Building a Carbon Fiber tail pitch control rod.

[snjbird]

I have been asked how I put this together on a couple of occasions so I thought I would put a little how to together.

I have found in reading post that people have been experiencing troubles with the push rod guides, I have been lucky with mine and have not had any trouble, I used Triflow before each flying session? Don’t know if that made the difference, but it lasted for over 250 flights. Well on to the how to…



First I know there is always more than one way to skin a cat, with that in mind I’ll show you the two ways I came up with to skin this cat! First I thought to build a push rod using some 4 mm CF tube, and JB weld a cut down push rod from my spares bin, and some shrink wrap. This one was a trial piece, but it turned out pretty good, so that is the one that is in my photos, it is light 6.1g versus 12g for the stock one. I took off the stock rod and measured the CF rod I cut it to 387mm with a dremel and a cut off wheel, next I found a good old control rod from when I rebuilt my 600 head, nice straight one with good rod ends, I changed the rod ends later. I cut that in half and put some groves perpendicular to the rod for the JB weld to “grab” next I cut some pretty closely sized shrink wrap tubing and slid it on the rod, I mixed some JB weld according to the package instructions, I then generously applied the JB weld to the CF rod end making sure to get it in there good, then a little was applied to the metal rod making sure it got in the grooves! Then I did the same on the other side, next I carefully mounted the new still very flexible rod to the standing by heli; I had some stays ready to prop the rod up and make sure it set straight, a day later I took it off and cleaned up the excess JB Weld, then moved the shrink wrap in place and shrunk it! The rod is very ridged and shows no flex when actuating the tail.

The next rod is heavy, 14.6g, I installed the CF tube outside the metal pushrod, this is a more secure way to actuate the tail, for guys using a heavy pack and a small micro tail servo this will help with balance, for you heavy servo guys running BLS251, or the DS8900G use the lighter method, This is a little bit easier, I just take apart the stock tail push rod, line it up next to the CF rod, cut the tube about an inch shorter than the stock rod, 377mm and test fit the rod, it will be a little loose, so are the T600 rods, I used heavy CA on the app. Shrink wrap and let it set over night.

[ryem3]

Carbon sleeve - I like the idea, it's so easy. No doubts about the ends coming out and no affect on the ability to adjust the rod length. Anyone know where I can mail order some carbon tubing?

[snjbird]

I got mine at the LHS, it is just a little big on the inside, but it worked great, I'll ask them today were they get it!

PS at just 2.6g heavier than the stock setup!

[fogger]

Either way you will want to come up with some type of support for the tail push rod. I tried this on my 600, the second version with a carbon rod ca'd over the stock pushrod. Watch my backwards on-board video on you tube and you will see the crazy oscillations the rod went through. Now I later found that I had a couple bad bearings in the grips which probably helped produce the vibes, but anyway watch it and you will see what I mean...

Foggers 10S T-rex 600 Backwards Practice (5 min 22 sec)

-Fog

[SoftwareDrone]

Wow! I see what you mean. There has to be a way to gusset a hollow CF tube and not make it look like a hack job. With proper gussets you would eliminate the need for the supports.

[snjbird]

Over a year and no troubles with the rod ends JB welded on, I have this setup on 4 different helis! tails are rock solid, I never did use the CF tube over the factory rod... never needed to try!

[wall]

Just answered a PM about these. Check this site out they make really nice rod ends. I tried the carbon tube over the stock metal rod and the metal rod vibrated inside the carbon rod. Was going to JB weld it inside but then I found these in my AMA magazine.
http://www.centralhobbies.com/contro...e/pushrod3.htm

[ken22golf]

I ordered a few of these http://hobbycity.com/hobbycity/store...idProduct=6722 that will be coming with my new packs.

I figured I could slip it over the stock rod and lose the guides. I hope it fits snug, it says it's 2mm ID, so it should.

My local HS doesn't have CF tubing, just aluminum and brass.

After using the Beam E4 CF tail control rod on my 450, I knew I wanted to do something like that with my 500. It's just so much easier setting everything up.

[rickyg]

I got this titanium carbon fiber rod kit. I think it came out looking really good. I got it at my LHS, but have yet to find anything like it anywhere online.



My TREX 500's Carbon Fiber Rod.



The Carbon Rod on my T-REX 250.



This is what the package looks like. I looked all over, but still can't find it anywhere online.



Here is the back. I looked up www.BigSkyCNC.com but no little titanium ends like the kit had.

Ricky

[gbeeusae]

Do the measurements from this one look the same as you have?

http://www.heliproz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=125860

[ACKopter]

It probably is the right one. If I remember correctly Big Sky is one of the companies that is operated by the same outfit that took over Min Air and Heliproz So is one of the distributors.

[ken22golf]

I built one today for my 500. I'll post some pictures when I have time.

I got the 3mm OD and 2mm ID CF tube, and I had to take a drill, chuck up the metal tail control rod, and actually spin the whole thing through it was so tight. It did make a little crack, but it should work perfectly. It's probably not as stiff as a solid CF rod, but I'm sure it will be stiffer than the stock even with the guides.

[rickyg]

Originally Posted by gbeeusae

Do the measurements from this one look the same as you have?

http://www.heliproz.com/prodinfo.asp?number=125860

Yeah, that looks right, it just doesn't show the ends. On my "kit" it had these threaded/barbed rods http://www.centralhobbies.com/contro...e/pushrod3.htm and it also had these "caps" that look similar to these http://www.ronlund.com/Merchant2/mer...Category_Code= but if you look at my photos you can see what I mean. You put JB Weld in the carbon rod then thread the cap onto the threaded/barbed end, then put JB Weld in that and push it all together. I'm pretty sure with the price being the same, its the same thing, but who knows.

Ricky

[Beebad]

I just made a push rod for my T500, pretty red alm. end caps I got from Readyheli. I need to go home and take a pic and see if I can figure out how to get it on here. The tube is hollow and kinda fat [maybe 5mm] but, after seeing that vid of his wobbeling around, maybe it needs to be larger. It weighs 1.5 grams more than stock though.
They are in upgrades for trex 600n [txt24-r quick uk trex 600 push rod] on readyheli.com, I got just the end caps and a rod seperately. Sorry, I'm even newer on the computer and don't know how to attach and stuff like that. Let me know what you guys think.

[ken22golf]

I just watched the video from above. I'm going to have to put my camera pointed backwards on my 500 to see if my CF rod is bending that much. If I used a solid CF tube, I'm sure it'd be fine, but since mine has the weight of the original metal rod, it might do the same thing.

[stoatnchips]

I've done this mod on all my helis and got worried that my tail would be badly affected by this... then had a think about it. Apply some basic circular math... you gotta push rood which is a basically a chord... its then deflected to form an arc... and will shorten... a tiny bit. Put the figures in for rex 500 and makes bugger all difference!

Additionally, if you cut the CF tube the exact length to fit between the ball links and snug them up,, then the the tension in the steel rod inside will help to keep the CF rod from bending too much.

[Liposition]

Not putting your homemade pushrod down by any means because I like it very much but it is just as economical to buy one made already. I think they changed the style now but I use the one that is meant for the Protos.

[snjbird]

The Protos was not out yet when I made this rod. The rod in the video is over twice as long as the one on a 500, and it is a metal rod inside the CF tube... that plus it's a nitro, and the camera plays tricks at the shutter speed he has it set for. The heli in the video had a rock solid tail! I have these type rods on my two 500s and my 600E, I made one for my 250 and 450 Pro, my 450SE has the beam rod. There is a certain satisfaction to taking an idea, and creating something, and to have it work, for me it is part of the hobby. You guys who have made rods post up the pictures!

[whisperdancer]

Originally Posted by Liposition

Not putting your homemade pushrod down by any means because I like it very much but it is just as economical to buy one made already. I think they changed the style now but I use the one that is meant for the Protos.

There are some problems using the Protos rod:

- The rod is shorter than the stock one - it throws the servo further back and doens't help on the CG
- The threads on the Protos rod are inferior in diameter to the ones on the Align - you can't use the stock ball links - instead you should use the Protos ones on the tail.

I have a Protos rod I bought for the Rex, but didn't like the way it would go, with this issues.
The rod has an advantage: it's very tough and doens't flex. I thought on expoxying the standard align rod inside the carbon rod, as it is hollow, but I don't remember now if it would go inside the CF rod or not...

[ACKopter]

Originally Posted by Beebad

I just made a push rod for my T500, pretty red alm. end caps I got from Readyheli. I need to go home and take a pic and see if I can figure out how to get it on here. The tube is hollow and kinda fat [maybe 5mm] but, after seeing that vid of his wobbeling around, maybe it needs to be larger. It weighs 1.5 grams more than stock though.
They are in upgrades for trex 600n [txt24-r quick uk trex 600 push rod] on readyheli.com, I got just the end caps and a rod seperately. Sorry, I'm even newer on the computer and don't know how to attach and stuff like that. Let me know what you guys think.

Here you go Beebad,
http://www.readyheli.com/Quick_UK_Tr..._p/txt-242.htm
Definately an easy option. Just glue the ends to the appropriate size rod and your done. I make mine using some spare links and hollow CF tube. I file down the end of the link till it will press into the cf tube then wrap it with high strength string and then soak the string in ca glue. I've made two for my 450 and one for my HC 500.