PROPOSED “HARLEY’S HOOKERS”

Send comments to Harley Michaelis, LSF 023 at harleym@bmi.net

Toothed strips of nylon, etc. are mounted so opposing teeth engage as panels are butted to each other or to the fuselage.

In the first sketch below, the upper black lines represent strips anchored in wing panels. Lower black lines represent strips mounted on a ply plate, etc. across the fuselage. Strips would protrude from wing panels and enter the sides of the fuselage. Holding power would be adjustable. One means would be by the # of teeth that would engage. The strips in the fuselage could be positioned to set the number or some teeth could be removed. These strips thus may or may not protrude from the fuselage.

The teeth would be sized and angled so that when engaged, they would secure panels during launch and flight. However, due to their natural flex and slipperyness, on a hard enough dork, they would pull apart. How easily or hard would be a function of the # of engaged teeth and pressure by a screw head run through the slot in the end of the upper strip. If desired, panels could be locked on by running a screw through both strips adjacent to the slotted end, shown in the oversized lower sketch. The heavy, vertical dotted line indicates a location.

To disengage the overlapping strips for transport, an access hole would be made in the underside of the panels, so the upper strip could be parted from the lower one using a pointed instrument. When anchoring the strip in a panel, the area adjacent to the teeth is left free to flex a little. The much-oversized sketch below helps clarify the concept and the layout of things.

Strip dimensions, teeth size, shape, angle and area would have to be determined. As an offhand guess, strips would be 3-8” to 1/2” wide and 1-1/2” long with half in teeth. Teeth would have an upright edge and one angled at 45 degrees. Tops would be slightly rounded to they could slip over each other without doing damage. Strip thickness might be such that with teeth meshed, the overlapped area would be 3/32” or so thick. The objective would be to have a “one-size-fits-all” strip to minimize tooling costs. 4 strips would be put in a package to accommodate 2 plug-in panels or a pair of tips that plug into a center section. Just guessing. . .retail price of $2 or so.