Rollers And Axles

KevinMaiorka

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Hi all my name is Kevin and I am from central Texas and have been machining for about 10 years for myself. My regular day job is working on cars and I do enjoy it.

Here is a project that I have been making recently for some friends that own planes. These are for the front seats and allow the seats to move rearward and forward. The rollers are enclosed in a square tube that has a slot cut out in the top which is where the seat frame connects to the axle. The factory design is two plastic rollers and a axle with a hole drilled thru and no way of attaching the rollers to the axle. Most people use dental floss thru the hole to hold rollers in place while installing them but it is not a fool proof design. I came up with this design on my own and it works very well.
The axle is steel I believe a 1200 series steel. Can't recall at the moment and the aluminum is 6013. I use a standard 1/4 inch e-clip to secure the rollers onto the axle.

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They are for aircraft seat track system to allow the seat to slide fore and aft. Different design than what the factory originally used that is a better design in my opinion.

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you might have to do a new weight and balance for those...lol
No need to start any trouble now lol.

My other project that I will be starting soon is to finish up my uncle's little engines Pacific 4-6-2 7.5inch locomotive. He passed away a month ago and never finished it and I am the only one in the family that knows how to do machine work. Thankfully I also have an interest in trains so this should be a lot of fun.

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Hmm... if these are for Certified Aircraft (Cessna, Beech, Mooney, etc.) then you're largely wasting your time and someone's gonna be looking at a really big fine if they use them.

Just for the record, and among the many factors involved, e-clips are disapproved for new design. So that part's right out.

Because people use dental floss during installation does not make it a poor design. At the factory, you can be assured they don't use dental floss. But airplanes are not cars and are subject to many, many more rules and regulations what, you know, with them flying overhead and all. Among those regulations are configuration controls. If it ain't factory, it ain't approved.. and therefore ain't legal.

But it can get to be approved. Find a DER that can get you through the TSO/PMA process and you'll be on your way. If you can get it approved (very time consuming and very expensive), then you're good to go.


Wrat
 
Hmm... if these are for Certified Aircraft (Cessna, Beech, Mooney, etc.) then you're largely wasting your time and someone's gonna be looking at a really big fine if they use them.

Just for the record, and among the many factors involved, e-clips are disapproved for new design. So that part's right out.

Because people use dental floss during installation does not make it a poor design. At the factory, you can be assured they don't use dental floss. But airplanes are not cars and are subject to many, many more rules and regulations what, you know, with them flying overhead and all. Among those regulations are configuration controls. If it ain't factory, it ain't approved.. and therefore ain't legal.

But it can get to be approved. Find a DER that can get you through the TSO/PMA process and you'll be on your way. If you can get it approved (very time consuming and very expensive), then you're good to go.


Wrat
I do realize there aren't approved and I have a set in my plane as well. The big thing about these is that you have to remove the seat to even see them. So it's not like if you get ramp checked that an inspector would find them. Yes it is for a certified aircraft but we all have to some common sense sometimes and know that the faa isn't really that concerned about a better mousetrap. They have better things to worry about and this isn't one of them.

In regards to getting them approved it isn't really worth it as there aren't enough of these planes out there to justify the cost and time to do so. The return on them isn't enough and I don't charge a lot for doing these as it is more of a hobby for me than anything else

As for the e-clip it isn't doing anything more than holding the assembly together while lowering the seat rollers down into the track. Once inside the track the track keeps everything together. The clip has no structural support at all and is just an easy way to be able to remove them or install the rollers without them falling all over the place while installing.

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Get in a wreck sometime and you'll learn differently.

Like all bureaucrats, they don't make work for themselves. But when they investigate, they investigate (at least our local FSDO does).

Nothing like having a pranged-in plane and then get socked with FAA fines on top of it.

What you do with your plane is your bizness, as far as i'm concerned. And yes, you can travel under the radar, sometimes forever. Until the day comes you can't. But you've heard all that talk before, anyway, just like the rest of us.

Best of luck, anyway.

Wrat.
 
Hmm... if these are for Certified Aircraft (Cessna, Beech, Mooney, etc.) then you're largely wasting your time and someone's gonna be looking at a really big fine if they use them.

Just for the record, and among the many factors involved, e-clips are disapproved for new design. So that part's right out.

Because people use dental floss during installation does not make it a poor design. At the factory, you can be assured they don't use dental floss. But airplanes are not cars and are subject to many, many more rules and regulations what, you know, with them flying overhead and all. Among those regulations are configuration controls. If it ain't factory, it ain't approved.. and therefore ain't legal.

But it can get to be approved. Find a DER that can get you through the TSO/PMA process and you'll be on your way. If you can get it approved (very time consuming and very expensive), then you're good to go.


Wrat
+1 on that, Wrat. I was biting my tongue to keep from posting the same response. At the next annual inspection, any IA inspector worth his shingle will ground the aircraft until the approved parts are reinstalled. It is his job to find "improvements" like this. A seat sliding back to the rear stop on takeoff is not a trivial matter...

I have watched IA's carefully inspect seat rails and parts, and they take seat reliability seriously.

If your street rod fails on the way to the swap meet, you call a tow truck. With an aircraft it is often the coroner who is called...
 
This design is a very small change from the original factory design and is not going to cause a plane to have an issue by any means. I do understand your point of view but I have to disagree with the fact that if you don't know this plane then you would never know that this wasn't factory designed to begin with.



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