Monday, February 25, 2013

Wing Strut Splice Sleeve

 The left wing strut aft tube was badly bent and needed a new section of streamlined tubing spliced in.  Advisory Circular 43.13-1B figure 4-43 gives a good description of the size and shape of the splice sleeve needed to repair the strut.  A piece of tubing the next size larger than the strut was cut to shape, 30 degrees on each end and the appropriate length.
 The instructions are to split the splice sleeve tube along the trailing edge.  That sounds nice but how do you do it.  I decided to use a pneumatic 3" cut off saw. The problem I found was, the cutting wheel wants to slide off the tube.  By clamping it in a vise I was able to use the vise to guide my hand.  This allowed a nice straight cut.  You could do the same thing by clamping it between 2 pieces of 2x4.

The result came out great.  Very professional looking.