Other Stuff-NEW!
April 2006 Wings
4/2/2006
Today was a BIG day! To sum it up in one sentence...I prepped and primed the ribs. That short little sentence means six and a half hours of work!! I went out to work to do this because it was SO windy today, that priming at home would've been a lost cause.
All the ribs were already scothbrited, so I didn't scuff the alumiprep on. Instead, I set up the ribs over our drain in the shop, and sprayed it on. I let it set on there for about three minutes apiece (sprayed one, cleaned one, and so on...)
Cleaning was done in the shop sink with warm water, then they were hung to dry in the paint room.
After they were dry, I masked up, and went through about five cans of NAPA 7220 self etching primer to get 'em done. The pic above shows the most I could hang without overlapping, so this took a while.
When I finally finished and came home, I have a nice and neat stack of prime ribs! HA!
6.5 hours
4/3/2006
First of all, my order from SafeAir1 came today! That was REALLY quick shipping! Here's what comes in the pitot-static kit-all the fittings, static ports for the fuselage, and the nylon tubing for plumbing the system.
This evening I touched up a few spots on the ribs that didn't quite get covered. Then I installed a wider piece of angle at the end rib that should allow me to put the skin on without notching the support angle.
The other end was clamped into place with a small C clamp and a piece of wood to protect the spar bar, and a piece of paper underneath the spar where it rests on the angle.
Then I cleco'd the main ribs in place. This is as far as I could go tonight since Brit is not here, and my dad won't come over this late. So, it'll have to wait til tomorrow, I hope...
1.5 hours
4/5/2006
My dad made some time to come over this evening to help me shoot some rivets. I just needed to get something done on these ribs/spars before I leave for Sun N Fun in the morning. I can't believe Sun N Fun is here already!!! Anyway, we riveted the ribs to the main spar on the right wing tonight. They all went very well, and I'm not going to risk drilling out a couple that were driven too far. They are just barely outside the gauge range, and it's just that-a gauge, so I'm not gonna touch 'em. 99% of them are perfect within the gauge.
I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the right wing on the table, but this is where it sat during the rivet session.
Here's a couple of the shop head side...
...and one of the manufactured head side. You put 'em on this side because the driven head should be put on the thicker material side...
...and the right wing without cleco's on the top!
We leave for Sun N Fun around 8:30 or 9 tomorrow morning. Our IFR arrival slot is 1:00pm EST, so we'll take off out of here IFR, and cancel for the VFR arrival as long as it's better than 3000ft and 5mi. I haven't been in four years, so I'm really excited to get back down there, especially as a builder this time! And, Brit is going with me!
1.5 hours
4/11/2006
Well, Sun N Fun is over, and we made it back with only minor sunburns (well, I did...Brit burned her neck pretty good). I was a good show, and I talked to the engine and tool people that I wanted to. Choices to be made...
I had my friend Rob Johnson pickup my order from Van's while I was gone. The one on top is the flop tube (for inverted flight), and the lower one is the regular pickup tube.
I got back in to the shop tonight after taking it easy last night. My dad came over again to help rivet the left main spar and ribs.
He helped me move the spar back to the stand, and he bolted to go home and grill a couple steaks! Man! I'm stuck with Mickey D's tonight :( I then cleco'd the rear spars on to the ribs, and realized I had some dimpling to do before I rivet the rear spar in place. After that, I studied the plans carefully. This is a must at this point because several of the holes do not get rivets right now. They are filled later when the aileron and flap brackets are installed. This took longer than I thought it would, but I got to use my new longeron (flange) yoke in the pneumatic squeezer that I purchased at Sun N Fun! Would've been nice to have this yoke earlier, but they want an arm and half a leg for 'em!!! $115 on sale was a deal!
This went very well, and I'm very pleased with all of the rivets set tonight! Brit came home just in time to snap a couple of pics of me sitting on the dirty floor...
3.0 hours
4/12/2006
No building tonight, but I did get my panel instruments, and the RMI engine monitor today! Pretty cool stuff!!
From left to right-Manifold Pressure gauge, ACK encoder, RMI engine monitor (wiskey compass on top, panel mount), Altimeter, Airspeed indicator, Electronics International digital fuel gauge, and the Turn Coordinator. Sweet!
4/13/2006
I had a VERY quick work night tonight. I had just enough time to get fifteen minutes in the shop before Brit came home, and before I had to get to the John Mellencamp concert. I just installed (not squeezed) the next series of rivets on the right rear spar, and removed the cleco's from the left rear spar. That's it for today!
0.25 hours
4/15/2006
Today we had family coming to town to visit, so I didn't get a whole lot done, but I did get the spar/rib riveting done.
Both of those pictures are the end rib to spar joint. The last row of rivets are flush so that one of the aileron brackets sits flush.
1.25 hours
4/17/2006
Today I started on the wing walks. These are the doubler sheets that reinforce the area where people walk on the wing to get in to the cockpit. They are made from AL sheet provided, and are not pre-punched. The long sheet is cut down to 26" and narrowed to 9 3/8".
Then they get clamped to the W-702 skin, and aligned for drilling using the skin as a guide.
The scratches in the pic on the right is in the protective plastic. Then I deburred the holes and set those aside for now.
I also cleaned the adhesive that was left on the spar reinforcement bars from priming the flanges. I didn't do it right after in order to let the primer to harden, and then forgot about it until tonight. All clean!
3.25 hours
4/18/2006
No building tonight, but I started to work on the lower bracket to clamp the rear spar to the stands. I'll need to cut the angle at work tomorrow, but I drilled the holes in the stands.
Since I couldn't go any farther than this, I ran to Menards to buy a piece of 1/2" particle board for the leading edge cradle. This is a very simple fixture that I knocked out in an hour or so.
It still needs some protective lining to prevent damage to the skins, but I'll do that in the next couple of days.
4/19/2006
No building again tonight. Just more work on the rear spar brackets for the stands. I decided to make these look pretty nice, but only because a friend of mine, John Sanizzaro, has offered to send me his wing jacks to level the wings, and I have some extra time while they are enroute. Thanks CJ!!!
Here's the angle and flat steel I cut at work today in rough form, and the drilling process.
Then I cleaned and primed them, and installed the hardware.
And here they are installed loosely. I'll tighten them when the spar gets leveled out with the jack.
These will pivot on the through bolt, and a clamp will be used to secure the rear spar to the bracket.
4/21/2006
Lots of pics tonight! I started tonight by using the digital level/protractor to make sure my spars were level. I had used the bubble level when I built the stands to level the angle that it rests on, but the digital one is accurate to a tenth of a degree. It started great! The first one I set it on was perfect at 0.0. That's the only one that was right on, but the others were less than a degree off of level.
I'll recheck these when I get the spars jacked to remove the sag. Then I ran to Menards to get the protective foam for the leading edge cradles, and I also bought 50' of poly tube that I'll use to run the conduit in the wing.
Then I busted out the Dremel tool to cut some of the excess steel from my rear spar brackets. This was quick and easy work for that tool. This will allow the skin to be installed without worrying about it rubbing the bracket.
I went up to the parts storage room and found the right leading edge W-701-R to begin work on that. First, the blue gets removed inside the skin. The ribs fit really tight, so this has to be done now.
I started clecoing the top of the LE, and by my own fault of leaning in to the LE to place a rib inline with the holes, this happened...
That sucks!! So, I'll be heading back to Menards tomorrow to buy some 3/4 inch plywood. The cradle was probably strong enough to hold the LE together, but not with me leaning inside of it. Oh well, these things happen, and I moved on. It's quite difficult to get the clecos in place while not in the cradle, but I made it work with an awl to line up the holes. I am gonna do the left LE tomorrow after I build another cradle.
Then came a pretty cool part! I cleco'd the LE to the right spar. I'll have to wait to cleco the skin to the spar because it's not level yet, but I did cleco the ribs to the spar! COOL!!
And...the angle brackets that I built WILL allow me to install the skins without notching the angle. That's cool too!
All in all, a pretty good night!
1.75 hours
4/22/2006
I spent a good amount of time in the shop today, but I can't count all of it as build time. I'm not counting the time spent rebuilding the leading edge cradle, or the time the other day from building the rear spar brackets. So while I was out there most of the afternoon, I actually did very little work on the airplane today. Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes...
This time, the wood I bought is 3/4" Oak smooth finished plywood. Nice stuff, and very durable. Also relined the cradle with 1/4" thick by 3/4" wide foam rubber weather stripping.
Then I finally got to working on the airplane. Since I'm not going to work with the main skins until I jack the skeleton, I went ahead and put the left LE in the cradle, and cleco'd the ribs in place. These two pics are just for fun for me. The difference is no flash on the left, and, of course, flash used on the right.
I just like how the mirrored finish of the alclad made these pics turn out.
Then I cleco'd the left LE to the spar just for fun. They will both need to come off in order for me to back up a bit to do the main skins. After those are done, the LE's will go back on for drilling.
0.75 hours
4/23/2006
No building today as I had other home projects to work on. But at the end of the day, I took a few minutes to install the hose reels that FINALLY arrived from Harbor Freight yesterday. I had to assemble these, but it was no sweat. Now I just have to get some short air hose to run to the reels and wind the longer hoses up.
I bought two reels, one for the drilling and other high speed tools hose (left), and one for the riveting hose (right).
4/25/2006
I talked to my friend John Sanizzaro today, and he is still using his wing jacks for a few more weeks, so I decided to go ahead and build my own. I figured out a really cheap way to do it after perusing several builder websites. These cost me a whole $6!! Ouch!
These are super simple. The rod is 12" 3/8-16 that is tightened right in to the wood about three inches down. I drilled the hole in the wood 5/16 so the threads would grab a hold, and not move. Easy enough!
You can see the leading edges in the left pic above. I removed those first in order to level the wings using the fishing line method per the instructions. Then I clamped the rear spars loosely with the tiny 1" clamps and some soft kindling wood and a piece of paper to protect the spar.
Then I brought some wing skins down to be fitted. W-702, W-703, and the doubler skin were cleco'd to the top of the right wing! Sweet!
Below you can see the doubler skin is lined up just about perfectly under the main spar.
With the wings skins in place, I tightened down the rear spar clamps to hold it all nice and secure. Now I have to figure out when the best time to hang the plumb bob is...
2.25 hours
4/30/2006
Finally back in the shop tonight!! I was planning on spending a decent amount of time working on the RV this weekend, but my truck decided it was time for a new water pump. That was quite a project, but it's done. Tonight I hung the plumb bobs before moving on to anything else. Using the plumb line, I measured the distance between the line and the rear spar at each end to make sure I'm building a straight wing. I'll leave the plumb bobs on as long as I can, and recheck them about once a week or so.
With those hung and measured, I tacked the 702 and 703 skins up on the left wing. I ran out of cleco's, but I should be getting some more in the mail tomorrow.
1.0 hour
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