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Gotta love lasers!!!

SeanB

Well Known Member
Trying to find the centerline on the wheel pants. Not easy with such compound curves….unless you use a laser. Kinda cool, but the laser also blasts thru the bottom portion of the opposing side. Should be pretty close.
 

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Lasers are perfect for many build/construction task and rarely mentioned as a useful tool. As mentioned it is great for alignment of odd shapes like landing gear fairings and wheel pants. Also a laser can be used to show level anywhere in the plane, depict the aircraft center line plane, square the wings, measure control surface deflection, prop arc alignment, engine alignment, planar trim lines on cowl at firewall, straight lines for painting strips,and many more. I still use it at my yearly condition inspection to find TDC to set magneto timing.
 
Laser

I was thinking of doing the same, haven't found a good way to hold the laser head ... how do you set it up?

Mine has a tripod hole. 1/4-20. I also used blocks on the floor. Whatever works.
I used it extensively on the pants.
I wrote a Kitplanes article on pants and fairings.
Shoot me an e-mail if you want to read the draft.
It hasn't published yet.
Photo shows a modified pant jig. Pretty cool because the tire doesn't have to be more than just off the surface. It adjusts to different length pants too.
20220922_130009.jpg
 
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Sean, the method in the photos seems to rely on the cutout being in the right place...which is not always a safe bet.

Clamp some wood strips or similar to the flap portions on each side of the tail and make an eyeball comparison.
 
I was thinking of doing the same, haven't found a good way to hold the laser head ... how do you set it up?

I use a small camera stand similar to this one. I set it up on the top of the forward fuselage in front of the wind shield.
 
Trying to find the centerline on the wheel pants. Not easy with such compound curves….unless you use a laser. Kinda cool, but the laser also blasts thru the bottom portion of the opposing side. Should be pretty close.

What Laser did you use? Can you post a link to where it can be purchased?
 
Center

Sean, the method in the photos seems to rely on the cutout being in the right place...which is not always a safe bet.

Clamp some wood strips or similar to the flap portions on each side of the tail and make an eyeball comparison.
Dan is correct. The cutouts may not be center
Find center fore and aft then use the laser to project a center line. Aft is easy. Measure and you'll get within a 32nd. Forward is tricky. I put a piece of sandpaper on the floor then swung the pant like a pendulum. First one direction, lowering very slowly till it barely brushed. Look for the scratch. Mark the line. Repeat 90°. Should get a set of lines crossing at center.
 
Dan, I began with the idea of using the cutouts. As you point out, those are not accurate. Actually, the left and the right are significantly different from each other. I noticed scribe lines just outside the cuts, but did not trust those either. I finally centered the laser in the grid pictured on the desk, and positioned the wheel pant to have equal measurements to the O.D. from the center, while having the laser centered on the trailing taper of the wheel pant. The
problem with this approach could be if the flange is not square, making the wheel pant not perpendicular to the work surface.

I will add your suggestion to my process.

Thank you!
 
Just did this also

Was just doing this over the weekend ,the laser works great .
 

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I’m old enough to remember when Ted Maiman at Hughes demonstrated the first laser (1960 iirc). It was widely proclaimed to be a wonderful invention that was completely lacking any practical use!!
 
At least, a quite inexpensive laser from a special offer at the local grocery store produces a scenic light show when attaching the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer. :D

Had to darken the garage quite a bit but along with an electronic bevel metering box, it was a great help after all.
 

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