How many?

[Leatherneck]

I am adding tabs for the dsus fasteners. I have the roof area pretty well covered, what about the sides. How many should I add, roughly 8’x27” at longest and tallest. I used a magnet to hold the flat stock so I could weld the tab into place. Came out pretty good I think.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Opinion: Boy, has this been a long time ago I did anything like this. Since this is a roof I am going to assume square ends so at each end a fastener 1" in from each side (more or less does change things a bit but the idea is here. I don't have any way to scan a drawing while down here).

Draw a rectangle, to scale, on a piece of cardboard. Put an "X" (or a "+" symbol) at each corner then, in the middle of the 8" sides, place an "X" there. On the long side an "X" in the middle of each long side (the end fasteners are good for both the long and short sides) then a pair of "X" half way between the center "X" which equals a bit longer than 6". Dividing again takes you down to ~ 3" spacing.

I would make the 4 corners about an inch in if possible.

This is a rough out since I have not really seen what you have so it is a suggested start. If you can't do the end fasteners then you can start from backing up from each corner and going from there.

Lee

[CentralWAbaja]

Is this a guess game or looking for advise?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Be careful with the use of Dsuz/quarter turn fasteners (they have a whole bunch of names) or for that matter "button fasteners" (there are several styles there also and at lease one style has specific load installation so it not done right they don't do what they are supposed to do). If care is not taken they can be connected correctly and become am potential liability. When I was in high school or just out of high school one of the guys I kind of knew was decapitated when his race car flipped and the top piece came undone and you can guess the rest. I know the Military uses them or at least did but their application usually wasn't the same as off-roading or racing.

The FAA took them away from commercial airplane use in the late 60d or early 70's, not sure about private airplanes use for safety reasons (PM me if you want to know why) but the EAA does/did allow them.

Lee

My opinions are worth a whole lot less than what you paid for.

[Skidmark]

When welding, it is a good practice to wrap the weld around the end of the plate on each end. It helps reduce the chance of cracking.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

When welding, it is a good practice to wrap the weld around the end of the plate on each end. It helps reduce the chance of cracking.

A step further is to do a wrap partly around the tube then weld the end then weld the tube from the underside. That takes care of loading in several directions.

Lee

[Leatherneck]

[quote=CentralWAbaja post_id=<a href="tel:1273511">1273511</a> time=<a href="tel:1555798406">1555798406</a> user_id=22967]
Is this a guess game or looking for advise?

Nope strictly looking for advice on this one.


[/quote]

[quote=Skidmark post_id=<a href="tel:1273687">1273687</a> time=<a href="tel:1556208019">1556208019</a> user_id=15181]
When welding, it is a good practice to wrap the weld around the end of the plate on each end. It helps reduce the chance of cracking.

A step further is to do a wrap partly around the tube then weld the end then weld the tube from the underside. That takes care of loading in several directions.

Lee
[/quote]

When welding, it is a good practice to wrap the weld around the end of the plate on each end. It helps reduce the chance of cracking.

Thanks for the advice guys, should I also hit it on the backsides too?

[Skidmark]

It depends on the angle of the tab to the tube. Hard to see, but the right edge of the tab looks like the weld puddle encompasses the tab edge, but the left edge it doesn't. If it is too narrow on the back side, just make sure the tab edges are welded too.

[dustymojave]

Another tip is to put a bend about 45° about 3/8" from the tube. Just use a bench vise. But that bend near the end allows room for the weld bead without interfering with the panel.

Skid is right. Extend the weld bead beyond each edge of the Dzus (that is the proper spelling there) tab.

[fl_buggy]

Not sure if you've made your panels yet, but a couple of fairly cheap tools can really help get you better results.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I didn't know the quarter turn transfer punch was available. I was going to make my own but now I'll look for what I need.

When connecting tubes into their receptacles' it is best to be 180 degree entrance with a close bend up to 90 degrees when and if necessary. It takes a lot of loading off both the receptacle and the tube itself. I'd say that 45 degrees would be an absolute minimum. Think about something smacking into the tube and what happens when that happens (loading) at the join.

Lee

[Leatherneck]

Not sure if you've made your panels yet, but a couple of fairly cheap tools can really help get you better results.

I’ve got both of those, would hate to have to install panels without them.

[fl_buggy]

While somewhat on the subject, can anyone point me towards a cheap source of dzus buttons? I don't need the tabs or springs, just the buttons to replace some missing. Amazon is running about $3 a piece which seems steep.

[chuckput]

Check out Kartek

https://www.kartek.com/parts-categories ... eners.html

They have them for $1.35 to $1.59 each depending on size and style.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

If you look at 1/4 turn or Camlock fasteners you will see many styles of these little gems. We used to use them but any of those with the wire to connect to were nixed as having problems (long story but one of the problems was the not always locking correctly that was the biggest problem the besides strength issue).

quarter turn fasteners.jpg

At the bottom of the pix is a fastener that has a head on it like a Stingray which is the style we were allowed to use but I haven't heard about them for a long time either. The flat receptacle with what looks to be a slot in the center is one of many stronger styles for the "Stingray" head locking device. the coiled end wire is the problem I was talking about in the top sentence.

We used to have seat track mounted storage areas on the 'planes but people get bored, curious or both and open things up but, in their haste, didn't always latch them properly or bend/break the wire when trying to hide what they did.

Anyway, this post is "for what it is worth".

Lee