I think a few of you said you cut the pins out and replace them? Seriously? So, is there a good video showing this? Do you put in one full length piano wire, or individual for each hinge? Do you fit them first, glue them in, and then remove the pins? Or...
When they were available, everybody used the Klett brand hinges, that came with loose leaves and the pins not installed - so never install them. Most others, you have to cut them out, then you have the loose leaves. Most of the others also require you to remove abundant molding flash around the barrel.
Once you have it done, and are ready to install the hinges, use a single pin the same size as the original (1/32" for Klett, and presumably DuBro (but measure it)). Install them with the pin in. When the glue dries remove the pin and you can remove the flap/elevators, too. Clean up any squeezeout. When you go to fly it, use a single pin the next smaller size down, I use .025 since it is easily available in straight pieces. This gives you some slop, which will free up everything. Put a 90 degree bend in the end and use clear tape to hold the pin in, then put in the seals.
Normally I install the hinges, and the seals, as the very last step, after the airplane is fully finished and ready to go. That way you don't have to worry about cleaning the paint out of the hinges, and the thickness of the paint doesn't reduce the clearance between the flap and the trailing edge.
Of course, make the horn a slip fit into the control surface, so you can remove the surface later. This has saved me several times when I could repair or replace the flaps for performance reasons, and I have 3 sets of flaps for one of the airplanes. The flaps were off the current airplane two days before we left for the NATs this year, while I was refinishing them after modifications.
Brett
p.s. without "engaging" further, I strongly recommend *not* recessing the hinges or hinge pin into the flap or trailing edge, or at least, making sure the leave is recessed just enough to get the barrel of the hinge, the outside part, even with the TE. IF you recess it, it makes applying the seals much more difficult or impossible without binding it all up. You *do not want* the pin to wind up binding on the surface, it has to float between them, even if it swells up a bit from humidity later. There is a little chamfer where the barrel meets the leaf, that, you can push into the wood.
p.p.s. I usually give credit for ideas I steal, in this case, Paul Walker.
Topic: Hinge techniques (Read 868 times)
