Cowl Fasteners
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2011 9:45 amHey all...
I had a conversation with Kip a few weeks ago about cowl fasteners for the upper edge (that mates to the firewall). The factory-supplied fasteners are a little on the chintzy side. Kip used floating nut plates on his Waiex, which makes aligning the screws for the canopy much easier, plus I think he said he used more fasteners than the plans called for, to reduce bowing of the cowl fiberglass.
I decided to go a little different direction, and just ordered some "CamLoc" fasteners from ACS. It's a flush mount anchor plate and a metal stud sheath with a spring loaded locking pin inside. Here's the CamLoc stud:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/hapages/camloc2700.php
and the anchor:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/hapages/receptacle.php
They are pricey, I got ten studs and ten anchors, and I think it cost about $6.60 for each set (yep, $66 in fasteners, gulp!), but I think they are a great balance of convenience and security. I like that the stud is retained and can't fall out and get lost, and you can just unfasten them with a 90 degree turn of a screwdriver. For stud length I selected 2700-4 (0.120 to 0.149 total grip thickness). this is based on the 0.125" cowl thickness and the firewall and upper bow. These might be a little short, I'll try them and exchange them for longer ones if they don't work out.
I had a conversation with Kip a few weeks ago about cowl fasteners for the upper edge (that mates to the firewall). The factory-supplied fasteners are a little on the chintzy side. Kip used floating nut plates on his Waiex, which makes aligning the screws for the canopy much easier, plus I think he said he used more fasteners than the plans called for, to reduce bowing of the cowl fiberglass.
I decided to go a little different direction, and just ordered some "CamLoc" fasteners from ACS. It's a flush mount anchor plate and a metal stud sheath with a spring loaded locking pin inside. Here's the CamLoc stud:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/hapages/camloc2700.php
and the anchor:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/hapages/receptacle.php
They are pricey, I got ten studs and ten anchors, and I think it cost about $6.60 for each set (yep, $66 in fasteners, gulp!), but I think they are a great balance of convenience and security. I like that the stud is retained and can't fall out and get lost, and you can just unfasten them with a 90 degree turn of a screwdriver. For stud length I selected 2700-4 (0.120 to 0.149 total grip thickness). this is based on the 0.125" cowl thickness and the firewall and upper bow. These might be a little short, I'll try them and exchange them for longer ones if they don't work out.