Here's the result of an hour of actual work... after that lengthy bit of head scratching.
Maybe... just maybe, I'll have the Rudder/Brake Pedals done by this weekend. Hey, I'm not promising anything... just kinda feelin' good about it right now.
December 24, 2007 If you want to be happy...
Listen to yourself...
I tried it again... fixing/readjusting something I had just made.
Over and over and over and over again... well, maybe not that many times. And, it's never the same things... so I'm not an idiot. But, I've tried repeatedly to "repair" something that
I've made only to find that I need to remake the entire piece again. And yeah, I tried doing it again, this time on the one brake pedal.
It was a little out of square, well, maybe a little more than a little out of square, and I wanted to do it right so I thought, yeah, I thought, that I would just break apart the tack welds and re-align
the pieces, tack to together again then make the final welds on it. That's what I thought... and that's what I did.
Filed and sanded down all four pedals, took a look at them this morning and said, DAMN ! fine work, but I can't believe that the brake pedal that I repair looks as bad as it did before I made the repair.
Being the perfectionist that I am I chalked it up to more practice. I have the day off so if I could get this cut, tacked, welded, filed and sanded I'll be happy.
Took what I learned from my "practicing" with the other pedal and re-made the jig, cut the tubes at 45s, fitted them up in the jig, tacked them together.... DAMN ! must have moved a little in the jig 'cause it's a little out of square. Well, I'm re-doing this pedal and
a little ain't gonna cut it this time. No sirreeeee.
OK... brake the tacks off the offening piece and re-align, and tack again.
DAMN ! Still a little outta square.
Repeat.
Finally ! a square brake pedal. Well, finally with this one (the other one was always square.)
A repeat of a lesson I've learned before. It's 99% faster, cleaner and more satisfying re-making a piece gone bad then to re-align /cut apart/ cut and reglue the piece you're working on.
Now should I include three hours I worked on this in my build time ? DAMN straight! It's all about the learning.... even if you need to relearn what you've already learned
in the first place.
On to the next page on rudder/brake pedal. (did you every think I could write so much about this topic ???)