What have I gotten myself into!: Main landing gear

Standing on her own two legs (4.5 hrs)

It has been a long chapter 9 so far, but today I am going to finish the remaining part of this installation, and finally get this fuselage to stand.

There will be a few more knick-knacks left to do, like the brake lines, relief tubes, machine-guns, etc. but the “meat and potatoes” of the installation will be over, and since I have already completed the steps you are about to read, I’ll switch back to past tense.

I was just kidding about the machine-guns, of course.

Dried up fiberglass with plenty of sharp edges

I started by taking the axle off, which is not as easy as it sounds. This time I used a heat gun to warm it up, until I could feel the threaded part of the bolts (on the opposite side of the leg) getting warm. Then, I used a rubber mallet to persuade the bolts to let go, and spent some time sanding the rough edges down a bit.

Smooth like a baby's bottom

One thing I wanted to make more clear this time around, is how I made the paper template I used to trace the brake flange outline onto the gear leg. I realize that there are hundreds of ways to doing this, including NOT doing this at all, but the pictures that follow show how I did it.

Now that I think about it, if I were to do it again I would probably trace the pattern directly onto the leg. Doh!

Paper wrapped around leg bottom

Holes located

Hole making apparatus

More holes

Ok, here's the flange I was talking about, in position.

Tracing the flange upper contour on the leg... I mean paper... Doh!

Tracing the flange on the opposite side of the leg

Removing the template part representing the fiberglass that will be cut off

All the fiberglass above the paper template will be excised

With my template secured on both sides, I started chopping big chunks of fiberglass off with my vibrating saw.

Cut #1

Cut #2

Cut #3

Then I sanded, sanded, sanded until I got the profile I was looking for.

New leg bottom profile

Once again, the key here is to trim the least amount of structure that will still allow the brake assembly not to jam and bind on the fiberglass. 1/16” minimum of clearance as indicated in the plans (1.6 mm).

The brake housing needs to be able to slide back and forth without hitting the fiberglass leg.

I then marked the new profile on the aluminum plate, cut it on the band saw, and finished it on the belt sander.

Back plate in need of trimming

Back plate trimmed and sanded to fit

With the cutting and sanding portion completed, I mounted the brake assembly up on the gear leg, in preparation to receive the wheel assembly.

Brake assembly ready to receive the wheel

A view from the back side

Yes, I know it’s weird, but the disk must to be detached from the wheel and set loosely between the brake pads before the wheel can be installed.

The wheel/tube/tire assembly went together as easily as it did last time.

Ready to put together another wheel/tube/tire assembly

Tube is slightly inflated. Valve is lined up with the notch in the wheel, and the red dot on the tire.

Ready for installation

One problem I encountered, was that I could not singe the axle bold down to fully uncover the hole for the cotter pin. So, I left it slightly loose for the time being and continued on.

This wasn't supposed to happen!

I tore down the structure I had erected on the table, and flipped the fuselage off the table by myself. This thing is very heavy and awkward to handle now, with most of the weigh on the back hand, and I had to proceed in very small steps to get it down without damage. Having a couple of strong helpers would have been awesome, and I am sure that it happened in a parallel Universe.

So, here she is standing up on her own two legs for the first time.