This evening, I spent some time de-burring all the holes on the vertical stabilizer parts. I dimpled everything that required a dimple except for the skin. That is tomorrow. I’m considering trying another style of de-burring bit (from Avery). Sometimes the small Weldon style bit that I got from Cleveland Tool seems to create more of a burr than it removes.
No pictures today. Nothing of interest to see.
Wow, It has been a few days of non-stop building. The Thanksgiving holiday has been good for building. Current state is that the left and right horizontal stabilizers are ready for primer and final assembly (riveting). Today I started and nearly completed the vertical stabilizer. It has been pre-assembled, match drilled, and taken apart for deburring, dimpling, and primer prep.
On the horizontal stabilizer spars, I started off thinking that I would machine countersink in the drill press. I setup, went through all kinds of jigging and after the first two holes, decided that I didn’t have sufficient control over all of the c0mponents involved (cutter orientation, depth, part, etc.). So the spars came out of the drill press and I clamped them to a table and countersunk as shown in the picture. I liked this setup just fine. After the right stabilizer was done, it was time to “rinse and repeat” for the left one. By that time, I actually felt like I knew what I was doing and the other side went a little faster. Even though, this reinforces my plan to do both wing halves at the same time.
So, this morning I started the vertical stabilizer. This was a pretty quick (a full day and not quite done) part as there were so few parts. As with everything, all parts must first have all edges ground, filed, or sanded clean of tooling marks and scratches. The edges get smoothed. The edges of the part that might cut you if you ran your finger across it after grinding it smooth must be radiused. Then the flanges of the ribs are made perpendicular to the rib with seaming pliers. Then the ribs are straightened (skin holes aligned with a straight edge) with fluting pliers to shrink the metal. Yep, simple is relative, but most of this process (so far) is quite mundane and repetitive with a few moments being very careful and making careful decisions. With the Vertical stab, I find the first hints (or lack thereof) of things to come. These take the form of the instructions saying “Disassemble, de-burr, dimple, machine countersink and prime parts as desired.” This prompts you to make a wise decision as to whether to machine countersink or dimple the .032″ spars on the vertical stabilizer. I’m choosing to dimple. One of the first things that I did with the VS was to cut lightening holes in the spar doubler with a fly cutter in the drill press (no mention in the instructions and marked “optional” on the plans). It has been about 15 years since I’ve used a fly cutter. These things can be dangerous. I speak from experience. Luckily, with much care, the holes were cut without any parts going prematurely airborne.
I’m currently in the process of del-burring all of the drilled holes. Next the spars, skin, and ribs will be dimpled. With a little more prep, the vertical stabilizer will be ready for primer. I’m planning on doing a big batch of parts in my first primer batch. I’ll probably continue on and do the rudder and maybe the elevators, then priming all the parts at once. This would be all of the empennage kit. I’m sure that the primer process will take at least a week or so with this many parts to be prepared (note I’m doing a full process 0f wash, etch, alodine, prime).
This is the end of this holiday build marathon. It was great fun. We’ll see what kind of progress I make during the work week.
Yesterday, I completed temporary assembly of the right half of the horizontal stabilizer in the skin. This was an exciting process as you see how strong and stiff the assembly is once it is put together. I had to adjust the fluting of many of the ribs for straightness of the holes. This is where you see if they are straight or not. I decided I should just check them all with a straight edge against the holes next time.
Before assembly in the skin, I spent some quality time with the die grinder and cleaned up edges and deburred holes on the spars and doublers. I had already done the ribs. Next step is to match drill all of the skin rivet holes and disassemble again.
Yesterday was another fun filled day of airplane building. I finished preparing the ribs and got the spars and ribs of the horizontal stabilizer clecoed together and match drilled. This took a whole lot longer than it should have because I had to tweak all of the main ribs just a little where they attach the forward spar. That was most of the day. After that, Tanya took apart the right half, marking the parts as she went, and I setup the jig on the table and got ready to do assembly in the skin for match drilling the skin. This is where it stands. As today is Thanksgiving, there probably won’t be much progress today.
So, you might ask why I didn’t get more done having a whole day. Mid afternoon, my new air compressor arrived. This time on a truck with a lift gate. I spent a few hours setting it up (wiring, plumbing, etc.). It is now supplying all my air. It is even a little quieter than my old compressor. I think the new compressor was just in time as the old one started making some noises that I had never heard it make before.
Today was the first build day. It was great fun. I have always loved fabrication, what better way to kick things off than to fabricate the brackets that hold the HS on the tail of the plane (translation: critical for structural integrity). So, I fabricated the HS attach brackets. They came out exactly as shown on the plans. I also fabricated the inboard HS rib shims. I sure am glad I have a decent band saw. It made these cutting chores very easy and allowed me to just enjoy the process. Most of the rest of the day, construction wise, was composed of match drilling the main and rear HS spar doublers and outboard elevator hinge brackets and deburring and straightening the HS ribs. Those brackets sure are pretty, being powder coated. I found that I had to run a much smaller drill bit (by hand) through the holes before I could even get a cleco in them for drilling. I was also a little surprised at how much material I had to take off of the spar doublers to get the edges smooth. I first hit them with a file in the vice. They came out looking good and I don’t see any problems with it. It took me at least three hours to debur all of the ribs on the scotchbrite wheel. Not that they were very bad, but maybe this is what makes my airplane better than a factory Cessna. I suspect that many people don’t spend quite this much time on these ribs. They were actually very clean and straight as they came.
Also today: I heard an eighteen wheeler pull up in front of the house and looked out to see what was up. It was my new air-compressor delivery (on this huge tractor trailer). The driver jumped out of the cab and announced that he didn’t have a lift gate. So there was no way to get the 400lb. compressor off of the truck. I had specifically requested (and paid for) “lift gate service”. It was within thirty feet of the garage, but after a few calls back to “dispatch”, I had to watch it pull away for another try maybe tomorrow on a truck with a lift gate. Bummer.
A little later, UPS showed up with the air line filters and dryer unit that I had ordered. I spent some time this evening getting that equipment installed. It is pretty cool. I had always had issues with air filtering when spraying paint. No more. I suspect that there are some auto body shops that don’t have this much filtering on their lines. I’m planning on shooting all of the paint on the plane with this air source, so I wanted it super clean.
Also note that this is the first posting with build time. Total time will now be summarized at the top of the main page.
