Steve one point that has not been brought up in the hinge thread is the positioning of the actual pivot point. Dean CAD designed the Dr. Dean elevator hinge using the existing spar height to achieve a pivot point that would be centered as the elevator pivoted. This enables you a achieve a much better gap seal. Trust me, I built the alum hinges and then the Dr. Dean hinges. There is no comparison. If you want to save money, I would encourage you to look elsewhere in the airplane.
When the KR plans came out, I doubt there were many affordable bearings you could find to install. That is not the case now. It just so happens I worked on the bellcrank and elevator pushtube this week. Once again, this is just for illustration and is not posted as the perfect way to do it, just something to consider. These are my bellcrank parts. They are nothing more than .062 with bends at the top and bottom to accomodate rod end bearings. The bearing flange is also .062 so a spacer is inserted on the larger arm of the bellcrank. http://rvflying.tripod.com/fd1.jpg Clecoed together http://rvflying.tripod.com/fd2.jpg Riveted together with AN4 rivets. Rivets can be set using a backing plate, to accomodate the factory head, and a hammer. You don't need a squeezer or C-frame. http://rvflying.tripod.com/fd3.jpg This shows the rod end bearing and the pushtube end stuck together. All you do is insert the pushtube end in the pushtube, drill it and pop rivet it together. Instant pushtube. Now when you compare this to the existing KR elevator cable system, this arrangement may be appropriate for your install. By the time you buy shackles, cable loop inserts, bolts, nuts, swedges, swedging tool, AN turnbuckles to take out the stretch of cables and the cable itself, it gets into your wallet. The pushtube material list I sent to Colin was something like $69.00. If you have the material on hand, you could build the pushtube in less than an hour. http://rvflying.tripod.com/fd4.jpg OK, here's my question for the list. Look at this picture http://rvflying.tripod.com/fd6.jpg The bottom of the firewall to longeron points are much stronger than the top attachment points. The top gussets are rivet on, the bottom powder coated bracket is bolted on. A vertical gusset behind the rudder pedals there attaches the same bracket to the vertical firewall angle. Now, look at the plate between there at the back of the center longeron and bottom longeron (which is huge). This plate ties the center and bottom longerons together and then to the center spar section. In additions there is a gusset that once again is bolted through the lower longeron and then is bolted to the center section using the actual wing attach bolts. When I built my KR, a reinforcement angle was added to the top portion on shelf. I think I know why, but I posted this to maybe arouse some KR discussion whether this would be something appropriate for KRs. What are the structural properties of all this bottom reinforcement and would it be something to incorporate into a KR? Or, is there even a reason to consider this in a KR. There's the question:-) BTW, Scott Cable..................I'll take you up on that beer thing:-) Dana Overall 1999 & 2000 National KR Gathering host Richmond, KY RV-7 slider/fuselage, Imron black, "Black Magic" Finish kit ordered!! Buying Instruments. Hangar flying my Dynon. http://rvflying.tripod.com do not archive _________________________________________________________________ Get a FREE computer virus scan online from McAfee. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963
