Fractured Axel

Afternoon chaps,

I've managed to break the lower spreader in the old Gem I bought (from someone here) some years ago. I thought finding replacement tubes would be straightforward, but it seems the design has changed a bit and I can't work out what bits to purchase to repair it.

Looking at pics and videos of current Geminis, it seems that although the spreader is in three pieces like mine, the central part fits into the two longer, outer bits. On my gem it's the other way around, the outer parts fits inside a slightly wider central tube, and there are plastic stopper things on the outer tubes to keep everything from moving around.

It also looks like modern gems are framed with branded sky shark tubes, whereas this one has unlabelled tubes. The Benson site has a table showing what tubes the frame consists of, and it looks like I can buy suitable tubes directly from there. But I'm not sure whether that table is relevant for this or not.

I realise my ranting probably isn't helping too much, so here's a diagram of how the spreader fits together and what I've broken:

http://i.imgur.com/6GWHtH8.png

So, question is, what do I need to buy to get this thing back in the air? Can I just grab a length of Sky Shark 5PT (as per aforementioned table), cut it to size and hope for the best?

Oh, also, what can I do about the plastic stoppery thing on the tube? Can I buy replacements? It doesn't seem like it wants to come off (but I suppose it might if I give it some beans).

Thanks in advance!

Dan

Dan, I'd simply e-mail Tim and ask him.

It's 6mm Structil which I stock at the FA shop, however it has a length of P200 (?? It's been a while) sheathed over and am unsure of the lengths of both so as already suggested contact Tim, he's very helpful.

Emailed. Thanks, gents.

A quick squiz through the shop has also answered the question of what the aforementioned mysterious plastic things are. I assume those will just superglue on, right?

Being lazy here and not double-checking myself but I'm making an educated guess that the plastic stoppers might be c - clips. (or similar) which you can get from the FA shop. Superglue would work fine, for a nice clean finish you can always wrap some electricians tape either side of where you intend to glue it on and then remove after gluing.

To get them off try heating it up with boiling water and it should loosen the bond enough to remove them. It can take a number of goes before they submit to your muscles:)

honchoboy wrote:

To get them off try heating it up with boiling water and it should loosen the bond enough to remove them. It can take a number of goes before they submit to your muscles:)

If you try and prise 'em off they'll break 9 times out of ten. Get a medium sized flat bladed screwdriver, put it on the top(bottom) of the c clip parrallel to the spars and give it a couple of sharp taps with a hammer along the spar - 9 times out of ten it'll pop straight off in one piece. The bonding strength of superglue is very good but the sheer strength isn't.

Lower spreaders 6mm structil 75cm long.
Centre piece Skyshark P200 25cm long
C-clip stopper pieces 14cm in from inner ends of spreaders
Alternative to C-clips: end caps with ends cut off.

Tim doesn't tend to use c-clips, so they are more likely to be sliced end caps.

I can't remember back to what was on mine. but my Ls was a two piece one, so it might not have been directly comparable.

Originally it was just the two pieces of spar, no stoppers were glued on, the t-pieces kept the spars in place.

Stan Doff wrote:

Lower spreaders 6mm structil 75cm long.
Centre piece Skyshark P200 25cm long
C-clip stopper pieces 14cm in from inner ends of spreaders
Alternative to C-clips: end caps with ends cut off.

That's absolutely perfect, thanks so much!