I was going to make the A-Frame that the wings and engine attach to but was slightly short some tubing. So I ordered what I needed and then decided to do something small. I decided to build the rudder pedals.

The first thing to do was to drill the hole for the 5/8" tube that goes through the 3/4" tube. This sounds easier than it is. I wanted to do this the "old fashion" way and just use my hand tools, drill press etc. instead of my milling machine. I've been trying to build this simple airplane using simple jigs and tools. This rudder pedal would have been much easier putting it on my mill vise at the right angle and milling the hole and the flat at the bottom. Instead, I used a block of wood that was cut at the correct angle and used it to support the tube on my drill press. I then used a step bit (Unibit) to cut the hole. Sounds easy enough but holding everything in position while drilling was a  tough task. The angle was roughly marked with a silver pencil and cut with tin-snips. I finished it on the belt sander to make it perfect. I have used the tin snips a lot on this project and they have proven very useful. I can cut a usable saddle joint in a tube in about 30 seconds which make fitting of tubes very fast and very easy. Saves a ton of time.

This jig took 5 minutes to build. I always keep a bunch of these blocks around just for small tasks like this. I've also used finishing nails occasionally to hold tubes into position. Little things like this is what enable you to get things accomplished.

Here it is all welded up.

The .063 sheet stock is placed on the angled part and welded up. Another time saver is buying the sheet stock in strips. I buy a couple of feet of 3/4", 1" and 1 1/2" wide .063 and .125. This doesn't cost much but saves a lot of time on a lot of fittings. This piece took 1 minute to cut out and another 2 minutes to weld up.

I still need to put the end pieces on where the rudder cable attach and the ends that keep your foot from slipping off but I had to get in and eat supper and spend some time with my lovely wife! The next one I may make using the mill and see if setup time exceeds the manual labor time on the first on.

Well, I did cut the other rudder pedal on the mill but it didn't save any time, it just made it extremely accurate. But, of course, once you start to weld on it, it moves around some so you don't really gain anything.

The end pieces were cut out on my little metal cutting bandsaw.  You can get these at Harbor Freight, Grizzly etc. for cheap. I've had it for 20+ years and it looks like hell but keeps cutting great! The pieces were roughly cut out and cleaned up on the bench grinder. Here they are being welded on.

Here are the finished pedals.

I've received the tubing I ordered so next I'll start on the A-frames.