She Who Must Be Obeyed (SWMBO) gifted me with a 3d printer so I must now find all manner of things to make. I will add to the list below as new ideas come to life.
Elevator Tim Tab Wedges
My guess is that Vans sells more elevator trim tab replacements than any other part. I have have ruined a couple in the past.
Part of the problem, I believe, is using two sided tape to hold the wooden “wedges” in place when bending the tabs. I used MDF to make mine and I found that they can shift and the result can be a buggered tab. Tape does not adhere to wood all that well.
This year I was gifted a 3D printer and decided to make wedges out of PLA. What I found was that the two sided tape stuck to the PLA extremely well. As a result the wedges didn’t shift and the result was very nice. I suggest 3D printing the wedges if you have a printer.
I also found that a small piece of wood followed by final forming using a bucking bar – in hand – was sufficient to completing the bends.
Here are some pix. The MDF “V” I used on earlier builds is shown for reference.
Download the STL files for the wedge and the “V” Clamp Block
You will need 2 wedges and at least 3 “V” clamp blocks – 6 if you are doing both trim tabs at the same time. These were printed with PLA.
Tow Bar Mounting Bracket
Randy Pulis designed a pretty spiff set of brackets that allow a Bogert Tow Bar for the -10 to be mounted on the baggage compartment panel. Here is a pix of the the tow bar mounted on C-GROK. You can download a zip file of the required 3D printer files here. Instructions are included.
Mountain High Mounting Bracket
Randy Pulis has also designed a mounting bracket for the Mountain High O2 control heads in the rear seat area. You can down load the 3D printer files here.
Drill Guides
Rather than using paper strips etc. to mark drill holes on push rods you can use 3D printed rings sized for the various push rods that need to be fabricated.
The 3D printer files can be found here on Thingverse.
Tasmanian Bracketry
Tasmanian builder, Adrian Port -TASRV10.COM, has designed some interesting brackets for his -10. They include clips for holding wing root conduit, brackets for tunnel scat tubing and replacement system brackets for holding tubing under the front seats. Here is a pix of the system bracket. His files can found here.
Rod End Tool
This little gizmo can be used to install rod ends in tight spaces. It avoids marring the rod ends when you use metal pliers etc. The print file for this is here.
Parking Brake Bracket
Mounting the Matco parking bracket valve on the firewall is a bit of a pain. There are some aftermarket mounts but they seem a bit spendy. The pix below show the bracket I made, where it is on the firewall and the FWF side showing the 4-40 mounting screws.
Wiring Conduit
Wiring runs to the RV10 tail make use of conduits under the rear seats essential. In my case I used 2 runs of Home Depot 1″ electrical conduit under the seats. One will carry the wiring for the the A/P pitch +yaw servos and Mountain High O2 system while the other will carry all the antenna coax cables. There are two pass through brackets for each of the conduits under the seats as well as a single passthrough where they both exit to the tail cone. Pix are below. Files can be found here.
RV10 Gust Lock for Control Approach Rudder Pedals (Older versions)
Randy Pulis has created a gust lock for RV10s using Control Approach’s rudder pedals sold prior to April 2023. These ones have round tubes that extend down to the pedals. Here are the printer files. Here are pix of the gust lock:
Here are links to the required hardware:
Fatwire Passthroughs
Perihelion Design sells CCA-2 (copper clad aluminum AKA fatwire) wire which is half the weigh of the equivalent 2 gauge copper wire. Although lighter, it has a larger diameter which means running this wire is a bit challenging. I have designed a brackets etc that make running this wire simple.
The first pix so the general wire run, the second the passthrough that protects the wire when crossing through a rear seat rib. The third shows the wire passing through the lightening hole. Note that the extra “tube” is for additional wires that will run parallel to the fatwire. I will also use a similar passthrough on the final lightening hole as the wire exits into the tail cone. The last pix shows the bracket used to secure the fatwire to the side of a rib.
Earth-X Battery Box
Jon Mulder has provided STL files for an Earth-X battery box designed by his friend Wally. If you don’t have a 3D printer Wally will print them for you at a reasonable cost. You can email Wally at: wmaynard47@gmail.com.ย Here re pix of the boxes. You can download files here.
