rtn9105

My Feedback: (35)

How to you guys drill the holes in your ailerons, elevators, and rudder for the bolt type control horns? The manual for my plane says to make sure the hole is drilled 90deg to the center line of the control surface but how do you make sure the correct angle is drilled for each hole and that each hole matches the others?

Newc

I start out by pushing t-pins through the top and bottom parts of the control horns and then follow this hole with a drill.

da Rock

One thing I always do (when possible) that makes that lousy job a lot easier.............

I figure out where the horn will go before I hinge that surface up to the wing/stab/whatever. And then I mark the location of the holes. AND DRILL THE HOLES ON MY DRILLPRESS!!!!!!

Guaranteed that all the holes are lined up with each other. Don't have one screw coming out pointing left and another pointing back and the third pointing godknowswhere.

That job originally was the WORST task I faced. Those holes are hard to reach and impossible to drill even two of them that are lined up. It sucks. But only if you try to do it on the airplane. Do it off the airplane, with only the surface to deal with, and it's dead easy.

da Rock

I did that job just last night on an ARF I'm getting ready for today.

All the time I was doing it, I was spitting and fuming about how IT USED TO BE SO FRUSTRATING...... and it was going so good last night, BUT it has been such a lousy thing in years past..... so VERY lousy! that I was still mad about how it used to be.

I think it took me about a minute or maybe two for each horn. Jeez, I wish I'd figured out the better way back when I was just starting.

da Rock

BTW, another hint............

I take each of those tiny, tiny little screws over to my belt sander. And I put a very small (just a hint) taper on the end threads. Just brush the end threads against the sanding belt at a 45degree angle.

It puts a very slight "mostly flat point" on the end of that tiny screw.

When the screw comes through the hole in the surface and encounters the horn plate on the other side, the taper will start the screw into the hole in the plate.

Having the drilled holes all in alignment, and having the screws find their holes automatically really makes that job a breeze.

AND DANG THAT JOB USED TO SUCK BIGTIME!!!!!!!!! Jeez, I'm feeling angry just thinking about how it used to be. Man, it sucked. The bloody holes always were skewed all to hell and the screws would never grab into the plates even when they happened to be pointed at the plate's holes and you were usually laying on your side and the model was perched half on and half off the table and would slide around and the stupid screwdriver would always slip and stick in the plane and......... gggrrrrrrrrrrrr spit........... [:@]

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Quick, someone find darock's meds!!!

For those of you who don't have a drill press, what I used to do is to try to keep the holes aligned, but after drilling, wobble the drill around a bit to widen the hole. 95% OF THE HOLDING POWER COMES FROM THE CLAMPING ACTION AND NOT THE SCREW (Ooops, sorry, caps lock)

If you really feel that you want to keep the holes tight, you can always slap some epoxy in there before screwing on the backplate

Hill202

My Feedback: (24)

I've been using these, you only need to drill one hole. Much easier

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXD932&P=RF

jzinckgra

My Feedback: (11)

Haha. So true, so true.[sm=biggrin.gif]

rtn9105

My Feedback: (35)

Sorry guys I guess I wasn't very clear on the type of horns I'm using.
I'm using horns like the ones that Hill202 suggested. The problem is trying to get the hole drilled perpendicular (90°) to the aileron cross section rather than the ailerons surface. Even if a drill press is used there's still the question of how to hold the aileron at the correct angle to get the hole perpendicular to the cross section.
I attached an image to give a better idea

Again sorry for the confusion and thanks for the help

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

In that case, place it on a drill press and block up the TE with some scrap until the Control Surface is level

If you don't have a drill press, you could drill a hole through a block and sand a slant on one edge. Then use the block as a drill guide

crownvic

You no when I have these problems I go stay at a Holiday Inn

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

I knew exactly what rtn9105 was talking about. I kept reading through this thread--wondering when someone was going to tell him how to do it right.

MinnFlyer to the rescue again. Your diagrams are so neat. [sm=thumbup.gif] Thats exactly how I do it. This works really well in a drill press--also works fine with a cordless drill if your careful and use a level to assure that your drilling straight down and not off at an angle.

Ernie Misner

Still, LOTS of good information here in general. With soft balsa, you can put a few pin holes in the whole area and soak a little thin CA in to make it stiffer. With the nylon, 3 screw type of horns, take the tiny screws and screw them in and out of the backing plate BEFORE trying to assemble the horn on the aileron. That makes them much easier to start. Another good idea is to just drill one of the 3 holes first, and put the horn and it's backing on with just one screw. THEN drill the other 2 holes using the horn as a guide. Also, as was mentioned perhaps, go ahead and mount the horns on the aileron before even permanently hinging it onto the wing.... much easier.

Ernie

aleeser

I have some of these and they are much easier. I mounted these on scrap material and looked at how strong they are. the traditional horn is much stronger then the 'quick fix'. Is there anything you use to make them stronger or you use them as is? plywood back plates, soak whole area with ca? I'm too chicken to rely on them. just recently, doing the traditional thing, got so mad, put my fist thru wing of hangar9 p51 w/retracts! No more horn problems! Ha ha. Please reasure these horns you suggest work well and i'll try them, thanks.

Tom Nied

Gasp. I just completed this task on a current ARF, I've done it before, hated doing it in the past, hated doing it today. OK, I can get the position of the horn location, but when it comes to drilling. Well, the nasty words that come out of me would never be seen here. I don't see how using a drill press helps when (for me) the actual position can only be determined when you have the stab/elevator and the vertical stab/rudder already glued in. So with a heavy drill in hand or a Dremel that goes right to 5000 rpm when you turn it on, good luck getting a clean hole. There's got to be a better way. I've even looked at close quarter drills as possible solutions. I wish I could come up with something like a prop drilling guide. A good exercise to experiment between planes. Drives me nuts drilling through MonoKote and the drill bit wanders, grabs, tears, makes a hole that looks like dog doo doo. I've ca'd my holes and will fill whatever gaps I have with aliphatic when I do the final install tomorrow.