RLCarter Posted December 13, 2015 Report Posted December 13, 2015 After doing some research for sun visors for our 65’ E it became obvious that I was going to have to roll my own, or modify a store bought unit. Coming up with something that attached to the windscreen center bar and rotate down on the “X” axis seems to be the norm and fairly easy to do, but I would also like them to rotate to the side which takes the center bar mounting point out of play… or does it? A small aluminum 3/16” or 1/4” rod that follows the top contour of the windscreen would give you a mounting point on the sides and if it was tied into the center bar & headliner plastic it should (should being the key word) be rigid enough to hold a sun visor. Below is a sketch (not to scale) of what I am talking about. So out to the lathe to start making parts, I’ll post pictures along with CAD drawings as they become available. visor.bmp Quote
Bob_Belville Posted December 13, 2015 Report Posted December 13, 2015 If you haven't checked out the LASAR visors you should. I have them, they attach at the top left hand corner (pilot's) and can be swung to the side window position. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk Quote
Marauder Posted December 13, 2015 Report Posted December 13, 2015 If you haven't checked out the LASAR visors you should. I have them, they attach at the top left hand corner and can be swung to the side window position. Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk All this talk about visors has me looking at mine. Pretty faded and I know they are originals since they are on the factory punch out list for options. Has anyone ever cut replacements for the shade portion? Interested in knowing where to get material and how best to cut it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Quote
DonMuncy Posted December 13, 2015 Report Posted December 13, 2015 4 minutes ago, Marauder said: All this talk about visors has me looking at mine. Pretty faded and I know they are originals since they are on the factory punch out list for options. Has anyone ever cut replacements for the shade portion? Interested in knowing where to get material and how best to cut it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk I have the LASAR visors, and had one crack. There are several Plastic stores around Dallas, and I easily found smoke colored Lexan or the like. Both these and plexiglass cut easily with a fine toothed saw, Dremel tool, router, etc. With care, drilling is not a problem. I cut a pattern out of plywood and used a router to shape it. I don't think you could tell it from the original. If you don't/can't find the material, lack the tools, etc., PM me. We can probably work out something. 2 Quote
Marauder Posted December 13, 2015 Report Posted December 13, 2015 4 minutes ago, Marauder said: All this talk about visors has me looking at mine. Pretty faded and I know they are originals since they are on the factory punch out list for options. Has anyone ever cut replacements for the shade portion? Interested in knowing where to get material and how best to cut it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk I have the LASAR visors, and had one crack. There are several Plastic stores around Dallas, and I easily found smoke colored Lexan or the like. Both these and plexiglass cut easily with a fine toothed saw, Dremel tool, router, etc. With care, drilling is not a problem. I cut a pattern out of plywood and used a router to shape it. I don't think you could tell it from the original. If you don't/can't find the material, lack the tools, etc., PM me. We can probably work out something. Thanks Don! I think I will add it to my winter to do list. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk Quote
RLCarter Posted December 13, 2015 Author Report Posted December 13, 2015 Bob_Belville would have gone with the wiser visor but they are out of stock and no delivry date according to LASAR, from what I can see on here they have been for several years Quote
RLCarter Posted December 13, 2015 Author Report Posted December 13, 2015 Two parts down, these should be the hardest ones to make so I got them out of the way first. Working on the CAD drawing so things might make more sense for those that are following 1 Quote
Bob_Belville Posted December 13, 2015 Report Posted December 13, 2015 1 hour ago, RLCarter said: Bob_Belville would have gone with the wiser visor but they are out of stock and no delivry date according to LASAR, from what I can see on here they have been for several years I guess it is the arms that are out of stock? I broke one of the lenses 6 months ago and got a quick and reasonable replacement pair of the lenses from LASAR. Exact size and pre-drilled. ($25 for a pair + shipping) Quote
gsxrpilot Posted December 13, 2015 Report Posted December 13, 2015 1 hour ago, Bob_Belville said: I guess it is the arms that are out of stock? I broke one of the lenses 6 months ago and got a quick and reasonable replacement pair of the lenses from LASAR. Exact size and pre-drilled. ($25 for a pair + shipping) I ordered a pair of the lenses and made my own brackets. They don't articulate to the side, but work perfect otherwise. 1 Quote
Yetti Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 http://www.professionalplastics.com/Houston_TX Also some Homer Dans and lowes will sometimes have tinted lexan/acrylics Leave the protective plastic on and use blue tape to cut on the table saw. You feed it rapidly as it will take so plan your moves and go for it. Then I will use a light touch on the disc sander table to do the radius corners. Then the belt part to round the long edges. If it is melting you are feeding it too hard. If you want to get fancy on the edges you can keeping up the grit on the sand paper till it is clear again. You can also sand glass edges. Wear gloves I would drill the holes first in case you mess up and split one. 1 Quote
Bob_Belville Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 Just now, Yetti said: http://www.professionalplastics.com/Houston_TX Also some Homer Dans and lowes will sometimes have tinted lexan/acrylics Leave the protective plastic on and use blue tape to cut on the table saw. You feed it rapidly as it will take so plan your moves and go for it. Then I will use a light touch on the disc sander table to do the radius corners. Then the belt part to round the long edges. If it is melting you are feeding it too hard. If you want to get fancy on the edges you can keeping up the grit on the sand paper till it is clear again. You can also sand glass edges. Wear gloves I would drill the holes first in case you mess up and split one. Why go to the trouble? They are $25 a pair from LASAR, already shaped and drilled... Quote
Yetti Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 why does a painter paint a picture there are already lots of paintings out there? For me I usually have enough raw materials laying around that I could have one made in the time it took me to type the instructions. And it would be fixed and I could move onto the next broken thing to fix. 1 Quote
DonMuncy Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 The plastic is easy. The rods and bracket are doable. But those articulating joints have eluded me, and I have tried pretty hard. Quote
Yetti Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 The u joints on the trim adjustment rods are square u joints. a square u joint would be much easier to thread and put a screw in.... Quote
Yetti Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 If I was doing one, I would use some flexible arm. I ordered one of these and mounted to the throttle cable mount behind the panel with the clamp. Have not got to fly the plane yet but looks to work good. There are smaller flexible shaft for cell phone holders and small lights that would work for sun visors. http://www.dx.com/p/lr360-universal-360-degree-rotating-holder-for-tablet-pc-black-233173#.Vm4yw-Jjl44 Quote
DonMuncy Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 Yetti, Let us know how these work. These would hold some serious potential for visors. I might spend some time developing a system using them. LASAR's visors work well and their price was pretty good, but they haven't had any for several years now. Maybe this is how I can get rich (Everything I manage to put together, I wind up giving away or selling at cost) Quote
Wakeup Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 I remember a thread that someone made their own sunvisors. I would love some for my M20B. Thanks. Troy Quote
gsxrpilot Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 3 minutes ago, Wakeup said: I remember a thread that someone made their own sunvisors. I would love some for my M20B. Thanks. Troy http://mooneyspace.com/topic/13714-budget-visors/#comment-178825 I copied the instructions here for visors in my C. They work great! Quote
Yetti Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 I am a bit behind in fun projects. I wanted to make a clamp for the center tube. The tablet holder flexible arm is 5/8" so a bit big for visors. Here is a source for smaller flexible arms. http://www.mcmaster.com/#flexible-arms/=1089hwg Quote
Hank Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 Will later-model C visors work on your plane? Mine are [heavily crazed] smoked plexi, mounted to the frame at the outside corners, and clip into the center bracket, much like the ones in cars of a similar vintage except for being semi-transparent. I'll see if I can copy the right pages from the Parts Manual. I have no idea when they were added . . . but like the rest of the plane, they are stone simple. I had to take them out to remove the ceiling when doing the WAAS upgrade [new GPS antenna and cable required]. They don't "articulate," but they do swing to the side if the sun is in front of you. The windshield being narrow, the visors are rather short on the side window, the sun had better be in front of you on the side. That's another benefit to Halo headsets, I can wear a broad brimmed hat and block the sun that my visor misses on the side. Quote
Yetti Posted December 14, 2015 Report Posted December 14, 2015 There is a welded to the tube threaded mount for the factory ones. It sounds like not all the planes got the welded in tab. It would not hurt to check and see, it's just a bunch of #4 screws. It could be fun to replace the factory mount with a flexible arm with a visor mounted too it. Quote
RLCarter Posted December 14, 2015 Author Report Posted December 14, 2015 This is the direction I am headed, the arm will rotate on the 1/4-28 socket head screw, the long rod will rotate inside the split nylon bushings. The long rods (center section is milled down 0.050" giving a 1/4" wide flat surface for the plexi to mount, not sure if I'll use 1 or 2 of the long flat plates to give a little more support for the plexi. Still need to drill 1/4" (3/8" for the head) and drill and tap for the 8-32 set screws on both main bodies. untitled3.bmp Quote
RLCarter Posted December 15, 2015 Author Report Posted December 15, 2015 Was out at the airport today and pulled the right piece of plastic from the door post, didn't see any thing that looked like a mount for OEM visors but that's OK, I'll come up with something. We routinely fly East in the evening (over the gulf coast) and the 50nm going home (West) is brutal with the summer sunsets so it's a must to get these installed. 2 Quote
carusoam Posted December 15, 2015 Report Posted December 15, 2015 Looking pretty snazzy there RLC. Talented people at MS rock! best regards, -a- Quote
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