RE: ZIROLI F9F PANTHER BUILD
Assembly (cont)
Posting this morning as I was 'beat' last night around 11 PM.
Steering:
pic 1/2:
I over killed and used a HS-645 servo for the nose steering (don't want any gear stripping).
Put simple loops on the oleo to prevent any 'hang ups' while the gear is being 'lowered'.
Some 4/40 clevises with adjustable threaded rods on the servo end.
Servo mounted on front of tank tray.
Some sullivan yellow push rod glued into one former for wire guides.
============
Exhaust pipe.
To save a few bucks (about $85), I bought a used exhaust pipe that was too long and has to be cut to make it fit.
Initially, I was going to just cut off the required amount so the end of the pipe just sticks out the back by a quarter inch, but the end of the pipe has some corrugated (like cardboard) metal holding the outside pipe in alignment for the outside pipe.
I could have, probably, just used four screws and about 8 nuts to hold the two pipes in alignment with each other but I decided to re-attached the last 2" to the front piece after cutting out the 'waste'.
The first cut was with a band saw to remove the back 2". I used my curved tin snips to trim a neat edge along the front edge of this 2" piece.
I want the back of the front exhaust piece to overlap an inch over the back piece so I aligned the back of the 2" piece where the end of the front total length is to be and then marked one inch back and cut along that line.
To connect the two pieces, I made multiple cuts along the back of the front piece 3/4" long and every 3/4" around the parameter. The back piece then has to be slide into the front piece getting all those slotted cuts inside the back piece. I used the scrap cut out as a sleeve to guide the outer slots while using a jewelers screw driver to guide each of the inner slots into the back piece.
The outer wall is the cooler wall so I used aluminum duct tape to hold the two piece together.
(This is probably all as clear as mud!)
(knowing now what I had to do to get the proper length, I'd probably just buy the correct length, even though the price was half)
pic 3:
Band saw for initial cut of 2" back piece.
pic 4:
The ends were then 'cleaned up' with some tin snips.
pic 5:
I marked where the total length is, aligned the 2" back piece to it and marked off 1" back for where to cut the front pipe.
pic 6:
curved tin snips to cut the two walls of the exhaust pipe.
pic 7/8:
I made multiple 3/4" long cuts every 3/4" along both walls.
The front piece was then slid into the back piece insuring all cut 'tabs' are on the inside.
Those cut tabs will create some turbulence at the end but I don't think it will be significant as 18 lbs of thrust should be more than enough for the speeds that I'll be flying.
pic 9:
The corrugation holds the two walls in alignment with each other.
pic 10:
Front of exhaust pipe 5/8" behind the turbine.