Zero Control Column Friction

The past couple shop days had me frustrated at the amount of residual control column pitch friction I had. The plans were a bit vague on how much, if any, was acceptable. My email queries to Vans left me with even more more questions. All components of an airplane are important for safety, but the flight control system is right at the top. It's all gotta work perfectly and be reliable. I dug into the issue on the the VAF Forum and found threads on it. It's not an uncommon problem on all the side by side aircraft with dual controls. A couple Vans engineers who are also builders and frequent the forums had posted some good info on the issue and why it was so important for good flying characteristics and trim stability to minimize pitch friction. I also had a better understanding of what the ultimate goal was and how to approach it. I also finally understand why castellated nuts and cotter pins are used in lower then standard torque situations (like the rudder pedals) and why self locking nuts need to be fully torqued to spec. So after sleeping on it I got out there today, disassembled it and started making measurements with my feeler gage for the 4 shims I was going to need. Once I had exact measurements I could piece together a combo of washers and aluminum shims to get a shim that was slightly oversize. After supergluing it together I used a file and digital calipers to reduce them in thickness to the exact size needed. This process took hours, particularly the two inboard shims where the gap was difficult to access and measure. Reassembling everything was tedious until I had a "Eureka!" moment and superglued the shims to skinny little wooden coffee stir sticks that I'd lifted recently from a local coffee shop. This made reassembly way easier since I could now manipulate the shim and bolts in a tight space and get it all to line up easier. My patience and perseverance was rewarded when I re-torqued everything down to spec and now had zero friction in the system. It was one of the more satisfying tasks I've done recently and I know I'll be glad I did it once it's flying. That problem finally slayed it was on to getting the stick mounts and stick tie pushrod installed. It's cool to see the control sticks in place.