EQMOD's MSR "Brass Ball Guided Flybar Hub Mod" simplified

[Thewyzardofdogz]

First of all, all of the credit for this wonderful mod goes to a very brilliant user from another forum that goes by the name EQMOD. If you do a Google search for "msr brass ball flybar" you will find a link to the original thread that EQMOD started. EQMOD goes into great detail explaining the physics behind the before and after results of his mod. All I did was to find an easier way to achieve the same, excellent results.

This mod is simply awesome and when I first saw it I was determined to give it a try. I will not go into much detail about how to do this mod because that is discussed in EQMOD's thread. But I do want to share a few tricks I used to simplify EQMOD's work.

First of all, he used the brass ball from a swashplate from a different style of helicopter. He used o-rings from a different chopper on the top and bottom of the brass ball to hold it securely in place along the main shaft. I used the polished steel ball from my worn out plastic MSR swashplate. There are a couple advantages to doing it this way and they are 1) steel is harder than brass and should last longer, 2) the steel MSR ball has an o-ring installed on the inside of it and therefore does not need any extra o-rings on the top and bottom of the ball to hold it securely in place, 3) a stock MSR swashplate is cheaper and easier to find than the swashplate utilized by EQMOD (he was just using junk parts and so was I).

Secondly, EQMOD used a Dremel tool to enlarge the hole in his flybar. That must have been very tricky as the tool spins at many thousands of RPM's and it must have been quite difficult trying to maintain a perfect circle. I used a drill press and a 3/16" titanium bit. I then used a 13/64" titanium bit and made the final hole by turning the bit in with my hand. I used an Xacto knife to trim the melted plastic that unavoidably got pushed out of the bottom of the hole. I then used a round needle file and filed the inside of the hole just once on all surface area to remove any burrs. A perfect circle, perfectly sized.

I now have a polished steel ball guided flybar hub thanks to the creative mind of EQMOD and I have to say that this mod has increased the stability and responsiveness of my MSR dramatically. Thanks again to EQMOD for his wonderful mod and all of the credit goes to him.

Rich

[dacaur]

cool.... its too bad my swash is perfectly good... I would hate to have to buy a brand new swash and tear it apart to do this.... I will have to look around for something that will work....

[Thewyzardofdogz]

Originally Posted by dacaur

cool.... its too bad my swash is perfectly good... I would hate to have to buy a brand new swash and tear it apart to do this.... I will have to look around for something that will work....

For $10 (the cost of a swashplate) this mod will SO drastically improve the performance of your MSR. This mod shouldn't be a mod. Because it works so much better than the stock flybar, it should have come stock. I have done this mod to both my MSR's and I did add o-rings above and below the steel ball to make sure it doesn't move up or down. I used the o-rings from the MSR feathering shaft hardware kit for this. So $15 to make your MSR fly 2-3 times better - pretty cheap.

[Thunder]

Originally Posted by Thewyzardofdogz

First of all, all of the credit for this wonderful mod goes to a very brilliant user from another forum that goes by the name EQMOD. If you do a Google search for "msr brass ball flybar" you will find a link to the original thread that EQMOD started. EQMOD goes into great detail explaining the physics behind the before and after results of his mod. All I did was to find an easier way to achieve the same, excellent results.

This mod is simply awesome and when I first saw it I was determined to give it a try. I will not go into much detail about how to do this mod because that is discussed in EQMOD's thread. But I do want to share a few tricks I used to simplify EQMOD's work.

First of all, he used the brass ball from a swashplate from a different style of helicopter. He used o-rings from a different chopper on the top and bottom of the brass ball to hold it securely in place along the main shaft. I used the polished steel ball from my worn out plastic MSR swashplate. There are a couple advantages to doing it this way and they are 1) steel is harder than brass and should last longer, 2) the steel MSR ball has an o-ring installed on the inside of it and therefore does not need any extra o-rings on the top and bottom of the ball to hold it securely in place, 3) a stock MSR swashplate is cheaper and easier to find than the swashplate utilized by EQMOD (he was just using junk parts and so was I).

Secondly, EQMOD used a Dremel tool to enlarge the hole in his flybar. That must have been very tricky as the tool spins at many thousands of RPM's and it must have been quite difficult trying to maintain a perfect circle. I used a drill press and a 3/16" titanium bit. I then used a 13/64" titanium bit and made the final hole by turning the bit in with my hand. I used an Xacto knife to trim the melted plastic that unavoidably got pushed out of the bottom of the hole. I then used a round needle file and filed the inside of the hole just once on all surface area to remove any burrs. A perfect circle, perfectly sized.

I now have a polished steel ball guided flybar hub thanks to the creative mind of EQMOD and I have to say that this mod has increased the stability and responsiveness of my MSR dramatically. Thanks again to EQMOD for his wonderful mod and all of the credit goes to him.

Rich

I love it!! You guys with the genius minds should patent and then sell your technology to BLADE or whatever the corporate name is :-)

[Thewyzardofdogz]

Originally Posted by Thunder

I love it!! You guys with the genius minds should patent and then sell your technology to BLADE or whatever the corporate name is :-)

That's funny. I am by no means a genius, I am a drywall taper lol but the guy who originally designed this mod is pretty smart, that's for sure. I'm sure Horizon Hobby has their reasons for doing what they do. Making this already great little helicopter even better is just for fun and I also enjoy posting what I've learned so others might benefit.

[RaiDar]

Thank you for specializing mod and posting it.

Cheers