• Welcome aboard HomebuiltAirplanes.com, your destination for connecting with a thriving community of more than 10,000 active members, all passionate about home-built aviation. Dive into our comprehensive repository of knowledge, exchange technical insights, arrange get-togethers, and trade aircrafts/parts with like-minded enthusiasts. Unearth a wide-ranging collection of general and kit plane aviation subjects, enriched with engaging imagery, in-depth technical manuals, and rare archives.

    For a nominal fee of $99.99/year or $12.99/month, you can immerse yourself in this dynamic community and unparalleled treasure-trove of aviation knowledge.

    Embark on your journey now!

    Click Here to Become a Premium Member and Experience Homebuilt Airplanes to the Fullest!

Scrap tube usage on new fuselage

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Flyguyeddy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2018
Messages
440
I am considering cutting up the fuselage i have here and making a whole new one from the parts. I have a whole s2 fuselage worth of scrap tubing. Now some of the parts like the rear diagonals will be plenty long for cutting down for other places, but what about instead splicing them to make them long enough for use in places like a diagonal. I would purchase new full length tubing for the longerons. The splice method im talking about is here. https://imgur.com/a/RsniaoY Thoughts? This is ultimate scrounger type stuff here.
 
You're likely to end up with a fuselage that's heavier than normal. That will very likely have an adverse effect on performance. It will also add considerably to construction time and cost for consumables. I'd go with all new tubing.
 
are there a lot of areas on the fuse with corrosion as bad as whats on the horizontal tube? replacing only the damaged tubing, will be easier, won't need a dedicated build table, less cost and time and relatively the same weight. If its longerons just replace bad areas and splice where needed.
 
Flyguy- the splice method you posted is not an approved method for splicing aircraft tubing. See FIGURE 4-37. Splicing by inner-sleeve method. You can find this and other approved methods for repairing tubing and other aspects of aircraft in the FAA document downloadable at: https://www.faa.gov/documentlibrary/media/advisory_circular/ac_43.13-1b_w-chg1.pdf

Note that this is an approved repair technique, not an approved build technique. I'd say scrounging CR-MO tubing for a new build is OK, (CR-MO tubing is tubing is tubing) but building with splices is not OK. If you can't find enough to get a full length tube you need, then buy some new material.

T
 
I see the error in my original figure. Ive edited it to include the proper faa approved one as well as the wrong one.

Guess ill just have to build a 1LT with my scraps 😂
 
Back
Top