Cable ends fairlead and guides

[Marty57]

I'm finishing up the cable runs in my wood 2+2 wing and I made some cable guides that the aileron cables will pass through at the root rib. The guide is one piece rather than split like the Piper fairlead; one on each side with AN3 bolts going through (see attached picture). The hole through the root rib is 3/4" (not the small hole to the left of the guide) and the opening in the guide is 1/2". The cable's won't be directing or changing the angle of the cables in any way; they are just for protection of the structure where the cable comes closer than 3/4" to any structure. My question is regarding building up the aileron cables. Will I first run the bare cables through the wing and than form the swage on both ends of the cables? The guides have the same 1/2" opening as the Piper fairleads just not split. Do the cables have loops on both ends or ???? Being unsure of how the cables run I'm a little unclear about use of guides and fairleads. (I could split these guides in two pieces if necessary) The same issue comes when running the cables through the pulleys in the wing. A 1/8" cable will run nicely under the pulley cable guard without any ends. With ends on the cables all the pulleys need to be removed from their cages to install the control cable. So what is the best way to proceed. Thanks

Marty57

 

[Gordon Misch]

Marty, you'll have a thimble (loop) on each end of your cable, and it will not fit through the 1/2" hole. I'd bet you can figure a way of splitting the guides you made?

 

[Marty57]

Gordon,
That's what I thought about the cable, thanks. So two options that will work. I re-drilled one guide to hold a standard Piper fairlead and can use one of these combinations on both sides of the root rib (too thick for just a fairlead alone). I also split one of my guides and re-drilled the hole back to 1/2". I could use one of these on each sides of the rib. In either case I can run two AN3 bolts through the rib to keep the guides aligned. Posting this question helped me think my way through this. The picture below shows the two options. In the rib on the other side of the fuel tank bay I can use a regular fairlead. I managed to run both aileron cables through the tank bay with out having to weld a tube through the tank and will still have close to 17 gallons capacity in the tank as my mock up shows right now. Getting close to finishing up these wings.

Marty57

 

[skywagon8a]

Marty,
There are several ways to skin a cat. You should keep in mind that at some point in time you may need to remove/replace the cable. It is very much more convenient to copy/make new cables if you have a completed one, in one piece, on the bench to copy. The Piper split fairleads are designed for this purpose. Keep in mind accessibility when the covering is on the wing and the wing is on the airplane.

You could to make the fairlead similar to the one in your first picture with materiel half as thick. Cut a slot 1/8" wide at 3 or 9 o'clock. Use two pieces sandwiched with the slots on opposite sides.

Also, an AN-3 bolt is overkill. There are no loads on these parts.