scale hings
11-14-2005 | 12:23 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 72
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: middlesex,
NJ
scale hings
Hi guys I am looking for some help. I like scale aircraft, epecially WWII. I would like to know how to make scale hinges. I have the Dave Platt tapes but he does not go in to a lot of detail Any help? Thanks in advance.
11-14-2005 | 06:29 PM
#2
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 1,390
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: East Cobb County,
GA
RE: scale hings
Scratching up scale hinges is a lot like the 'model car' kits that were popular a long time ago : a kid saved up his Coke bottle refunds, delivered papers, and did odd jobs to scrounge up enough money for one of those kits (actually just a few bucks). When he opened the box he saw a small swatch of sandpaper, a block of pine, and a one-liner for instructions which said, "Sand the wood until it looks like the picture on the box".
Form follows function, and scale hinges which look like the 1:1 usually work like the 1:1.
As for fabrication, I use whatever materials are suitable. Photos show the aileron hinge and servo rod/horn lash-up in a 33% L-4, where the ailerons are Frise type with the hinge pivot line below the aileron.
First photo shows the plan view, second photo shows the implementation as modified to suit photos I took of the 1:1 version.
The hinge is built as shown in the plan view. What is not shown in the plans or the finished hinge is the provision for bushings in the hinge. The DuBro rod end is over-drilled to accept brass tubing, which is soldered into the rod end and then re-drilled to accept the 4-40 socket head screw. The thin brass 'lining' of the rod end goes a long way toward making the hinge slop free and long-lived.
The plywood aileron horn shown in the photo is one of several prototypes I made while trying to get the servo geometry about right. The finished aileron horn is hand-fiddled from aluminum flat stock, and it too has a length (a very _short_ length) of brass tube which fits on the 4-40 socket head machine screw and which serves as a bushing between the threaded screw and the aluminum flat stock. Once assembled, the brass bushing is trapped on the screw between the clevis sides.
It's one thing to fiddle up the materials to get the scale hinge to look right, but adding bushings where needed makes the hinge (and horn assembly) live a lot longer than it would without bushings.
The vast majority of 'scale' hinges can be replicated with Robart hinge points, and only the most discerning observer who has seen the 1:1 might spot the subterfuge.
If you can fool most of the people most of the time, you're done.
Form follows function, and scale hinges which look like the 1:1 usually work like the 1:1.
As for fabrication, I use whatever materials are suitable. Photos show the aileron hinge and servo rod/horn lash-up in a 33% L-4, where the ailerons are Frise type with the hinge pivot line below the aileron.
First photo shows the plan view, second photo shows the implementation as modified to suit photos I took of the 1:1 version.
The hinge is built as shown in the plan view. What is not shown in the plans or the finished hinge is the provision for bushings in the hinge. The DuBro rod end is over-drilled to accept brass tubing, which is soldered into the rod end and then re-drilled to accept the 4-40 socket head screw. The thin brass 'lining' of the rod end goes a long way toward making the hinge slop free and long-lived.
The plywood aileron horn shown in the photo is one of several prototypes I made while trying to get the servo geometry about right. The finished aileron horn is hand-fiddled from aluminum flat stock, and it too has a length (a very _short_ length) of brass tube which fits on the 4-40 socket head machine screw and which serves as a bushing between the threaded screw and the aluminum flat stock. Once assembled, the brass bushing is trapped on the screw between the clevis sides.
It's one thing to fiddle up the materials to get the scale hinge to look right, but adding bushings where needed makes the hinge (and horn assembly) live a lot longer than it would without bushings.
The vast majority of 'scale' hinges can be replicated with Robart hinge points, and only the most discerning observer who has seen the 1:1 might spot the subterfuge.
If you can fool most of the people most of the time, you're done.
