Friday, July 29, 2016

Section: 29
Hours: 5

I built a stand that attaches to the spar carry throughs that holds the fuselage on the table to facilitate riveting the two sections together. I had to run over to Lowe's to find some bolts long enough to hold the assembly. A 2/4 is not quite thick enough, so I glued on a couple of plywood spacers to make up the difference.

Here's the fuselage clamped onto the table and clecoed together.

Next step is to run a bead of ProSeal along the joint between the two assemblies.

Here's the view from the other side.

Section: 29
Hours: 5

I built a stand that attaches to the spar carry throughs that holds the fuselage on the table to facilitate riveting the two sections together. I had to run over to Lowe's to find some bolts long enough to hold the assembly. A 2/4 is not quite thick enough, so I glued on a couple of plywood spacers to make up the difference.

Here's the fuselage clamped onto the table and clecoed together.

Next step is to run a bead of ProSeal along the joint between the two assemblies.

Here's the view from the other side.

Section: 29
Hours: 5

I built a stand that attaches to the spar carry throughs that holds the fuselage on the table to facilitate riveting the two sections together. I had to run over to Lowe's to find some bolts long enough to hold the assembly. A 2/4 is not quite thick enough, so I glued on a couple of plywood spacers to make up the difference.

Here's the fuselage clamped onto the table and clecoed together.

Next step is to run a bead of ProSeal along the joint between the two assemblies.

Here's the view from the other side.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Section: 29
Hours: 5

I'm now a grandfather! My daughter delivered our first granddaughter, Hazel on 7/23. I wonder if I will be done building before she is old enough to take her first flying lesson?

Today I primed the upper and lower longerons and the spacer blocks.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Section: 29
Hours: 7

Today I primed the bottom of the rear fuselage assembly and then began the work of mating the forward and rear assemblies.

Here's the paint after removing the masking tape.

The forward and aft assemblies are bolted together with some very nicely machined aluminum blocks. Then the center section side plate is slipped over the carry through spars and clecoed in place. Then you match drill holes through the side plate into the backing aluminum block. The side plate actually is not at a right angle to the spars so you have to drill at a slight angle to them to ensure the holes are perpendicular to the side plate.

You can see the heavy spacer block in the space between the 2 spars next to the bottom skin.

Long bolts go through the aluminum blocks to hold the two sections together.


Sunday, July 17, 2016

Section: 29
Hours: 4

Today I put the twist into the upper longerons. I clamped the longeron in a vise and clamped a board to the end and then twisted the board until I got the longeron to hold the 10 degree end angle. The board on the end makes a nice handle for applying the twist and also makes it easy to measure the angle. I used an inclinometer app on my iPhone and double checked with my mechanical angle measuring tool to set the correct angle. (If you look carefully you can see the measuring tool lying on the manual page).

Yes- I worked on prepping more parts. Lots of parts in the fuselage...

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Section: 29
Hours: 4

More parts preparation work today. I masked off the bottom of the rear fuselage assembly in preparation for priming the area where it is overlapped by the forward assembly. I made a cardboard template by tracing the forward assembly skins and then used it to mark the area to be masked. Woody supervised the whole process as usual.

More deburred, dimpled and filed parts.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Section: 29
Hours: 4

I continued on with parts prep. I dimpled, filed, deburred and dimpled. I also cut to length a couple of hinge pieces that will attach the cowling to the firewall.


Thursday, July 14, 2016

Section 29
Hours: 5

I pulled parts for chapter 29- there's a lot of them! Then I began the process of edge filing, deburring, etc. Looks like there is going to be a lot of work to get these pieces ready for primer painting.

A lot of filing on the edges of the 2 upper longerons. I use files, deburring tools, a 3M disk in the die grinder, Dremel and a variety of Dremel bits.

The plans have you cut a couple notches in the middle of the longerons.

And here's the notches cut in the end of the longerons.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Section: 28
Hours: 4

Today I installed the cover panels on the forward center section bulkheads. It's all flush rivets but it was slow going because it was hard to reach inside to position the bucking bar.


I'm now done with chapter 28! Van's just charged my credit card for the finishing kit so it should be arriving a little before I finish up the fuselage kit.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Section: 28
Hours: 4

More ProSealing today. The firewall penetration fittings must be sealed on the backside of the firewall to keep oil and fumes out.

I had a hard time getting the vent inlet parts assembled correctly- the 3d drawing in the manual just didn't click for me. The parts fit together multiple ways, but only 1 way fits when you put it on the firewall.  I had to actually cleco the parts to the firewall before I got it right.

The cable brackets are not mirror imaged around the fuselage center line- both the left and the right sides orient the same way extending over the firewall opening.

The flush rivets for the battery box were a pain to set. After trying several methods, I had success using my small flat faced bucking bar on the factory side of the rivets.

I gingerly used the stubby holder with a flat face in the rivet gun on the forward side. I used 50psi and short bursts to set the rivets. You have to just set the rivet and not over drive it or the thin stainless sheet will pillow.



Here's today's work- all the firewall assemblies are riveted/bolted on. The battery box is painted with flat black Rustoleum out of a spray can. If I were to do it over again I would have it powder coated. The Rustoleum chips easily and probably won't hold up very well in use. We'll see. At least it is easy to touch up.


Monday, July 11, 2016

Section: 28
Hours: 7

I started today by riveting the top of the stainless tunnel to the tunnel outer sides.

The fuel selector valve bracket is not symmetric which I found out the hard way! I riveted it in, discovered I had it backwards and then riveted it in a second time with the proper orientation. Gotta pay attention to the plans...

Here I've mated the forward center section bulkhead to the bottom skins.

The center ribs are bolted and riveted to the spar carry thru. I put the factory heads on the back side because I could not fit the rivet gun in on the other side.

Here's the forward side with the shop heads.

Next I back riveted the bottom rib flanges to the bottom skins.

I used the long back rivet set to reach these rivets. I found it helps if you bump up the air pressure to 45-50psi when using the long back rivet set.

Friday, July 8, 2016

Section: 28
Hours: 6

Today I assembled the firewall to the forward bottom skins and exhaust tunnel. The rounded entry from the firewall to the tunnel must be sealed with ProSeal.

Pull rivets are used for the sides, but the top flange is fastened with solid rivets.

The curved intersection has an area that must be sealed on the rear side of the firewall.

Here's the firewall and bottom skin assembly.