I have been doing considerable planning and
experimenting on techniques to keep the 1/8" wire landing gear rear strut
from sliding sideways in the slotted block shown below. The three brass tabs
holds the strut tight in the slot, however a shock load resulting from a
hard landing can and will drive the strut sideways in the slot under the
brass tabs.
The solution I finally came up with is
illustrated in the following test case. First I filed a transverse groove
in a piece of 1/8" piano wire with a triangular needle file as shown below.
Next I laid a piece of 20 gauge copper wire in
the groove and soldered it in place as shown below.
The copper wire was cut off on each end and filed
down flush with the edges of the 1/8" piano wire and then rounded off
slightly as shown below. The height of the copper wire is the same height as
the brass tabs used to clamp the rear strut in the slotted block.
This test case was put into the fuselage's
slotted block up against the No. 1 brass tab. As you can see below, this
"stop" restrains the 1/8" wire from moving to the right in the picture
below.
After having worked out all of the details on the
test case, I marked the rear strut to locate the inside edges of the two
outside brass tabs and soldered on two "stops" as shown below. Notice that
there is a solder filet on the inside edge of the "stop", but that the
outside edge has had the solder filed away.
The picture below shows the landing gear rear
strut clamped in the slotted block and restrained from sideways movement
by the two "stops" against the inside edges of the two outside brass tabs.
Before I stopped working for the day, I wrapped
the two junctures of the landing gear rear strut with the forward strut with
24 gauge copper wire as shown below.
This is close up of the right juncture's
copper wrap.
Tomorrow I will fire up the big iron and solder
the two cooper wrapped junctures. I also have to come up with a cross wire
configuration to restrain the landing gear legs from spreading too far on a
hard landing.................................Tandy