Dubro pinned hinge
 

Hey all. Question about dubro pinned nylon hinges with cotter pin, I pulled them out to repair covering which I think would be the difficult part turns out that was easy but reinstalling those cotter pins a different story. Has anyone done this? If so what was your process? Thanks

I haven't used pinned hinges like that in many years. I know the first thing I would do is to use all new cotter pins. If you can't find any, call Dubro direct. They should be able to get you a whole box of them on the cheap. To put the hinge in, i would use an exacto blade inbetween the tines of the hinge just far enough in to not really spread them out. Hold it in place while you push it in with a small screwdriver or something. Then splay out the tines on the far end of the cotter pin with a sturdy knife blade.

carl

I have a few planes that instead of a cotter-pin, I used a solid wire down the hinge line. Similar to a "piano style" hinge, using all the hinges on any particular hinge line.... On the outside area, I simply bent over an "L" that's an inch or so long, and ironed a strip of matching covering over that to secure everything. If you're careful, it will all be very concealed and nobody but you will even see it.

I've got one plane that's 19yrs old that I did that on, and even though I thought I'd never need to remove the control surfaces, I did have to take a few of them off for some repair a few years ago. That wire hinge line really helped, just a simple slit in the end where I'd secured it, and a tug or two on that wire, and my control surface was off... then repaired, and reinstalled, and again a simple strip of covering over the end "L" portion, and I hopefully won't have to take it off for 15 more years.

Take a hinge to the hobby shop, and go through the wire selection carefully, and you should fine a wire that will precisely fit into that hinge(where the cotter-key was). Don't use anything else or try to enlarge the hinge itself, but a correct size wire will work... and when you find it, it will be precise. If they have one there and you find it, you'll see what I'm talking about. Good luck with it.

PS... yes those cotter-keys are a pain. I'll never use them again.

Same here, some piano wire and just bend the ends.

Cotter pin
 

Thanks for reply’s, I got ahold of dubro new cotter pins on the way.