Axles, axles, everywhere!

It's late, but not because I was up working on Goat. I was honestly working on work-work, trying to figure out how to software-in-the-loop simulate multiple Piccolo aircraft at the same time! Whoa that was a mess! I'm not really sure when I'm going to use that, but at least now I have a better idea how to get it to run.

Anyhow, I thought I'd show a before-and-after shot of some truss work on the rear of the fuselage. This area is where the wheel mounts. The shiny solid aluminum rod stock is actually the axle! Several folks saw me around campus today wielding this little beating stick and commented "that's the axle? Is it big enough?"

So here I have just started to get it installed in the truss system. It needs two holes in the ends for the thru-bolts to go through. You can see a bugger bracket is missing from the far-side as well. I haven't put the holes in the u-bracket closest to the camera either. Lots of little things to do.

And the after shot now shows all of this assembly put together in a happy marriage of aluminum tubes and steel bolts! Several of the pieces have not been rounded off yet, like the u-bracket closest to the camera or the bottom plates that capture the axle. That filing will come when I have more disposable time.

I did spend a fair amount of time while the Simpsons was on aligning the trusses such that the axle was parallel with the main section tubes and the lower triangle was the right distance away from the main triangle. I suppose I could try to describe this better, but it's late and there is no good way without you actually holding a bubble level up to the part yourself. I used several clamps and some old winch string to jig everything in place for match-drilling. I have learned that match-drilling is my bestest friend ever. This project would likely be impossible without it.

I have also learned that assembly is a lot different than making individual parts. I really need to go into the assembly with a plan of which part needs to be drilled first, which parts will support the assembly while I match-drill others, etc. Especially for the axle alignment, it was a headache to decide which to drill first and hold the alignment.

On another note, you can actually sit on the frame now and it somewhat balances on the triangle wheel well created! Yay for making airplane noises!