Super Simple Strut MOunt

[Peter Miller]

I am building cabin biplane, just a knockabout enlargement of my old American Dragon

I was trying to work out and easy way of mounting my interplance struts. We all know how fiddly they can be but I just wanted 4 lengths of dowel betwen the wings

I had glued in eight pieces of 1/8" ply and I had drilled 3/16" holes in these. Then the problem how do I hold them in place.

While looking through my little drawers of bits I found a stock of assorted dress snaps or press studs incluing some larger that average about 1/2" in diamater

I filed a rough ball shape on the end of the dowel.

I screwed the dress snap inside the ply of the wing

The ball on the endof the struts just pops in and holds. No need to have a fastening at the other end unless you want to do a lot of very fine adjustements to length. Just let it slide in and float in the lower 3/16" hole

[Peter Miller]

You can add fairings and rigging if you want to be fancy

[EarlyBird]

Ingenious!

As always I am impressed.

[cymaz]

Excellent idea!

Wood ( can you see what I did ) the ball end get worn and loose over time? I assume it’s hard wood that’s been used.

Edited By cymaz on 04/09/2020 07:50:19

[Peter Miller]

The wood is 3/16 Birch Dowel.

I imagine that the wood would wear over time but it is just popping through the press stud spring so would take a long time and anyway a new strut would be pretty quick and simple to make

[alan p]

For wear potential would a ball end connector of the extended shank type screwed into the dowel end be small enough to fit the press stud ?

[Peter Miller]

Yes, It would probably be perfect.. It would even look better on a more scale model

I am just doing it the quick and easy way. The model is small enough to live in one piece anyway.

I will check that out and add it to the thread

Edited By Peter Miller on 04/09/2020 10:27:56

[Stuphedd]

Cleaver !!

and I have lots of those "dress Snaps " like Peter , left over from the days we used them to "Snap on " the engine cowlings , but this "new " use means I will dust them off !

thanks

[Geoff Gardiner]

I am surprised to learn that a wing strut doesn't need to be fixed at both ends.

[Peter Miller]

Alan:

Yes, the Ball link ball fits perfectly.

Geoff:

In the case of this model they are purely cosmetic.

For most models the struts should be fixed at both ends but this is a 45" span sports biplane and the lower wing is a lot shorter that the top wing. It is a 1 1/2 times versyion of my Americn Dragon