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Gear tower mod - cover alignment

William Slaughter

William Slaughter

Well Known Member
Sawing out the web was easy, but I wanted a quick and precise way to position the cover to match drill it to the gear tower, so I used a "lighbox" effect to do it.
I put my shop light down in the geartower and laid the CAD drawing on top:

2011_4_23b.jpg


Aligned the drawing with the existing oval hole and taped it down:

2011_4_23c.jpg


I had previously made the covers by rubber cementing the drawing to 0.040 sheet stock, cutting them to size and pilot drilling all of the fasteners holes. Laid the cover on the drawing and sighted through the fastener holes to match drill . Everything came out just right!
 
Don Patrick said:
Looks great. Do you havea copy of the diagram you would be willing to share?

Cheers,

Don
Click to expand...

Sure. I can save it as a .pdf for those without a CAD drawing program. The trick to that is to select "no scaling" when printing it out, and of course to verify that the dimensions are still accurate on the finished product. The native file type is .cad (QuickCad), but I can also save it as a .dwg (Autocad).
Of course the usual disclaimers apply: This fits my airplane, you have to verify the dimensions, etc., etc., and etc..
 
Wallbangar said:
Man...what a cool cover. any chance of getting you to send same plus instructions to the following:

[email protected]...

Thanks......
Click to expand...

Glue( rubber cement) two copies of the drawing to some 0.040 stock, cut to shape. Centerpunch and drill #40 holes at the fastener locations in these two covers. Saw out the web to connect the two lower holes in the gear tower into one large hole. Position the drawing and cover plate, match drill the holes, clecoing as you go. Enlarge the holes to #19 in steps that you feel comfortable with. Remove covers, drill and countersink the gear towers for the nutplates, then dimple the cover and gear tower. This uses #8 screws. That's how I did it. The same procedure might cause horrible problems for you. :rolleyes:
This cover setup is neither new nor original, I'm just following along behind Dan H. and many others. Using the "lightbox" approach with the drawing is the new wrinkle.

Note to those using the PDF. You are responsible for verifying the dimensions after printing the drawing! I printed mine directly from the native CAD file, so have not verified the PDF. File conversions, different printers, who knows what could happen!
 
Last edited:
This is definately mountain out of a moe hill.
Cut the tower. Cut a plate. Drill through both and clecoe.
Put in plate nuts.
Done.
Just one mans opinion.
 
Moe hill....as in Larry, Curly, or Moe could do this job with a sharpie and a ruler.

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!
 
Kahuna and Dan are right, this is really awfully easy to layout. After all ,where do you think I got the dimensions for the drawing? Yep, ruler and pencil. I chose to make the CAD drawing because I like to, not because I had to. I routinely make CAD drawings of brackets and whatnot because I like the process, and it makes iterative adjustments easy. Is it necessary? Of course not. Does it take more time? Maybe. Is it enjoyable for me? You bet. :) And just for the record, that drawing was a casualty of some computer unpleasentness a few weeks back, so it's no longer available. Look at the pictures, count the screws and go for it!
 
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