Anyone know where I can get a 6mm nose strut pin? I can get 1/4" and other SAE sizes from Robart or Tower Hobbies but not the metric. BVM has them for $18 a piece! Yikes. The typical Robart unit is like $4. Does Hobby King stock them? I like to have a couple spares in my flight box.
Thanks!!
Dom

Might find some here

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...ding_Gear.html

Ream out your retract/leg etc to 1/4" (6.35mm) then use the more realistically priced ones.

$18 for a 6mm pin! wonder would he buy a hundred if I made them!

Actually it would be the opposite. 1/4" is slightly smaller than 6mm. It would work though.

Vin...

...get an alen key screw M6
cut out the thread and file down the head

http://www.troybuiltmodels.com/items/PROPPBOLT655.html

my 2c

A 6mm drill bit would work too...
Vin...

Thanks! That is exactly what I was looking for. I looked for bolts like that locally but could not find any.

Vin, it needs a head on it or the strut will fall out of the retract[X(]

6mm = 0.2362 inch
1/4 = 0.2500 inch

Using a cut down bolt might work in a pinch but a bolt is not going to be as tight of a fit in the gear/strut, it might wobble some possibly causing imprecise steering.

You can get headed pins from www.McMaster.com P/N 98378A736 $10.24 each

or

You can use a Metric Pullout Dowel Pin with flat vent P/N 98432A240 $1.48 each
Thes are drilled and tapped on one end with the intent that you could put in a screw to pull the pin out of a hole it was pressed into. You can put a screw that will bottom out in the hole and red loctite it in to be the head that you need. An added benefit is that these have a flat ground all the way down one side that would be great for your setscrew to land on. they are also available without the flat if you don't need it.

or

As mentioned, you can ream (Do not drill) everything out to 1/4 to gain a little strength and get more common pins.

1/4" as stated in post is 6.35mm
6mm is perfect size for a 1/4" reamer you should be able to pick one up on eBay, much better than a drill as will give you a perfect round hole.
The other benifit for you to go to 1/4" is it will get rid of the bit of wear/slop in your 6mm hole.

Excellent idea Jeff using the threaded dowel pin, I have used dowel pins before for retracts, but never thought about the threaded ones

Are the pins from McMasters hardened enough to be used without bending when used on grass fields? They have to be able to resist the loads we see on these arcraft within reason of course.
I've used the 1/4" from Robarts a couple of years ago and they're still hanging in there.

The McMaster pins are RC56.
They are rated for a 6.000lb breaking strength in double shear.
I have been using the 6mm dowel pins on my 22lb jet on rough grass and have not broke or bent one yet.

Cool. It's nice to know where to pick up a couple in a pinch..


Thanks...

If you just need a plain straight pin, they are around $10 for a bag of 25 pins.

Call them pins for jets and you will be able to charge $10 a piece

Giving this some thought hardend pins will transfer all the loads of a landing back into the retract and supporting structure, with just a little give the supporting structure will last a lot longer on rough landings/fields, what would you prefer bent pins, or ripped out UC?

This is why trailing link legs are so much better on rough grass.

Mike

Mike

If you buy Behotec retracts they supply ground hardened dowels as standard. These are supplied because they are brittle and will break if you have a very heavy landing much in the same way as flex plates. This is to avoid having mounts ripped out. I can confirm that the theory works. I had a heavy landing once with my Horten and the nose leg dowel broke, saving doing damage to the mount. This was a 8mm dia hardened pin. Behotec offer a softened dowel if requested should you prefer the dowel to bend rather than snap. When you see/handle the dowels you cannot imagine that they would break.

John

John

Same theory different solution, all accords on the modulus of elasticity of the steel, I think I would prefer them to bend rather than break and having a loose strut banging about on the underside of the fus.

Mike

If you want a bendable pin then piano wire is as good as any, for the tophat/shoulder cut a groove near the end with a dremel and fit an E clip

Well I am still out of luck here. I went out to buy the 6 mm bolts and as it turns out the shoulder on those is only .230 dia and the stock pin is .236 dia. I cant belive that Dreamworks does not stock these pins. I did not see them on the website and e-mailed them a couple days ago but have gotten no response yet. McMaster Carr does not have the headed pins in metric so that is out. My next attempt at finding this part is to try for some metric ejector pins.

McMaster does have what you need as in my post.

Dom,

You need to get this puppy in the air! [8D]
The end is in sight buddy.

Shaz

Cant understand how 6thou can be a problem? is the shoulder/head not just a retainer?

Find a 6mm pin, drill bit or whatever and solder a washer or wheel collar to the top?? do some grinding to make it the right size.
Vin...

Dom
McMaster has what you want if you don't want to ream out to 1/4"

You can get the Precision Ejector Pin P/N 93772A246 which costs $5.88 ea

This is a 15/64" precision ground pin

15/64" = .234 = 5.94 mm