Metric hardware for these Euro LSA's

fabricgator

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Does anyone know where to source metric LSA hardware for crafts like Czech Sport Cruiser, Skyleader, Pipstrel, etc... they are only screws for crying out loud

Specifically looking for the little pan head SS screws that are driven by a 2mm allen head.
PLEASE stop using screw guns [HINT] You are not being more efficient nor saving time...
 
Finding good metric hardware has been a challenge for me as well. I don’t find Allen heads difficult to find, but regular pan head screws.

But you’ll have to pry my power drivers from my cold dead hands. Just set the clutch appropriately and they are awesome.
 
There are some with pan head with star or torx but hex drive is hard to find.

 
But you’ll have to pry my power drivers from my cold dead hands. Just set the clutch appropriately and they are awesome.

Setting the clutch correctly is the key to success.

Most times I break the screws loose and do the final tightening torque by hand.
 
Setting the clutch correctly is the key to success.

Most times I break the screws loose and do the final tightening torque by hand.
I think also the speed, if you got that chuck high rate of turn, even if the clutch breaks the drive, the momentum can cause over-torque/striped

Absolutely doable for the conscientious and careful, but zinging them in like drywall screws is certainly not the answer.

*** Thanks for the leads Jim Meade
 
Another source is https://boltdepot.com

No affiliation, have used them for years. Pretty good selection, and for most things you can buy 1 of something, which is nice to build or refill assortment kits.
 
It is important to recognize up front when special measures must be taken to remove an uncooperative screw, including removing paint or any grease, and the quality of the driver. There comes a time to call in an experienced motorcycle mechanic. In general, they will look for unworn sandblasted drive bits or sockets, and removal of anything that can be viewed as an antiseize.
 
Most any hardware store has metric screws. I’m sure any aviation supplier has them too.
Sure, I can certainly find something that will be mechanically secure.... What I want, is to have a collection of like spares (replacement original fasteners) in my tool box to replace just the one or two stripped that were mangled....

I recently worked on a nightmare. It was an LSA going to be sold to a flight school. It had a mismatch of metric AND SAE hardware relating back to rivnuts... I needed a map for each panel where some previous mechanic had replaced several rivnuts with SAE rivnuts and the logistics of taking this thing apart and back again every 100 hours was unconceivable.

It was airworthy like that, everything secure, but having worked at flight schools, I couldn't be sure that the apprentices could be vigilant enough to not get confused.

AND AGAIN, I blame the probable causation on unskilled use of screw gun.
 
There are some with pan head with star or torx but hex drive is hard to find.

Thank you Jim... You led me to find what I was at a loss to describe. M3 button head.
 
Does anyone know where to source metric LSA hardware for crafts like Czech Sport Cruiser, Skyleader, Pipstrel, etc... they are only screws for crying out loud
Interesting. The LSA parts manuals didn't show the hardware P/Ns? While I have limited experience with LSAs, the ones I did work on had both maintenance and parts manuals. Regardless, even though metric aviation hardware may be difficult to track down its available and I never had any issues finding the correct hardware when needed either from a hardware vendor or the OEM.
 
Interesting. The LSA parts manuals didn't show the hardware P/Ns? While I have limited experience with LSAs, the ones I did work on had both maintenance and parts manuals. Regardless, even though metric aviation hardware may be difficult to track down its available and I never had any issues finding the correct hardware when needed either from a hardware vendor or the OEM.
A quite a few of the LSA manufacturers (that I have been coming across) are in the Czech Republic. Now if an E-LSA no worries, but if S-LSA and the owner intends to keep the S-AWC we are limited on what parts will 'fly'...
I may be wrong, I've been doing this for a couple of years now and I am only starting to wrap my head around LSA. November, on a Tecnam, I was led to believe that all the rubber parts (fuel, oil, coolant hoses)(both engine and airframe) were required to be changed every five years, and to be correct, they had to come from manufacturer (Rotax) or the airframe factory in Italy. Otherwise it was going to be an experiment.
Well the factory IPC was fairly well laid out, as expected. EXCEPT, while they offered the airframe with the 914 turbo Rotax, they were unable to provide the IPC with that engine option. The factory picked the hoses then sent them to USA, and most were correct. Then we sent the mismatch hoses to Italy and they made those to order. Somewhat expensive and time consuming.

Now I do have to give credit to Tecnam USA, Sebring. They are trying hard to work within the constraints of Tecnam factory, Capua Italy while keeping the North American customers well serviced.

I found this list of S-LSA's accepted by the FAA
 
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Well the factory IPC was fairly well laid out, as expected.
So your IPCs don’t list the hardware numbers? I checked a few online SLSA part manuals and they listed hardware P/Ns. So maybe I’m not following what the issue is?

As to the 5-year requirements… you may want to check into that a bit deeper. As I recall there was a lot of mis-communications on what an SLSA OEM could mandate and what the FARs stated. My last recollection was the OEMs could not mandate any replacements, TBOs, etc. Even several FAA offices got it wrong in the beginning.
 
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