Started building the avbay yesterday. I received a sheet of black G10 fiberglass from Wildman last week, cut to fit the 18" coupler. I cut out a spot on each end to clear the nut and washer holding the forged eyebolts at each end.
The sanded patch is for my custom built battery holder. I glue 1/2" strips of plywood down to hold the batteries in place:
Glued it all together with Rocketpoxy and clamped it down to cure.
Then I cut a strip of G10 to hold them down, with short pieces glued on to reinforce where the screws go:
Had to make a run to ACE Hardware to get some 1" long 8-32 stainless screws to finish it up.
Used my neighbors drill press to get the holes through all the layers, and mounted pem nuts on the backside to screw into.
Perfectflite sells 4-40 standoff's, and I use them for mounting all my altimeters. Here is the finished sled:
I mounted my favorite terminal blocks on the avbay lids. This is an older kit with the fiberglass bulkheads glued together for the lids, which is nice when you do it like I do:
I use 24 gauge stranded copper speaker wire for all the terminal blocks, run it through the holes in the lids and solder it to the blocks, then put a spot of hot glue under them and push them down before it cools.
I'm using the large Dog House ejection cups, which hold 6 grams of BP. I drill and tap the lids for the 10-32 screws that hold them down, and cut off the excess screw on the inside to avoid interfering with the sled. My sled is not attached to the all-thread rods, it is sandwiched between the avbay lids and held in place when the lids are tight. Here is how the lids look when done:
The sanded patch is for my custom built battery holder. I glue 1/2" strips of plywood down to hold the batteries in place:
Glued it all together with Rocketpoxy and clamped it down to cure.
Then I cut a strip of G10 to hold them down, with short pieces glued on to reinforce where the screws go:
Had to make a run to ACE Hardware to get some 1" long 8-32 stainless screws to finish it up.
Used my neighbors drill press to get the holes through all the layers, and mounted pem nuts on the backside to screw into.
Perfectflite sells 4-40 standoff's, and I use them for mounting all my altimeters. Here is the finished sled:
I mounted my favorite terminal blocks on the avbay lids. This is an older kit with the fiberglass bulkheads glued together for the lids, which is nice when you do it like I do:
I use 24 gauge stranded copper speaker wire for all the terminal blocks, run it through the holes in the lids and solder it to the blocks, then put a spot of hot glue under them and push them down before it cools.
I'm using the large Dog House ejection cups, which hold 6 grams of BP. I drill and tap the lids for the 10-32 screws that hold them down, and cut off the excess screw on the inside to avoid interfering with the sled. My sled is not attached to the all-thread rods, it is sandwiched between the avbay lids and held in place when the lids are tight. Here is how the lids look when done: