The trap doors are machined aluminum. ;)

That is an impressive pan you have there Rusty :tup: I'm starting to show signs of pan envy :icon17:, until I look at my needs & the price difference.

I Googled "aluminum aircraft hinge" and came up with this link:

Extruded Piano Hinge On Wicks Aircraft Supply

Excellent find! Just a quick glance on my iPad it looks like it might be perfect. Extruded aluminum hinge. Genius!

Sometimes little pieces like that can be tedious to machine and set-back product completion. I will take a detailed look again tomorrow and maybe order a foot to get into CAD and try and work with.

Thanks!

Just a little heads up on the aircraft hinge. Those are usually a tight fitting hinge so they wont easily flap around to well just from gravity alone. You could remove the hinge pin and turn the pin down if you need more clearance. Chuck the pin in a drill and take some material off with sand paper and scotch pads.

Thanks for the heads up. I can toss their pin and get any diameter rod locally if their pin is tight.

I have put in an email to the supplier of that extruded hinge to see if they can sell it to me in its raw extruded form without the notches cut in it. I will call them Monday if I dont hear back.

They said that the hinge is machined before they receive it. I dont know if I will find the original source of it.

I ordered some material to machine a prototype. Since it was $90 a block, I only ordered 2 for now.

Too bad you can't get more for recycling all those chips you are going to make.

I get about $50 per giant garbage can full of it. The chips arent worth much because they are contaminated with machining coolant

Finally had a chance to machine most of a pan this weekend. I have to pick up a couple cutters Tuesday to make some finishes passes then I can remove it from the CNC and show it off. I also have to get a piece laser cut for it this week.

I will probably start a thread about it around next weekend and see how many people would want one. :happydance:

nice! I'm interested!

See phunk, I told you.

nice! I'm interested!

PM'd.