Here is one way of doing those
scale latches that not only look good, but are also fully functional. They
are made
primarily for the AS-350 A-Stars and Twin-Stars,
but the ideas can applied to other designs.
......
You do not need special tools to get
good results, just patience and persistence. We start off by cutting up
some brass rectangular tubing to desired size ,
grind some angles on each end to fit the body and then clamp to
work area to cut slot with dremel tool. For my model,
there will be 4 functional and 4 dummy latches, all made
identical except for bails (which are made from
music wire 3/32" ).
......
Once I have all the pieces to cut to size,
then I can solder on end caps from .010 brass sheet. Trim with lexan
cutters and you can see the rough shape.
......
Once ground down to shape you can see
them looking a bit better. You can also double up on end caps for
more "beef" to grind on for shaping. The bails are
shown here bent from music wire. the little hump is your finger
to catch on to work the latch. Make these pieces
about 2 inches long then later you can cut them down to size
if desired, but there must enough room for springs
and collars to attach to.
......
Here is the test fitting pieces coming together
and here is all the failed attempts! Keep trying!
......
A little more shaping and they are ready to
attach to fuse with ply backing plates on the inside with 2.2. mm
sheet metal type screws.
......
And finally fitted and looking pretty
good! Here is what you need to do on the inside. The backing
plates
not only reinforce the spring areas but also help
locate the inner edge for the cowl so the spring bails do not pull
the cowl out of position. Springs are cut from a
long compression spring (found at hardware stores) then retained
with adjustable wheel collars for tension adjustment and for easy removal
for painting and maintenence if needed.
One last shot showing the backing plates for
both pieces.
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