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A simple clevis-opening tool By ken spokes
. One of my pet hates is opening clevises in order to attach to control horns or servo arms. The metal ones are the worst and I usually end up trying to prise them open with the end of a screwdriver. This is not so bad if the clevis is out in the open, but when buried in the fuselage the job is next to impossible. Recently, I was struggling once again with a hard to get to clevis and decided that the only way I was ever going to open it was to make a tool for the job .I've an idea that some such tool exists on the market and I am sure that someone will tell me what it is and where to get it .However, I needed one there and then and after some thought came up with a simple design that required very little in the way of materials and in the event, took not much more than an hour to make. What's more it worked like a dream.
If you feel like making one, all you will need are two six or seven inch lenghts of wire cut from a wire coat hanger and a 2.5" length of brass tube which is a sliding fit over the wire. The first thing to do is hammer a flat about half an inch long on one end of both wires. Make the flats about a mm thick and file the sides to the thickness of the wire. Then bend the wires 90degrees to the flats Now slide the brass tube over one of the wires and attach to the other wire by binding with wire and soldering, Alternatively, the tube could be glued and bound with thread or simply attached with Sellotape. The other ends of the wires are bent as shown on the drawing and photographs.
To open a clevis simply insert the two flat ends in the clevis gap and press the other ends of the wires together .I found that a 2mm length of fuel tubing slid over the flats kept them together and made it easier to slide into the clevis.
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