Brian,
Snap -- did this yesterday and had similar sort of problems.
The geometry makes it easy to make the holes too low. I drilled 5/8 with a
spade cutter and then widened them by hand with the sanding drum on a
Dremel, but found that most of the material had to be taken off the top of
the holes. The upper legs are a tight fit sideways and it was necessary to
grind most of the resin off the aluminium plates at either side of the top
of the tunnel. Once I got it started in the holes, it was a question of
marking with chalk to find the high spots (both in the top of the tunnel and
the fuselage floor) and then grinding these back with the Dremel.
A tip I adopted from John Baker was to redux pieces of solid aluminium rod
inside the legs to reinforce the holes and stop any tendency of the legs to
collapse when the bolts were tightened.
Best regards,
Nick
-----Original Message-----
Subject: Landing Gear Mounting Frame
I am trying to get my landing gear mounting frame into the front of the
firewall. Boy, it's a tight fit! How have people gone about this?
I tried hitting it with a mallet, but there was not much progress.
Also, how do you get it in: put the lower legs into their holes and
then pound the top in, or try to get it to go in simultaneously?
And finally: how did you drill the holes for the lower legs? I don't think
I have a very good position marked, so if I use a minimum sized hole of 3/4"
they will probably not be in the right place.
Brian
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