After an extended pause in the building process while the real world intervened it's back to work.First jobs are to rework the little bits and pieces that have been niggling because they are not as good as they could be.
Previously I have shown the linear bearing used to support the elevator pushrod. This was a beautiful piece of engineering but was adding too much friction to the control linkage. This was a result of two issues. First, the bearing had a rubber oil seal at both ends which was tight on the pushrod. Second, the bearing is designed for a precision 3/4" rod rather than the 4130 tubing forming the pushrod.
The challenge was to replace the bearing without remaking the pushrod. This was accomplished by drilling a clearance hole in some Delrin (acetal) rod and then sawing it in half. The two halves were then inserted into a piece of tubing of the same external diameter as the original bearing and secured using grub screws. This was then inserted in place of the bearing and has provided a very smooth support for the pushrod with very little friction
