4130 Chrome Molly

[PTKay]

Gone fishing....

[asra]

Hello All, The type of landing gear you are talking about on the Twinstar we have been using for about ten years now.We copied it off the Drifter ultralights that have been around for 20 years.The basic version is a 1&14 inch tube 120 thou wall thickness treated to 40 RC.On the two seaters a 1 inch tube is also inserted 12inches from the top for added stifness.Its not the lightest landing gear around but you will never break it.A lot of my students have tried though!.M Barker

[Greg Mitchell]

Hello Murray,I would like to compare notes on the heat treat process, if you are of a mind to do like wise, please email me.Regards,Mitch.

[asra]

Greg MitchellMate i have just found a photo of Dads(fred hughes) tractor gyro in the photos where did you get that from.aaron h

[Tim]

Aaron,That photo was one that Fred gave to me many years ago, just after he built it.Tim McClure

[Greg Mitchell]

Tim,Thanks for sharing it with us all. Can you tell us a little about the ship and how it flew?regards Mitch.

[asra]

Hiya Mitch I will try to explain the welding and bending tecnique for 4130.Remimber I'm just a simple mechanic and welder and dont fly a gyro YET[)] First don't use a mig welder,becouse it starts too cold and makes a 18" microscopice crack,and at the end its too hot and makes another crack,that is i 14" long crack and on tubing thats bad. You may use tig or oxyascetelyne,tig being prefered but very expinsive.With your torch too about 2000deg.F,the work will be a brite orange,make the weld with a good steel wire that you get from the welding supply.N ow you need too normalize the work.Start by blowing the black smoke from acsetalyne on the weld.Now heat the work about an inch on ither side of the weld till the smoke dissapears at this point it will be 800deg.F continue heating till the work turns chery red,at this point you will have 1200degF,let cool normaly [no water please].the same gose for tig you must normalize.Use the same procidure for bending heat it hot enough to make the bend and clamp it to the jig and normalize. Somewhere I have a vhs tape on welding ac tubing,if you'd like I'll box it up and send it ups or something.Anyway its 4 in the morning so I'd better get some sleep so Ill let you go .If I can do more please let me know. Good luck Sonny

[Greg Mitchell]

Thanks Sonny, Another night owl. I'm sorry for the delay in posting the plans before this. I could list my excuses but none would hold water. I've just asked the Missus to ensure we post them to you this Monday comming. Val my welder and I are making up a tube bender for the sticks and the guy in the states that does Larry's has sent detailed pics of his bender. I'll let you know how it works. We do have three complete control sticks heat treat and chromed, manufactured here. Let me get the plans to you then we'll talk about the video.Cheers Mate.www.thebutterfly.info

[birdy]

Thanx Sonny,that's good info.

[Echo]

Gowes Heat Treating in Reavsby, Sydney did the heat treating on my undercarriage. The old mate who runs the shop is very helpful as he does a lot of work for the guys at Bankstown airport , so doesnt look at you like you have two heads when you tell them what the parts are for . From the time I dropped the parts off till I got them back was a week, can't complain about that. He even gave me a tour of their w/shop showing all the processes the metal goes thru , a pity there wasnt more blokes around like him. CheersX

[asra]

Hello everbody I'm new to this forum and am hoping someone out there can help me.I require metric sized 4130 tube and can't find a supplier of it in Australia. There are a number of companies that supply imperial sized tube from the USA but they don't stock metric. Does anybody know of a supplier preferably in Australia or the Asian area? Thanking you in advance.CheersPeter

[asra]

As this thread is about 4130 tube here's a good site showing the torch welding of tube to make a aircraft fuselage:http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/sh...&page=4&pp=10I hope you find it interesting

[Echo]

Why do you want metric? BIT in Seven Hills is where I go for steel. Eric

[asra]

Peter, correct me if I am wrong but doesn't all 4130 come from the states?

[asra]

4130 steel is also made in Europe and Japan. Some of it is exported to the US where it is fabricated to imperial sized tube / sheet etc. Aviation Parts and Equipment at Bankstown (02 9796 2733) have a good selection of imperial sized tube, sheet and airfoil profiled steel but no metric. My interest is in WW1 aviation specifically the Fokker D7 which is featured in the link I attached yesterday. I have fuselage plans but no steel at this point and don't want to have to import into Australia if I don't have to. Good luck with all your projects. Peter