Been running an aluminum foil adapter to ride lift wings on my axis mast. On my 3rd one cuz of aluminum corrosion. Would it be possible to make this part in carbon, steel, or titanium?
Take my $$$
Jim can probably make you whatever you need.
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i mean…if your committed to not riding axis anymore its really easy to just pot that connection…would be better and stiffer than an adapter.
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Yeah for sure. The 30in axis UHM mast is dope but lift wings have my heart. And the Florence 30in mast is a bit of a price upgrade
How would you explain “potting” to someone who has never tried that?
It’s potting like potting a plant. In the simplest terms, you stick the mast in the hole and fill in the area around it with thickened epoxy. The hard part is the hardware which you really need to figure out before the epoxy work in order to hold everything together with good alignment while the epoxy cures.. I do barrel nut/cross dowels like old Windsurf fins but I mostly use chopped down masts so I’m not working with any kind of original base like you would be with the axis foot. You might be able to drill and tap and get into real metal. When drilling that first hole and doing the first piece of hardware, whether you drilling tap or do barrel nuts, try to be as precise as possible for good alignment. I like to do the front one before the epoxy and the back one after, it helps only having one of them bolted to get the alignment rights and then you draw the second one afterwards. To get the alignment right you measure wing tip to base plate and make sure everything is symmetrical and if one side needs to be pulled a little bit you can usually just use some painters tape. To keep the epoxy from sticking permanently to the fuse you can use some fancy epoxy release agent or you can just spray some cooking spray like Crisco in there. Standard epoxy cleanliness requirements apply. Tape off any areas where you don’t want the epoxy, fuse, area of the mat above the joint, etc. I find having a epoxy syringe to delicately apply at the epoxy in the pot is really helpful. I learned to do this with free busted NL masts and now I can throw one together for any kind of socket style connection in about an hour. I would say try to start on something free like a busted mat and then we are doing before you try messed that has a lot of value to you. I just bought a good, used 14 mm mast on the forum for $450 and threw it together and was riding the next day
Making a connection like this will 100% produce something better than factory stiffness and light years is better than an adapter.
I would say the required experience would be epoxy, drill press, thread tapping. If you have done those in some kind of capacity, you should be good here.
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Grea tips!
Also, do you think it would be possible to epoxy the adapter permanently in place?
Totally. For that you can almost skip the hardware. Clean mast, clean fuse, sand both, use a rachet strap to pull the mast down into the fuse(strap around base plate and fuse) measure, align, tape, clamps, measure some more then epoxy. It’ll be bomber and permanent. Maybe drill and tap that m6 hardware after just for cosmetic reasons and a hint of security.
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What kind of epoxy would you use?
I use metric shit tons of epoxy for boatbuilding, etc so I go with whatever I can get cheapessy when I need it. Id order the total boat. Maybe practice on an old lift wing and see if you can find an old busted NL mast to practice one
I’ve been using Stringy aluminum to carbon adapters for years and no corrosion. Are these home built without anodizing? Do you grease?
I don’t fly plug style airplanes, the scarf joints are more like a set on top connection.