pilotarix

Folks

thank's for your interest in my thread and sorry that I am so slow responding....
I try to solve the problems while things going forward and unfortunately I have a lot of them. I started with the idea to build a stainless steel-tube fuselage, like the original, instead of wood. The plan was to make that the"sole" modification at a Tony Clark PA18 kit from Germany. And in the beginning I never really thought about the problems that potentially could occur. So here I am, still in the middle of this "process" trying to find my own solutions.

I have the chance to use Solid Works for doing most of the CAD work, some CAD drawings were done with Alibre. The cutting templates for the tubing were done with Solid Works, but you can find also free software for that on the internet. And YES, it was done with sheet metal conversion. The cutting templates are useful for tubes with 5/16" inch and above. Below this diameter, I think there is no advantage anymore, because you barely can cut or grind smaller tubes as accurate as necessary.
I never thought about aluminum, because it is not easy to join the pieces. Yes, you can weld or even solder aluminum, but it is a way more difficult than soldering stainless steel tubes and I can't imagine that there is a real advantage in terms of weight. It might be less expensive and it is definitely much easier machinable.

If I would start from the beginning now, I would use the silver nickel alloy for the most important joints and 45% Silver solder for the "rest". That gives you the opportunity to work with different heat. And there might be less risk that while re-heating one of the joints, that everything falls apart.

In the last week I got my little lathe, which hopefully will give me the opportunity, to make some of the still missing parts myself. I have already made some bushings from brass to fit the diameter of the screws to the landing gear.

Chris