Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: Isablcorky(at)aol.com
Mike,I read your description of the drilling of the fittings and I'm confused; "I start the hole straight in and then rotate the tubing to where the angle is correct and then finish drilling. The started hole will be able to hold the drill in place."We have finished our landing gear and have the fuselage up on the gearand didn't go about it that way. The plans show a much simpler way todrill the holes and they come out easily and quickly.Cut the fittings to the required length and deburr, place in a "vee" blockand set on end, mark the 1/8" offset with a centerpunch and drill the1/4" hole. No angle drilling required or needed. The "vee" block safelyholds the fitting straight up for drilling.Then, as the plans call out, file the flat to an approximate angle, settingthefitting on the plate, to which it will be welded later, which is placed ontheupside down fuselage at the proper locations. Insert a long 1/4" rod toconnect the forward and rear bushings, being careful of sag in the rod, andcheck how much fileing of the angled flat is needed.Then as described by a previous lister, align, mark, clamp and tack weldthe fitting to the plate and adjust as required using a drill rod insertedinboth forward and rear bushing/plates for alignment and finish welding. Ofcourse, do the welding off the fuselage, no need to set fire to thestructurein the excitement of the moment.Rodger ChildsPiet in progress________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By: "Rodger & Betty Childs"
Rodger,You said it well. The only thing I can add is, I have one of those HarborFreight lathes, so I turned the ends of the stock pieces flat and square (though this isn't really necessary) after center pinching the position ofthe hole, I just held the piece with a vise grip vertical on the drillpress bed to get a straight hole. Think the trick is to use a small bitfirst so it will find the punch mark. Then with the fittings on the planeand the fuse upside down, thread the 1/4 rod through both pieces and laythem in place on the brackets. Now eyeball from the side at the lightunder the round stock.( they'll just naturally stay in the right positiondue to more meat on the bottom, like a pendulum) Now keep grinding off thepoint of contact of the round stock pieces till the contact goes full lengthof both pieces.What it boils down to is the flat edges of both round stock have to beperpendicular to each other while sitting on two angled surfaces.Lastly, and irregularities will be gone when you line drill them for 5/16"bolts.walt---------------------------------------------------------- Original Message -----

Original Posted By: Edwin Johnson
Walt,It's been said that building your own plane is supposed tobe a learning experiance, and boy have I ever been learning.We fussed and fumed and worried the landing gear intocreation, even made two jigs along the way to help withalignment and still ended up with a gear track 1" narrowerthan called out for. Then it turns out that someone else hasa different approach to make some of the work easier. Sigh.I was going to use the vise-grips to hold the bushings for drilling, but my partner is an A&P and so I felt it necessaryto use the vee block instead to impress him. His commenton the matter was something to the effect, "a vee block? Iwould have used the vise-grips." Oh well.The real test though will come when we get the plane assembledjust before covering and run it up and down the field to checkif the Piet tracks straight or not. I've got the idea that we aregoing to be the lowest paid test pilots and engineers around.RodgerPiets from the hill country of Texas________________________________________________________________________________Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 13:46:49 -0500 (CDT)