New flap gate built

[Michael Carter]

I was dis-satisfied with the first flap gate I built from styrene plastic. It was too small and was not going to hold up under use.

I started this new flap gate made from aluminum several days ago. After studying more photos, I came up with a flap gate that is much closer in appearance to the early flap gates found on 727 throttles.

I still have to fabricate the gate stops for the 2 and 25 flap settings. Those are attached to the small triangular pieces shown on the taller gate guard to the right of the main gate track.

It even sounds better than the first one. It has that metallic click/chunk you hear when changing settings.

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/92/flapgate1ih7.jpg


http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/5615/flapgate2ln2.jpg

[ekezz]

Wow, I am very impressed and jealous ;)
What tools do you use to fabricate the curve and stops?

[Michael Carter]

A Craftsman jigsaw and a high-speed cutter on a Dremel.

[Michael Carter]

I was in a bit of a hurry yesterday with my reply. The gate is made from two pieces of 1/8" aluminum sandwiched together. Both pieces are cut at the same time to ensure uniformity. They are held together with small C clamps during the cutting. After the cut, three holes were drilled to accept machine screws. The screws were sunk and then the heads cut off flush with the side.

After filing and a rough sanding with 150 grit emory cloth, the stop positions are measured out and marked. The gate is placed in a padded vise and then the Dremel cutting starts.

The guard that holds the gate stops is made in a similar fashion using a single 1/8" piece of aluminum.

The stops themselves are carved plastic as I don't have the machine tools required to mill these parts.

The whole thing is screwed and glued together using a combination of Loc-Tite 401 and JB Weld.