On Jun 21, 11:51*am, sisu1a wrote:
I'm having trouble finding someone simultaneously capable as well as
willing to make a cable for my brake assembly for my ship. Spruce
doesn't have any barrel adjusters, a common motorcycle part.... *I
want the fancy swaged eyelet ends on a 3/32 cable (Spruce also only
offers .078 cable or I would probably just send them my own
barrel...), but need the barrel on it too. I've found people that
*could* do it, but won't touch it cause it's an airplane (I may have
them make a cable for my 'gold sluicing machine' or something
though . I've found parts suppliers, but I can't rotary swage... so
I'm looking for someone to just make it for me.

Suggestions?

TIA,
-Paul


Thanks All, for the suggestions and tips, it's all very useful and
appreciated information. Despite all the good advice though, I'm
having California Push-Pull make my cables (I'm getting 2 made, one
for another owner doing the same conversion...), as it's hard to beat
$30/cable with 3 days lead time for rotary swaged milspec plug-n-play
action.
http://www.push-pull.com/ (I ordered it as 'don't ask don't tell'
this time... I'm not sure if they want to get into aircraft- but they
did have the MS02668-3 eyelet ends my brake system needs as well as
other high quality parts to make the entire cable to my specs... 7x7
wire, plastic lined conduit, the right size/type barrel adjuster
etc...) A local wire rigging shop turned me on to them, but I thought
others here may be able to benefit from this capable and friendly
outlet.

This is for a brake conversion BTW, not a repair or replacement, as my
SZD-59's wheel/brake arrangement (and any other ship with the same
wheel/brake system) is wholly inadequate. This is not due to the ship
coming with a cheap/weak/stretchy under-engineered bicycle cable as
some ships suffer from, but rather from a terribly designed
mechanically actuated floating axle drum/disc/frankenstien proprietary
brake design only found on many Polish ships, which is notorious for

1. not working
2. for self actuating under certain circumstances
3, for not being able to be adjusted right (two adjustments possible:
'annual mode' or flying mode...)
4. for getting stuck while engaged and scraping the nose/slamming the
tail etc, all leading to a whole host of predictable problems

It is hard to describe the anatomy of the brake due to it's
unconventional nature, (I can email pics w/descriptions to anyone
interested if you PM me...) but suffice to say it SUCKS. Any owner of
such a ship (or anyone that has flown one...) will no doubt
wholeheartedly agree. One such owner just described a laborious
process he underwent involving rebuilding his stock system and using
lapping compound to polish the threads that the very odd, 6 point
actuating cam mechanism rides in (one of many major sources of
avoidable friction in the circuit...) and some other tedious mods to
'bring it up to the level of horrible'.

My solution is a complete conversion to a 5.00x5 Cleveland (I heart
5606!) disc and the installation of the related hydraulic parts. I
decided to use my ship's stock brake lever (instead of using the
trombone action of the airbrake travel or an aftermarket lever
solution...), so one of the things I had to do was to design a bracket
for the M aster C ylinder that turned my stock 1" of cable travel into
1.25" of piston travel, reducing the overall mechanical advantage of
the system from 3:1 down to 2.4 to 1 in the process. This necessitated
the actuation lever on the bracket to be longer than I wanted it in
order to avoid mechanical interference while accommodating the cable
pulling from slightly below the MC attach point on the lever, so I
used the smallest eyelet available on the cable to minimize that
length (I didn't want the pull be too far from centerline either...
avoidable friction is the enemy!) . I went with the MS02668-3 eyelet
as it's as small as I could find for a 3/32 cable (the minimum size
cable I'm willing to use...) and hence minimized the extra length
needed on that lever. MC pivot point is on a 1.6" radius on the lever
and the cable pulls from a 1.28" radius measured from the same bottom
pivot point to achieve the mechanical 'disadvantage' needed in minimal
space.

If this was able to be done using a ball or button stop this would
have been relatively easy, as there are many options for those type of
terminations (I live in Oakland with numerous shops nearby, and/or
would be feasible to make myself.), but my conundrum came from needing
motorcycle parts (M8-1.25 barrel adjuster w/2 nuts) on the same
assembly as the milspec eyelets... all the sudden the list of capable
shops got much smaller, and willing shops smaller yet.

The overall conversion is almost done though, and I very much look
forward to flying my ship again, especially with a brake that actually
works! I still won't point at anything I don't want to buy- but
still... Once completed I will set up a site documenting my process
from beginning to end, with pictures and descriptions of the step-by-
step for the conversion in addition to making the drawings/dimensions
of the parts that need to be machined available in case anyone else is
as fed up as I was with what is clearly the Achilles' heel of such a
fine ship and they need some inspiration.

-Paul

PS. I absolutely love my Polish glider, I just hate it's wretched
wheel/brake arrangement... (well, and the inadequate ventilation, but
that problem is already solved