he nose landing gear, along with the suspension and retraction mechanism, is now assembled.
After the welded parts were stress-relieved, the axle bores for the bronze bearings were next. These had to be bored absolutely parallel and to within 0.02mm, a task that was impossible on my too-small milling machine. The company MEGA in Baden not only has a sufficiently large 5-axis CNC milling machine but also the tools, expertise, and enthusiasm to carry out this specialized work. Over the course of two days, the expert worked alongside me in the background on the machine, completing the task to perfection.
The lever mechanism is also mounted on bronze bushings. Since I opted for AN bolt sizes for all the pivot points, I had to source the bushings abroad accordingly. Once these made their way across the Atlantic, I was able to configure them, press them into place, and assemble the mechanism.
Lastly, the Venom nose gear was added. Here, too, the mounting hole had to be machined to within hundredths of a millimeter. No problem for the company MEGA.
The landing gear is now assembled on the mounting jig. What's still missing is the electric actuator, which will be delivered in three weeks, and a strut. The latter still requires a few more days of work.