Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: "Gene Rambo"
To those of you who are building/have built this type of gear, doeseveryone heat and flatten the ends of the two spreader tubes as shown inthe drawings or is there a better way? I was thinking about welding anut to a washer (and then to the ends of the tubes) and moving them abit lower onto the ash block so that the bolt is square. Any ideas?________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By: owner-pietenpol-list-server(at)matronics.com
Hi Gene,I'm building this type of gear and flattened the tubes per the F&G manual.It took several tries, and I have two tubes that now are almost long enoughfor the rear spreader. After starting over and making finally two goodspreader bars that just fit, I looked at some pictures of Mike Cuy's andrealized that he put washers under the ends of the spreader bars so his barsdidn't have to be exactly the right length. I wish I had done that, becausewith the spreader bars right up against the struts, the bracing wirefittings are too tight and too close to the nuts on the bolts that hold thestruts to the bottom "V" fittings.Flattening the tubes is not difficult. Tony Bingelis describes theprocedure in the "EAA Aircraft Building Techniques - Welding" book. Theonly problem with these is that the bend must be angled in two differentdirections to fit the struts and it is difficult to jusdge exactly how longto make it with such a bend. My advice would be to try to make it an exactfit, but if you err, err on the short side and make it fit by building upwashers.Let me know if you need some pictures and I can send you some.Jack Phillips -----Original Message-----

Original Posted By: Larry Neal