Lower Folding Struts Delivered

All pieces of the Lower Folding Struts are now delivered, they look fantastic!

Great job from the guys at Machining Solutions.

The thickness was machined down to 34mm along the entire length as per the optional method provided in the plans to reduce weight.

The final weights came in at 5.2kg for the side rails and 1.736kg for the webbing pieces

(Back in this blog post, I estimated 6.5kg for the side rails after machining, so the difference x8 figures out to be 10.4kg less weight to haul around!)

Lower Folding Strut Side Rails

Mark sent over a picture of one of the completed Lower Folding Struts with some machine bolts temporarily holding everything together. He said the SS bolts I sent over are out of tolerance and need to be cleaned up with a die before installing.

Ian demands really tight tolerances on the Lower Folding Struts and Mark was concerned with the parts twisting during machining. Fortunately, that didn't happen. They even spent the extra time to bolt the side rail pairs together before reaming out the outer end holes to ensure a perfect fit. All the parts were put together and checked with a 1.125" rod before being marked with the proper assembly location.
(The press fit igus bushings will reduce the reamed size from 1.125" down to 1.0")

The parts should be delivered next week sometime.

More pics and final weights when they come in.

Lower Folding Strut Center Web

I just received these photo's of the Lower Folding Strut Center Web pieces (2 of 8) from Mark over at Machining Solutions.

They look REALLY nice!

He mentioned that they should have some time to start on the struts later this week.

In other news, one of my Tenants just called to report a burned out Central AC unit.
So there goes another $1500 and a days worth of crawling around in a crawlspace.
On the bright side, this will make 5 of 6 units replaced in the last five years - so with any luck I may be problem free for a few years...?