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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: rich gorrill on September 26, 2015, 03:20:41 PM
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Doing the fifth outside loop, don't know what happened, but it caught the ground. Both motor mounts snapped right behind the rear blind mounting nuts. It was fairly clean breaks, not smooth but jagged. Not much other damage, one plywood fuse. former semi-broke but not too bad. Small damage to top sheeting.
Question is how do I repair this? Is it safe to just epoxy the motor mounts back in?, should I build a new fuselage? The break in the motor mounts actually exposed the blind mounting nuts. Can I try making a new front end?
All replies appreciated
Rich
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what ever repair you do should include replacing the complete motor mounts
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Rich,
The best approach would be to remove the old mounts and replace with new maple ones. You can do this with a heat gun and a thin flat blade screw drive as a pry. Heat the mount along the glue line and work the screw drive blade in the front and slowly pry while adding more heat, it will pop off.
The other option is to epoxy the existing mounts back in place and adding small wood screws through the sides into the mounts. I would fit it in place tight and clamp it to the side then add the small wood screws. You might add a 1/16" top and bottom steel plate on each mount to bridge the break. You would have to shim the tank but it would be quicker.
Best, DennisT
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Thanks for the replies, the plane was given to a much more experienced club member for repairs yesterday. After hashing around many options he came up with a very good idea and I don't have the tools needed for the repair. He said no problem I'll fix it. Thanks for the help Bruce.
Rich