Shadow99

I done good tonight! AXE CP vs Earth, Earth wins! I was practicing forward flight in circles, and doing fairly well, landed to let it cool down. Loaded in a fresh battery, took off, and started FF, figured that figure 8's were next. First couple 8's were ugly (and large), so I decreased the diameter of the 8, apparently too much, too fast[:@]! Knife-edge flight with a fixed-wing I can handle, rotary-wing I'm definitely NOT ready for!
The bird rolled 90' and before I could compensate, a full FACE PLANT into good'ol mother Earth!

Damage is as follows: tail motor mount snapped off boom, (boom only has small dent from blade strike)
paddle bar bent (in a perfect radius around main shaft)
both blade holder ball ends snapped off
center stabilizer hub ball ends snapped off
main gear missing teeth (3 teeth in one spot)
pitch control linkage bent (servo OK)
I test the electronics, all is OK, no servo damage (amazing), put a indicator on the main shaft (.0004" runout). Measured a brand new shaft in a "saint mary's gauge," and got (.0002" runout), figuring the extra (.0002") I got is bearing play.
Order the parts I didn't have, now I've got time to make some upgrade parts, titanium city here we come...

Shadow

strat1960s

Shaddow 99,

What parts are you fabricating from Ti?

Ted

strat1960s

Shaddow 99,

What parts are you fabricating from Ti?

Ted

Shadow99

Ted,
Just finished first program for the main shaft (quick & easy program), just waiting for the "dog & pony show" that's on the machine right now, to get OFF (hopefully by Friday)! Was gonna make maybe 1/2 dozen shafts, then make turnbuckles to replace those crappy Z-bend linkages for the swashplate, (a little more technical with the programing/tooling & setup).
After that, I'm not sure, the machines only take round or hex stock up to 1.25" in diameter, (4mm/7mm/12mm/16mm/20mm & 32mm sized machines), capabilities include: turning, milling, drilling, and all sorts of other stuff, all at the same time (yes, I've crashed them too, but I get paid to fix them), link www.cma-citizen.com Got any ideas? Just gotta look in the "candy store" (stock room), to see what's available for materials, (nothing better than when a customer leaves Titanium, 7000series aluminum, and all sorts of other barstock behind).

Rick

thestratcat

My Feedback: (12)

oh how I would cut off an arm to have access and knowledge to a machine shop....




(I'd build all kinds of stuff, helicopters, cars, guns)

Shadow99

I just wish I had 3 phase power on my street[:@], so I could put a couple of our older CITIZEN machines in my 2 car garage. I be more than willing to boot the signifigant other's vehicle to the outdoors [>:](like mine, always), the other side has my toys (wood sailboat & antique tractor, kiddy cornered). Maybe I need an addition? Just another 2000sqft, might be enough, (oops, that's twice the size of the house[X(], ah, grampa always said, "BIGGER IS BETTER!!!"

Rick

strat1960s

Shadow99,

Well, the vehicle maintenance shop I work in has a full machine shop, but I only know how to use the drill press. I left everything else to our machinist. Unfortunatley for me he's deployed to the Middle East for the next 7 months. I know he has a few lathes and some computerized do-dads, but I don't know what they are or what they do. If I had the knowledge, I'd maching myself all the CNC stuff for the AXE CP on the Tower Hobbies website. I'd also machine myself an aluminum tail motor mount. Do you have the capabilities to do those parts?
Have you looked into intalling the ball type linkages in place of the z-bar linkages that came with our helis?
I know all about not having enough room in the garage. I have all my automotive tools, a wood working bench, drill press and a couple of saws on one side of my garage. And since we get a little too much snow in Montana, My 65 Mustang takes up the other half of the garage. I'm thinking the next house I buy will either have a three car garage or a separate workshop in the back yard.
This is why I keep her in the garage from October to May.

Let me know if you're able to do any head or tail parts.

Ted

Shadow99

Aluminum tail motor mount I've looked at, gonna take some time to backwards engineer it, nevermind programing it. Started another program tonight for the 3.8mm ball ends with a M2x0.4 stud & nut. The servo horn might need to be opened up a bit, but we'll try it.
Nice '65, by the way!

Rick

strat1960s

Let me know how they turn out.

Ted

Shadow99

Alright, made some 3.8mm ball ends with a 2mm stud & nut (out of 2024-T6 aluminum, nasty tough stuff), just as prototypes. Drilled out the servo horn to .080" to accept the stud (.078" dia.), installed the stud & the darn thing snapped[:@]! Of course I had to make 8 pieces of junk, before I got 1 that was within spec (fully round ball, right diameter stud, and pitch diameter), typical of swiss-style screw machines.
Now its back to the drawing board, I think we'll try 1.5mm stud next. Gotta find new tooling to fit the machine, so I can pickoff the stud. It's tough making mirco sized parts on a 32mm machine[:'(], drop a part, its gone forever[:@]! Got to get to my LHS, and hope he has replacement servo horns that fit the AXE servos.
I'll keep you all updated.

Shadow

Heliko

I was curious why are you making these ball ends?

Also as far as aluminum tail housings go there's a simpler solution (see pic). [link=http://cgi.ebay.com/rc-helicopter-CNC-tail-honey-bee-CP2-Blade-CP_W0QQitemZ250167189941QQihZ015QQcategoryZ2563QQs sPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]Here's a link [/link]to one on ebay. They are getting hard to find though. I know it doesn't look exactly like the Axe tail housing, but I've been using one just like it, but made of plastic for some time on my Axe and it works great. I initially made the switch to better protect the wires, but it also worked well with my DD tail.

Shadow99

CAUSE THEY'RE FREE!!!!!
All it takes is some time to program & set-up the machine, material is FREE also, I can choose from aluminium, stainless steel, nylon, titainium, and whatever else is around for FREE! Keyword here being "FREE!"

Rick

Heliko

aaaaah, OK that makes sense. [8D]

Shadow99

I'm going back to work on the "ball end stud Version II," since my E-board is toast[sm=cry_smile.gif]! Might as well make some upgrades, for when/if I can get the AXE fuctioning again. Got the tooling in for the threaded-turnbuckles as well, we'll give those a shot as well.

Rick

Heliko

If you mean converting the Z-bends to ball type links I just did that mod too, but I had to buy the parts.

Anyway if your interested [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=6396682]here's a link[/link] to my set-up.

After you get everything machined post some pics if you can.

Iceman140

Hey Shadow-

Did you read in the other thread how I grew up in Westfield? I never really liked the Bombers of WHS. Go Rams!!! (At least I think that's Southwick's team).

Oh how loyalties change when money and opportunity rears its ugly head.

Ed

Shadow99

Hey Ed,
I didn't grow up in Southwick, grew up in E. Longmeadow (Spartans), when the company I worked for moved from EL to Agawam, I hated crossing the South End Bridge so much, I bought a house in Southwick, a stones throw from Congamond Lakes. Although now I hardly ever spend time at the office, except for making parts for the AXE CP & doing some indoor flying, when nobody is around, like today with the RotoPig! "Any day out of the office, makes for a better day!" Unless you have to drive 4 hrs to the customer's facility, like tomarrows road trip to Derby Line,VT nothing quite like 8hrs of driving for less than an hour's worth of work.

Rick

PilotLight

My Feedback: (1)

Rent a plane.

Iceman140

Driving is the reason I got out of service work and the Electrician's union. Now I drive 4.6 miles to work and do electro-mechanical work as a production support maintenance guy. But I will be driving to climb Mt Washington this weekend.....oh yeah.......

Ed

ps, never really liked the Southwick team much.

MMatheny

So, will this work with the stock tail motor (I just replaced my plastic one this weekend because it wallowed out where it fits on the tail motor shaft)

Heliko

MMatheny it should work. As I said I'm using the plastic version and both my BL and the OE motor are 12mm wide. Worst case if it is a little tight some minor dremeling should alleviate fitment issues.

BTW before I switched to my present tail housing I used [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHHE4&P=7]this tail housing[/link] from GWS which more resembles the OE Axe housing, but the GWS housing is both stronger and better made when compared to the flimsy OE Axe CP tail housing.

Here's some comparo pics I took a while back...

MMatheny

Thanx! BTW what's the little tube on the bottom of the OEM mount for? It doesn't go all the way through - is there supposed to be a set screw in there??

Heliko

It's for a rod that prevents tailrotor contact with the ground. The Axe has a fin instead but as you can see it's used in this pic of the Rotofly.

strat1960s

I checked out the link on ebay for the tail motor mount. I thought that a few bucks to see if it works is worth it to me. I think the bidding ends this weekend. If I win the bidding it'll probably show up around the same time that I get my heli back from hobby services. Thanks for the heads up.

Ted