3-axes trim wheel / Do-it-yourself-style

[Kodoss]

A little update to the project.
What you see are the metall parts (aluminium, yeah) for the trimwheels.

trimmrad1.JPG

I also ordered the wooden rinds on the 19.Dec. but they didn't arrived till now.
Must be that X-mas and new year thingy.

Since I have a week of holidays now, I try to get further with it.
It all depends on when I get my wooden rings, that I can cut the big holes in the frontplate.

In the meantime I will do some drawings with open office for everyone who wants to build it.
If I have all the plans ready I will post them the same way.
Plans for front and back plate are already drawn.

PS: Sorry for my laggy updates.
PPS: I'm too slow at writing text. I always end up with: "Your session has ended. Please login again."

[Kodoss]

As promised, here are the plans.
The drawings are mostly in 1:2 (see right upper side).

trimwheel.zip

In this zipfile is a PDF (90KB).
Side 1-2 are the drawings of the parts.
Side 3 is positioning.
Side 4 is wiring.

The best is you begin with the backside and frontside.
Then bend the sideparts and adjust them to front and rear.
Bend the other 3 parts and you are mostly done with the housing.

The trickier parts are the trimwheels (in my buildup).
Other solutions might be considered, if it looks to difficult.

PS: by drawing the parts, I realised that I made the elevatorplate to high.
I will just bore the rivets out, cut a bit of and rivet it again.

[Kodoss]

Woahh, 2 months already gone... ok, a little update again.

Thinking about how to attach my wooden rings with my center disk put my a little bit in a problem. I would have had (is this even gramatically correct?! ) to mill the rings 2mm in the inside on 4 positions and to drill the 8 holes in 1 disk with its plates. The problem would have been: how to adjust all parts without a runout.

So I came up with another resolution. And it turns out to be even easier to realise.

I build 3 new center disks, this time a bit thicker, and bought 12 screws (M3x40mm).
In the disks I drilled 5 threads. 4 threads all 90° and 1 thread 45°.
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The 45° thread goes to the core bore and will be used for securing the disk to the poti.
The other 4 threads will hold and adjust the ring to the center through the screws.

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A little preview how it hopefully looks like. I still have to drill the holes for the ring. First with 3mm, then 5mm for the screwheads.
Also clear paint will be put onthe rings.

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[Kodoss]

Since I had free today, I just worked further on my Trimwheel.

The rings are drilled, and painted twice with clear varnish. In the meantime I drilled the holes in the front and backplate so that I can screw them together instead of riveting. Also I marked where I have to cut my 3 holes for the trimwheels.

After the rings have dryed I screwed everything together just to see that the aileron-trim-wheel is a little bit to deep and touches the rudder-trim-wheel. Also it touched the plate which holds the rudder-trim. So I had to do some adjustments.

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I will later detach the rudder-trim-wheel, lathe the disk a little bit again and mount it 180° turned. So that I can get rid of the 3 spacers.

Here's a pic of the backside of the backplate. As you can see the screws are sinked, so that it can be fitted on my 2 Saitek throttle quadrants. I also sinked the screws which are holding the rudder plate.

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And the last picture of the day. Trimwheels assembled in harmony...

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Ok, they have a swash of 1 or 2 mm and a runout of 1 mm. But I think it's ok for me.

Edit: It also helps to pass the time and calm the mind until the patch is ready. Some others should try it too, instead of ....
You know what I mean.

[von Brühl]

Crazy looking, but nice work! ~s!

[Kodoss]

Today I tried to finish the front plate.

I took my little helper (which you can see below of my trimwheel) and made 2 little cuts for each trimwheel. After that I used a saw to deepen it.
Then again with the dremel( ok, it not a real dremel ) cuting the strips out.
After 4 hours of work, it still needs some adjustments so that I can turn the wheels without touching the housing with the rings.

Also it was a good idea from me to screw the rudder-plate on the back-housing.
Because to fit everything together I had to screw it of first.
Putting all parts together ( wiring, switches, trimwheels, housing) will become the toughest thing...
I also attached the side parts for checking, but they aren't drilled now for final assembly. The hole for the USB-cable is also missing.

Enough of words! Pics, pics, pics!!!

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[Kodoss]

!!Update!!

The frontplate fits now with the trimwheels.
I also put the switches and buttons in it for checking.
The only metal work that remains are the side-parts. Fixing them, drilling holes, cutting threat in them. The usual stuff.

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Left side.
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Belly of the beast!!
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Solding will wreck my nerves. But before I have to choose a color and the painting method.