Other Stuff-NEW!
October 2005 Elevators
10/2/2005
Just a quick note from today, since I didn't do anything this weekend on the airplane except trim the stiffeners from the AL angle. That's it!
.25 hours
10/4/2005
Nothing special about tonight, and no pics to go with it. I just worked on the stiffeners by marking and trimming the long cut with the bandsaw. Then I used the scotchbrite wheel to start the edge finishing. Also made the three special stiffeners for the left elevator.
1.0 hour
10/5/2005
More stiffener work tonight. I started by lining up the stiffeners according to the plans. There are a couple of differences between the right and left side stiffeners, so I lined 'em up, and marked 'em so I won't mess up the locations later. Then I cleco'd them on to the skins E-701L/R. Also cleco'd E-615PP in place, then drilled them all to the skins to #40 holes.
Here's the night's pic-
Tomorrow or Friday I'll take 'em apart and begin the deburr, dimple, and prime games!
1.5 hours
10/7/2005
I worked for a while tonight, but didn't feel like I did much. I did all the deburring of the stiffeners, and corresponding holes in the skins. I also had a brilliant idea (turns out...not so brilliant) to save more surface area from getting scratched (see pic). I used the soldering gun to make little circles around the rivet holes, instead of cutting lines out of the blue plastic. It really is a pretty good idea, but my fingers hurt from taking the circles off, and it takes a loooooooooonnnngggg time to do. Not a very efficient use of time.
So I'm not sure I'm gonna keep doing that. Since my paint scheme is gonna leave the wings and HS polished, I came up with this to keep from scratching during the build.
2.25 hours
10/8/2005
I didn't get out to the shop until 9pm tonight, so while it was supposed to be a three hour session, it turned out to be a whole hour. All I did this evening was finished deburring of the left skin stiffener rivet holes, and scuffed the stiffeners and skins for priming. Fun, fun!
I just love how bare metal looks, both shiny and satiny.
1.0 hour
10/9/2005
Today, I had a good opportunity to get some good time in the shop. I started by setting up my pneumatic squeezer in the vice to dimple the stiffeners.
This works really well, and makes for quick work on repetitive dimpling. Also dimpled 615PP.
Then came time for the skins to be dimpled and I pulled out the homemade C-Frame dimpling tool.
With all the dimpling finished, I had time to prime those parts. The skins received their stripes where the stiffeners will sit. Then came the stiffeners and 615PP. I labeled the stiffeners with a thicker Sharpie to make sure I know where each one goes. The skins are labeled as well. This was done BEFORE priming, but the Sharpie ink bleeds through to preserve the part label.
2.5 hours
10/11/2005
Tonight was backrivet night. I installed and taped the rivets to the skins 701L/R-
Then I started riveting, and I thought all was going well until I noticed this-
For some reason, I started installing the stiffeners BACKWARDS!!!!!! Man, I'm a bonehead sometimes. So I had to drill out about 40 rivets, reinstall and tape them, then re-rivet them. UUUGGGHHH! So anyway, I got back on track and finished 'em out. Also riveted 615PP.
They all turned out great despite my stupidity...
2.5 hours
10/12/2005
I started tonight by making the trailing edge bends with the wood brake. They turned out perfect!
Above is the left elevator, and below is the right side.
With that done, the left skin was set aside while I work on the right elevator. I got started on the skeleton by clecoing and drilling the reinforcement plates 610 and 611 to the spar 702 to #30 holes. Also drilled the platenuts to #30.
Then I prepped the ribs 703 and 704, and cleco'd them together. With a little wiggle and waggle of the parts, I got the ribs cleco'd to the spar, and that's where I had to stop for tonight. Other duties called.
1.0 hour
10/14/2005
Pretty quick evening tonight. I drilled out the holes at the ribs to spar intersection, and removed the ribs from the spar. Then I fit the countersink weight E-714 to the end of the ribs, and cleco'd the c-weight skin in place. This didn't fit quite right as the pictures show. Most of the clecos are crooked. I'll have to figure this one out tomorrow.
0.5 hours
10/16/2005
Today I got to spend some decent time out in the shop working on the airplane, and the 13B. I started by drilling the c-weight skin and c-weight holes to #12. You have to use lube (Boelube) do drill through lead.
Then I uncleco'd 713 and 714, recleco'd the 713 skin to the ribs, and cleco'd the whole assembly to the spar 702. Then came the 709 right rib, cleco'd to 702. Those holes were final drilled to #40.
The skin 701R was next to get cleco'd in to place...
...and then I removed the clecos from the 702/709, and cleco'd and drilled WD-605R-1, the right horn.
Then the skin was final drilled to the skeleton...
...and now I have a bunch of pieces...again.
Overall, a great work day cut short by not having a #12 dimple die. No problem though, I'll just borrow one from work tomorrow.
1.75 hours
10/17/2005
Tonight was fairly quick. I dimpled the 713 c-weight skin to match the screw that will go in there, and machine countersunk the 714 weight with my deburring tool.
And I machine countersunk the holes in the spar 702 that will be used to rivet the rib 709 in place. These have to be countersunk, not dimpled, so that the elevator horn will fit flush against the spar.
WRONG
SIDE!!!!
0.5 hours
10/19/2005
Tonight was a dull one. I beveled the aft edges of the counterbalance skin 713, and dimpled the rest of the right elevator. It's all ready to scuff and prime.
This shows the bevel that I made with the scotchbright wheel.
1.0 hour
10/22/2005
No pics from today. Just prepped for priming the skeleton. Very quick work session.
0.25 hours
10/23/2005
Today was dimple, prep, and primer day. I had forgotten to dimple a couple of things like the spar, and the ribs, and the c-sink skin, so I finished that first. That would have made it difficult to rivet 426 rivets to the skeleton.
Then on to prep and priming. It has turned cold here in central Illinois, so priming will get more and more difficult to do outside. It's about 48 degress today, so priming was done outside, and brought in to dry. It worked out well, and I'll let those dry and start riveting the right elevator tomorrow.
And!! Here's my newest addition to the shop!
Now, I can watch the games or TV shows AND work on the airplane! It's mobile as well, so it won't be in the way when I need that space for something (like wings!)
2.25 hours
10/25/2005
Tonight was a night of good work, and a bad surprise. I started off by clecoing the outer ribs 703 & 704 together to rivet. I did mess one of the rivets up and drilled it out. In the process, I had no choice but to enlarge the hole because the rivet had squeezed between layers. No biggie, I just went to the next larger size.
I then cleco'd and riveted the 610PP and 611PP reinforcement plates and platenuts to the spar 702. This is where I found the bad news surprise. For my fellow builders that are to this point or beyond, go back and look at the spar pic from 10/17/05 above...you'll see that I countersunk the wrong side of the spar. Bummer. I have to order a new E-702 spar to use for the left elevator. Since the spars are the same, I just went in and got the other 702 spar and went through the process to catch up to where I would've been had this not happened.
I drilled out the rivets that I had already set on the bad spar to save from buying new reinforcement plates and platenuts. So, I'm now back to where I was an hour ago.
Next task was to rivet the inner rib 709 to 702. This is where those countersunk holes come in to play. These must be flush for the elevator horn to fit flat against the spar.
To end the evening (Brit came home from her study group) I cleco'd and riveted outer ribs 703/704 to the spar 702. Here, I had to get the hand squeezer out and dust it off to set two of these rivets. The pneu squeeze just wouldn't fit.
That's a good night. Time to watch the end of game 3 of the World Series inside (It's been on in the garage all evening as well). I'll be ordering the new E-702 tomorrow.
3.25 hours
10/26/2005
Tonight, I started by clecoing the rudder horn WD-605-R-1 to the spar 702 and the inner rib 709, and riveted that into place.
In order to use solid rivets on the entire counterweight skin 713 to elevator skin 701, they have you rivet two holes on top and two on the bottom that are inboard of the ribs. I wasn't thinking, and didn't take a pic of this, so I have no way of really explaining this. Anyway, then I marked the counterweight 714 for trimming according to plans to balance the surface. This was time consuming, and no fun. I used a coarse file to remove the lead, and a fine file to smooth it out. Came out pretty nice. More can be removed if necessary later on.
Then I set the weight loosely in place with the screws holding it in place, and worked the skeleton into place inside the skin. I cleco'd all of this together, and it's ready to rivet tomorrow!
1.75 hours
10/27/2005
Rivet, rivet, rivet...keep those rivets moving aloooonnng! Before I could do any riveting this evening, I had to uncleco everything, and put some silicone in between the stiffeners, 'cuz I forgot last night when I cleco'd it all together. So, right when I came home from work, I did that so I could let it dry a little before riveting. No pics of that, it's boring! After dinner came the fun stuff...riveting! I already had every other hole cleco'd, and that makes it very easy to install rivets in the holes that are open, and just go down the line with the squeezer. Then go back and remove the clecos, and repeat. Easy enough! I wasn't able to get solid rivets in the last couple of holes in the end rib to skin areas, but I'm not looking for a show winner here, just a good flying airplane, so I used a couple of blind rivets, and I'm very pleased. Last came the washers and nuts installed on the 714 counterweight. Tighten those down, and voila! Time to start the left elevator...in November. October is wrapped up, as Brit and I are heading to Chicago for the weekend! Time for her to get some revenge on our checkbook for spoiling me for so long! Ahhhhhh!!! I hope can keep building after this trip... :)
1.75 hours
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