I’m painfully close to getting on the water, but again another snag. So far I’ve been able to solve most problems with bits found in the garage, but I’m sorta getting frustrated here. First off, anyone got any hints/suggestions for a 1/8 dia rudder control arm? I snagged the one that was on my vic, and it seems to work, but I haven’t been able to find another one like it for purchase. (me thinks it was stock with the kit, but as I got it second hand…???) Only one I know for sure that is 1/8 readily available is Dumas #3505(single)& 3515(double). Looks a bit bulky though. I’ll certainly drill out any known of slightly smaller diameter, but can’t do that with something bigger.(duhhh!) Any leads here? For that matter, whats the advantage for a single or double arm?
Another problem I’ve run into is that of steering servo arm length. I’m using Hitec 55 micro’s, and have only short single arms. With the trials I’ve run so far using the vic parts it seems that rudder travel is much greater in one direction. Also it seems to bind on occasion. Though I suspect a few causes, I’m thinking that a longer arm on the servo with a shorter arm on the rudder shaft would increase rudder rotation? Somebody that knows how to do this please HELP!!!
the good news is that, shy the rudder issues, both boats are ready to rock!!!
what, one more thing… I also stole the sail arm off my vic…again I think it was stock with the kit. It fit the x horn on a hitec hs-303. It works perfect, but again I can’t find another one anywhere. I was thinking of fabbing one, but would love to find another one of these sail arms.
and scroll down to the 3mm tiller control arm. It may still be to large for a footy.
Some use the double arm as a push/pull arrangement with wires to each side of the arm from a double ended servo. It avoids any loss of control from a single push rod system that may bend a bit on compression.
I use the HS-55 on rudder too animaljosh. What I do is select one of the servo arms with a hole at 10mm from the pivot, the rudder control arm has a matching hole at 10mm from the shaft. This gives the same angle of movement to the rudder as the angle of movement of the servo. I find this to be plenty, any more and you can risk using the rudder as a speed break.
Be sure that the holes are a close fit to your pushrod, no slop wanted there. Also make sure that your angles are correct, if the servo arm does not centre perfectly then match that ‘error’ on the rudder control arm with respect to the centred rudder blade. It’s not perfect geometry but it helps.
For my Footy, which uses a 1/16" piece of music wire for the rudder post, I used a 1/16" Dubro collar, and soldered a small piece of K&S .025" x 1/4" brass strip to the collar. Then I used the collar as a guide to drill the hole in the brass strip with a 1/16" drill bit in a pin vise. Dubro makes their collars in 1/8" so you should be able to do the same thing. Just don’t fill the shaft hole, or the threaded hole up with solder, and use good flux/solder such as Stay Brite silver bearing solder & Stay Klean flux. Then Use a small bit & the pin vise to drill the hole for the control rod (I used Dubro .032" pushrods for Micro Flyers). Clean up and shape the arm as needed with a small file.