Progress of my 'yoke box'

[Geremy Britton]

Hi all, just another update for you. I've begun work on my yoke box. The MDF box has been made with 18mm wood to house the joystick.

A 'lid' will be screwed onto the top with a rectangle type shape with curved edges for the column to travel horizontally stopping it from moving side to side.

My question is though, of which i'm having a bit of difficulty. I've got the box with the joystick and then the pipe for the column will go over that with the yoke on the end. However my yoke is made from wood so therefore it is rather heavy. So my original idea of using hard foam in the box isn't going to work to return my weight of my yoke to the central position.

The leverage of the yoke beause of it's height means i need to come up with an idea. Otherwise the yoke will move and not have the tension it should have to return it back to the upright position when it is not touched. You would have to move it there for it to stay by the friction of the foam in the box.

The weight of the yoke on the front means it has much more weight pulling it back.

I was wondering how people have come over this situation. I know mike has his own 'yoke box' so would be interested to here from him and others' who can offer me some help in this situation. I've put the continuation of the box on hold for this afternoon whilst i get some replies and ideas for how i can overcome the situation.

Any questions/ clarification just ask and i look forward to getting some imspiring replies.


Thanks, and kind regards

[Michael Carter]

I visited the local hardware store and rooted through the spring section for mine. I bought four 8" heavy duty springs about an inch in diameter. They are hooked to the bottom of the yoke tube and the other ends are hooked to heavy screw eyes at the inside corners of the box.

I'm thinking of switching over to gas struts.

[Geremy Britton]

hmmm, that's what i was thinking second to foam. Not sure it would work. They'd need to be pretty meavy duty springs. Like car suspension type! LOL

yeah wonder if you could buy some small air pistons. Eg when one compresses the other one expands following each side of the joystick.

[ian@737ng.co.uk]

what i've used is gas struts. they come in all sorts of sizes and strengths.
i use 100 newton and they come from
http://www.sgs-engineering.com/ in derby.
maybe worth a shot. although micheal's idea for the springs will be much
cheaper (LOL).
have a great weekend..... ian