Tail spring mounting

[Bryan Cotton]

I have started to look ahead to the gear mounting. Boy do I wish that I drilled the tail spring and bracket together before I assembled and riveted in the tailpost!

Any hints?

[ScottM-Sonex1629]

Bryan,

I looked at this when I did my tail skid. It very similar to the main gear legs. I drilled a pilot hole through the steel tube mount that is now inside your rear fuselage. Insert the titanium tail spring. Begin to transfer the mounting hole into the tail spring. For TI drilling the best drill bits I could find were the cobalt ones.

Once the mark was made on the TI rod I completed the drilling of this using the drill press. Slow, lots of cutting fluid. Once the hole was thru the TI, then I chased the bit thru to the other side of the rod and finished drilling the hole through the steel tube mount bracket. Continue this process up through the 1/4" final hole size.

[Rynoth]

I have started to look ahead to the gear mounting. Boy do I wish that I drilled the tail spring and bracket together before I assembled and riveted in the tailpost!

Any hints?

If you've been following the plans without question, you already have the 1/4" hole in the bracket, so the challenge becomes drilling a matching hole in the titanium tail spring. What Scott suggested is probably the best method... insert the tail spring, mark the hole locations, and do your best to drill/ream out a hole that matches.

Then the trick becomes drilling the tailwheel pivot fitting (if you have the older style welded components) in a manner that is as close to perpendicular as possible (so that the tailwheel itself is vertical)... I messed that part up by a good 10-15 degrees and am waiting for a replacement pivot fitting to try it again.

[Bryan Cotton]

If you've been following the plans without question

Whoops!

[Rynoth]

If you've been following the plans without question

Whoops!

Yea, several times I've been like... "wow this would have been a lot easier if I didn't do that already per the plans..." Not that the plans make anything impossible, it's just not necessarily the easiest/best way sometimes.

[fastj22]

I'm sure your second Sonex will go together in a snap. Just ask Jeff Schultz.

[kevinh]

Hi ya'll,

I'm approaching this point soon and hope to learn for your experiences. Do you still think match drilling the titanium rod to the tail wheel mount before attaching the mount to the tailpost makes sense? It seems to me that it does...

[Bryan Cotton]

I do. Darick believed me and was happy after. Not to worry- if you take the easy way here you will find other challenges to make up for it.

[Darick]

I do. Darick believed me and was happy after. Not to worry- if you take the easy way here you will find other challenges to make up for it.

You have a unique and most humorous way with words. We should collect these words of wisdom you have spread throughout the forum and call it "YOU'LL COTTON TO THESE WORDS OF WISDOM". Of course you have to know the colloquial meaning of "cotton" to understand the title.

[kevinh]

I do. Darick believed me and was happy after. Not to worry- if you take the easy way here you will find other challenges to make up for it.

You have a unique and most humorous way with words. We should collect these words of wisdom you have spread throughout the forum and call it "YOU'LL COTTON TO THESE WORDS OF WISDOM". Of course you have to know the colloquial meaning of "cotton" to understand the title.

heh!