Retractable Step

[Wayne Hicks]

I gave myself a Christmas present -- a whole week to work on my Cozy. I installed a retractable step and completed my version of Dennis Passey's front seat modifications.

 

(Note: I've double-posted as "chapter 8" and "chapter 24.")

[Big Steve]

My step in my longeze was just like yours Wayne it worked really good you will be happy with it. STeve

[Edge 513]

My steps are kinda like Wayne's. They use a 3/16" delrin rod as slides, with an An3 eyelet to connect the cable to. I really like how Marc did his cable actuator, so thats how these will be connected and function. Don't have a pic of that step yet. I used a BIG syringe to inject flox in the entire core of the step tubes, for rigidity, and to allow me to tap out a 5/8-" AN3 hole for the eyelet. The 3/4" main tubes are .58 wall, and the 5/8" center tubes slide with just barely enough to do it smoothly without feeling sloppy at all. The placement of everything allows charts to slide under the assembly with 5/8" space from the eyelet bottom to the floor so the whole floor space can be used.

Ted,

Glad you're back in town.

Catch up. Heres some pics of the steps. The solid flox core was a groovy idea. The holes to mount the eyelets into were completely full and took good threads [about a half + inch]. In one closeup pic you can see the plastic tubing slipped over the delrin rod to make the stop/extension limiter. They both extend to 6 inches but have limited it at 5 1/4 inches. Theres a birch plywood triangle yoke with a complete flox embedment/support at each fuselage wall junction. The fuselage holes bottomed out right at the top of the wood at each wall. Thanks for letting me use your mill Thurs, the slots work great. I haven't trimmed the exteriors and won't all the way until the exterior micro goes on. Well, maybe I'll trim it with the grinder a bit closer than this.

Also..I am sending a pic of some dinosaur bones I found. They are really funky looking. Actually they are the roughed out L+R sticks. These are really rough at this stage, but from what I've been told, this is about how it starts. I'm sending you this so when they are done- you will be amazed at how crude the looked at the start! First step, you get a shape, and then grind/sand the shape closer and add some more micro where you want and sand some more. Dremel out your switch locations to the pipe core and set the switches, and micro around them. Should be pretty cool. I'll send you some more pics as they take shape.