I'm going to dive right in here, with some trepidation. I bought an acrosport ii project from a fellow on this forum a few years ago (in Connecticut ... very nice work) and have been tiptoeing around it, studying the plans, working on welding, studying examples at airshows, etc., afraid to touch the thing for an embarrassingly long time. I visited Chris (Smizo) back when I first got it and he was really encouraging and generous, as were Dennis Flamini and his son at Oshkosh 2016 (I took a LOT of photos). I've also been busy with life and my Cessna 120 and being president of my EAA chapter and such, and my chapter is Glassairs and RVs, no tube/wood/fabric ... but no excuses are allowed. So I'm going to start with a couple of questions.
1. Welding ... how does this look to you (upper fitting for front landing gear leg)? I'm getting pretty confident with oxy-acetylene (first photo, my first two practice welds, starting from the left) and maybe approaching "good enough" with TIG (third example and second photo). I know you can't Xray these photos, but any feedback would be appreciated.
2. Plans. I'm looking at the axle weldments and where the plans say to flatten the sides of the axle tubing at the inboard end where the reinforcing straps go (see photo). I've looked at (and photographed) LOTS of these fittings and am still not 100% sure what people are doing. The final photo shows this fitting on a beautiful Acro2 by Paul Muhle at Oshkosh 2017 (I unfortunately could not talk to him) and the axle tube looks perhaps squeezed side-to-side. I assume the goal is to make a flat base for the reinforcing strap (and to reduce the ID to the 1" span of the shock strut fitting). Stick it in a vise and squeeze? Heat and pound? The axle tubing is pretty thick (1/8") so I'm wondering how that will go. Any advice on this?
Addendum: One more photo (of a photo in the plans & book) shows what looks like a very different approach ... like they made the cutouts at the inboard end then flattened what's left into two "ears". I'm confused.
Thanks in advance for any guidance!
1. Welding ... how does this look to you (upper fitting for front landing gear leg)? I'm getting pretty confident with oxy-acetylene (first photo, my first two practice welds, starting from the left) and maybe approaching "good enough" with TIG (third example and second photo). I know you can't Xray these photos, but any feedback would be appreciated.
2. Plans. I'm looking at the axle weldments and where the plans say to flatten the sides of the axle tubing at the inboard end where the reinforcing straps go (see photo). I've looked at (and photographed) LOTS of these fittings and am still not 100% sure what people are doing. The final photo shows this fitting on a beautiful Acro2 by Paul Muhle at Oshkosh 2017 (I unfortunately could not talk to him) and the axle tube looks perhaps squeezed side-to-side. I assume the goal is to make a flat base for the reinforcing strap (and to reduce the ID to the 1" span of the shock strut fitting). Stick it in a vise and squeeze? Heat and pound? The axle tubing is pretty thick (1/8") so I'm wondering how that will go. Any advice on this?
Addendum: One more photo (of a photo in the plans & book) shows what looks like a very different approach ... like they made the cutouts at the inboard end then flattened what's left into two "ears". I'm confused.
Thanks in advance for any guidance!
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