7/6/2008
I wanted to work on the canopy skirts today, but after looking over the paint on the canopy, I found a couple spots that needed some touch up paint. So, I sprayed those, and can't work on the skirts yet.
Instead, I started on the firewall components, namely the cabin heater valve. Let me preface this by stating again that I HATE stainless steel. Most builders will agree with me. This stuff SUCKS to work with, but it is the safest material for a firewall, so we live with it. I measured out the 2" hole for the valve to pass thru, and using a hole saw, started cutting...or not. I used Boelube and oil to cool the hole saw, and ruined two of them. These were cheap HF saws so I'm not concerned about those. I went to the store to get a special metal cutting hole saw, and the SS ate that one up too! I must not have the right tool for this job.
So, my last resort was to use a unibit to open it up to 3/4", then use snips to cut "ears" around the hole to snip off. The red arrow points to the grinding made from the hole saws. That's all they did was move metal around, and make it hot. There was no cutting happening at all. Some guys get them to work, but it didn't work for me. It's unreal how hard stainless steel is.
Using all three of my Wiss snips, I cut the ears off, and it actually turned out pretty good! I smoothed the edges with my Dremel tool. The hole isn't perfectly round, but it's close, and will do the job.
Next I measured out the holes to attach the valve, and drilled those. The valve was then put in place with cleco's. I would've installed it, but I don't have the SS hardware called for in the instructions (WHY are these sold WITHOUT the hardware???). I think I'm gonna install it with platenuts on the cabin side of the valve, but I still need the SS bolts.
This first pic shows the valve in the closed position with the flapper pushed shut.
A cable will attach to the tab to actuate the flapper, and this pic shows the valve in the open position. The red arrow showing the direction the cable will move, and the blue arrow showing the hole hot air will pass thru in to the cabin off of the exhaust.
That's all I decided to work on at the firewall for today, so I consulted my list of miscellaneous items, and decided to cross the missing platenut in the 706 bulkhead off. I think Mike Bullock noticed this a long time ago in a pic when I was working on this initially, and sent an email about it. I made a note to not forget about it, and today was the day to correct it. That hole the arrow is pointing to was drilled today...
...then I removed the baggage skins to install the platenut.
Hopefully tomorrow I can work on the canopy skirts. Time to watch the Wimbledon Men's Final!
1.75 hours