Brief Description: Oxygen System - O2 Tank Mounting Brackets - Part 1
I decided to mount the Oxygen Tank to the back side of the firewall. The problem was that the stainless steel firewall is a little flimsy for holding up the tank and the quick release brackets are a little on the small side to just mount using the requsite 1/4" bolts. I decided to design some .063 2024-T3 stiffeners and sandwich the firewall SS in between. I put a very slight bend down the center of each stiffener which really went along way is making the assembly rigid. On the engine side stiffener, I dropped it low enough to catch the horizontal angle stiffener and added an AN3 bolt to tie it into that. On the cabin side, I added a 1"x3.25" extra piece of .063 to clamp the upper portion to the top horizontal angle stiffener. With the 1/4" platenuts added and everything clamped together and tightened down, the whole thing is incredibly stout. The quick release black knobs allow the tank to be taken out of the plane in about 2 minutes. Reinstalling takes about as long. This will be handy for remote filling and/or just removing the tank for flights that won't be requiring oxygen. This will save the weight of the tank, valve, and oxygen. I will probably powdercoat all of the brackets before final assembly and the add a bit of Proseal to the engine side bracket to seal everything up nicely.
In the last two shots, the pictures highlight the Oxygen filling port on the tank. This is incredible convenient to access by simply opening the baggage door.
