{"id":267,"date":"2013-03-17T14:10:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-17T21:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/?p=267"},"modified":"2013-03-17T14:10:45","modified_gmt":"2013-03-17T21:10:45","slug":"flight-controls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/?p=267","title":{"rendered":"Flight controls!"},"content":{"rendered":"

After many years of being disconnected, the flight controls are getting worked on!<\/p>\n

Now that I’ve got a 3D printer, can I easily make things that would be a costly nightmare to have fabricated by someone else, or done myself in metal.<\/p>\n

A good way to make a stick centering mechanism is to have a pushrod loaded with springs on either side of a bearing point.\u00a0 This is what I did with the flight controls in my 109F\/X cockpit and it works great on the F-15!<\/p>\n

Here’s the roll axis connection:<\/p>\n

\"Roll<\/a><\/p>\n

The grey parts in the image were printed on my 3D printer (a Rostock MAX by SeeMeCNC – http:\/\/www.seemecnc.com).\u00a0 The center point holds an LM8UU linear bearing.\u00a0 The bearing is held in place using a pair of wire ties.\u00a0 Since the bearing doesn’t receive any twisting or side-force, this is a perfectly adequate method of retaining the bearing in the mount.<\/p>\n

The pushrod is a 5\/16″ plated rod that makes it about 7.95mm in diameter – a perfect fit for the linear bearing!<\/p>\n

The pushrod connects to the roll axis fork using a printed rod end as shown below:<\/p>\n

\"Complete<\/a><\/p>\n

The rod end is printed because I couldn’t find one that would take a 5\/16″ rod, but had a 1\/4″ hole in the end.\u00a0 The roll axis fork is drilled for a 1\/4″ bolt and I didn’t want to increase the size of it.<\/p>\n

The grey caps keep the springs centered on the shaft and prevents the springs from coming into contact with the pushrod, resulting in a nice and quiet system.<\/p>\n

The springs I used may have to be replaced, they’re _almost_ too stiff.\u00a0 Once the SFS box and grip are installed, I’ll know for sure if I have to go to a lighter spring.<\/p>\n

The pitch axis centering will be installed later – I didn’t have the parts ready when I took pics of it on Saturday (3\/16\/13) – I’d forgotten to print four more end caps for the spring!<\/p>\n

The SFS box and its metal top were sanded to final shape and finish on Saturday and the SFS box got a coat of Shellac to seal it in preparation for painting.\u00a0 I also got the hole bored for the SFS cable connector that connects to the bottom of the box.\u00a0 Pics on that next week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After many years of being disconnected, the flight controls are getting worked on! Now that I’ve got a 3D printer, can I easily make things that would be a costly nightmare to have fabricated by someone else, or done myself in metal. A good way to make a stick centering mechanism is to have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271,"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.f15sim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}