigh) There's always something..

Made up a bug nut.. don't ask me where the term came from.. to hold the caliper on the rotor to see if I can come up with some kind of mount.

Light would be good. Strong and light would be better. One piece, strong and light would be best. I may need to sleep on it.. I do my best work in bed.

[Dan_]

A Gentleman in California mounted his calipers this way...

https://www.angoraaffaire.com/leu/id48.htm

P.S.
There is a cad drawing of it floating around in cyber space somewhere...

[Chuck in Indiana]

Thanks for that, Dan.. (where *is* that thumbs up emoji?)  Different calipers, but something to sleep on..