Nose and nose gear - part 10

Stashing the nose wheel for good  (6.0 hrs)

I could spend hours talking about what a pain in the ass it was to drill the holes in NG-3 to match the ones in NG-4, but let's just keep it short. 

I wasted a whole day making a “hole duplicator” that not only didn’t help, but actually made things worse, forcing me to become overly creative once again.

This is the way it should have worked

The ¼" stud attachment fit into the hole perfectly

In truth, the duplicator might have worked on softer metal, where the drill bit could have gotten a quick “bite”, unfortunately the hard and slippery nature of stainless steel left the bit wondered about aimlessly, dragging the duplicator with it to all the wrong places.

¼" stud attachment

Hole for starter drill bit

Taper-center attachment (for random size holes)

Adding a “stabilizer bar” helped a little, but in the end it just was not up to the task.

Stabilizer bolt to prevent shearing motion

Improved hole duplicator in action

The day's work left me with 4 holes (2 per side) all of which were drilled off center, and a bit unsure how to proceed.

Pissed off, I threw the duplicator in the garbage, but after cooling down, I dumpster-dove to retrieve it, and will probably try it again in the future on aluminum or fiberglass.

Out of desperation, I ended up fitting the complete leg on my mill, and used 1/8” end mill to cut through the outer bracket.

No more "Mr. Nice Guy"!

I centered the mill’s head by eyeballing the situation in a mirror, and making the proper XY corrections.

Checking for approximate concentricity at best

Satisfied that I was as centered as possible with the preexisting hole, I stepped it up to a 3/16th end mill, and finally a 1/4” one.

Enlarging the hole to ¼" (6.4mm)

A 1/4” drill bit was used to reach down to the other side, and mercifully finish the job.

Though that was NOT the best way to do it, in the end the job got done anyway, "So what... who cares!" 

I was tired but happy when the gear leg got put back on the nose of the plane for final testing.

Second, and hopefully final gear extension/retraction test.

I did have to move the upper limit microswitch up slightly to reclaim all the additional space I had carved out of F-22, and I also had a slight rubbing issue with one side of the notch in F-22, and that got easily taken care with a little sanding.

Things are good again now, and I’ll be moving on to the nose floor and sides next.