Devin W.C. Ryan

Rudder Push Rod Slot

Building Aero3D Day 70 & 71: Push Rods and Rudder Hinges

Last Sunday Peter came over and we re-orientated ourself to my Aero 3D building project.  It has been a long time since last working on it!  After discovering where we left off we got the elevator push rod slot made and cut down to size (exciting to use my Dremmel).  Took quite a bit of time.  Then determined next steps.

On Wednesday, I took a look at my plane with my daughter.  She was excited to help daddy and stood up at the workbench on a chair, checking out the fuselage.  I worked the push rod as best I could trying to determine where it should come out of the fuselage, marked the spot and started a slot.  I’m leary as to how well this is going to work out.

Why you ask?  I discovered that my push rods are utilizing ‘U’ hooks when for the hopeful aerobatics planned for this plane, another aeromodeler commented on a social media post that I should be using ‘Z’ bends.  Thankfully that should be a fairly easy fix, just hoping everything lines up without many adjustments.  Will confir with Peter about this too.

Thursday, I did make other headway using the hinge slot tool.  With the rudder in my vise I cut two slots and finished them with an exacto knife.  I had to do the one closest to the top fully with the knife as the tool wouldn’t fit.  You can see the hinges in the rudder, left image below.

Next I moved back to the fuselage and made the three slots for the hinges to go into the fuselage.  I test fitted with a spare hinge, carving out any excess with the knife.  You can see the fit, with the hinges pushed into both the fuselage and rudder in the right image below.

That is where I left off for now.  With the rudder hinged to the fuselage my next step is to verify my push rod slot is going to line up the rod to where it needs to connect to the rudder for control.

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