Today I did the final assembly of the shock struts. I installed a 1/4" neoprene button at one end so there would be no metal to metal hammering when the airplane comes off the ground or gets bounced. This is for other people, I've never bounced.
In the other end of the travel I installed 2 of the 1/4" buttons. I did this because with the strut fully extended as it would be with broken shock cords, the wing tip would contact the ground without the 1/2" spacing provided by the paired buttons. The buttons are made from 1/4" neoprene sheet stock cut to 5/8" diameter using a section of 3/4"x.058" tube sharpened on the outside of the tube and pushed through the neoprene sheet with an arbor press.
The plans show the discs on the shock cord stubs to be made from .049" stock. Don't waste your time. They should be from .090" material. The thin ones just sort of fold up under pressure from the shock cord tool when you are stretching the 1380 cords on to the struts.
In the other end of the travel I installed 2 of the 1/4" buttons. I did this because with the strut fully extended as it would be with broken shock cords, the wing tip would contact the ground without the 1/2" spacing provided by the paired buttons. The buttons are made from 1/4" neoprene sheet stock cut to 5/8" diameter using a section of 3/4"x.058" tube sharpened on the outside of the tube and pushed through the neoprene sheet with an arbor press.The plans show the discs on the shock cord stubs to be made from .049" stock. Don't waste your time. They should be from .090" material. The thin ones just sort of fold up under pressure from the shock cord tool when you are stretching the 1380 cords on to the struts.
