| Date |
Hours |
|
| 3/6/2005 |
|
I spent today re-organizing and putting stuff away. Christine bought me
a killer tool box from Sears for my birthday. I am glad the empennage
kit didn't count towards this.
I built a shelf and put the stabilizers on it. I spent some time
trying to figure out how to build the rudder. |
| 3/8/2005 |
4.1 |
I cut one rudder stiffener using the snips. The snips distorted the
stiffener on the tapered end so I had to spend a lot of time
straightening it out. My old band saw does a poor job of cutting
straight but it looked like my best alternative. I took it apart and
cleaned it up and oiled it and then adjusted where the blade tracks on
the wheel.. I made it so that it tracks barely against the bearing in
the back as suggested by Don. Wow, what a difference. I cut several
pieces of scrap and they turned out perfectly. I cut all of the
remaining stiffeners with the band saw and smoothed out the edges with
by Scotch Brite wheel. I then used my handy edge deburrer to break the
edges. It took a while to do all of this. I then Clecoed them to the
rudder skin. Next step: more drilling.
Pay attention Grasshopper. Today's lesson is:
Snips maul whatever they attempt to cut in the hands of someone
inexperienced (and possibly experienced as well - I wouldn't know). |
| 3/9/2005 |
1.5 |
I found some channel iron at Home Depot today. It is about 3/16" thick,
2" wide. I ran my belt sander over it with some really course emery
cloth. I have a thick piece of MDF in the groove of the channel iron. I
practiced back riveting and am happy with the results. [UPDATE:
This turned out to be a stupid idea. It is too narrow. I ended up
creating a big ding in the rudder when the rivet was on the edge of this
back plate. I wen t ahead and ordered a real one from Avery]
I drilled out all of the holes that attach the stiffeners.
 |
| 3/10/2005 |
2.4 |
I deburred all of the holes. |
| 3/11/2005 |
1.1 |
I washed the stiffeners with Alumiprep and applied Alodine. I dimpled
the stiffener rivet holes on the left side of the rudder. After
dimpling, Van's instructions call for priming and riveting the
stiffeners into place. Since I still haven't match drilled and dimpled
the holes for the spar and ribs, I'll either have to do things out of
order or not prime the inside skin.
Also, when I dimpled the holes in the skin, the hole diameters grew.
The holes did not become anything close to accepting next size (AD4) but
it is still something I would like to know how to minimize. |
| 3/13/2005 |
7.6 |
Today was a productive day. I etched and Alodined the skin. Then I
primed the skin and the stiffeners. The I went to Home Depot and bought
two 2" X 8" X 10' boards and five hinges and constructed the brake
mentioned in the instructions. By then the primer was dry so I went
ahead and back riveted the stiffeners to the skin. Christine was a life
saver here because getting the back rivets is a two person job. My
back rivet set didn't work very well because the rivet shanks are fairly
close to the stiffeners. The set kept hoping off the
shank. I used my flat set which worked a lot better. Except for
about 3 rivets, the back riveting process turned out very well.
Today's Lesson:
When it comes to a wooden brake, lots of wood is a good thing. |
| 3/14/2005 |
1.9 |
I fabricated a shim and two fiberglass fairing attachment strips and
Clecoed the spar assembly together. Here's Monica sawing on something
not related to the plane. The picture to the left is of the lower
forward part of the rudder spar and rib.
 |
| 3/15/2005 |
1.6 |
Tonight I drilled all of the holes and started deburring. |
| 3/16/2005 |
2.2 |
I deburred most of the holes. I dimpled the skin. |
| 3/17/2005 |
3.9 |
Tonight I finished deburring the holes and edges. I dimpled the spar and
top and bottom ribs. Dimpling the back four holes was impossible with my
squeezer or pop rivet gun dimpler. I had some 3/8" thick aluminum so I
drilled a #40 hole and then countersunk it. I then wedged it on top of a
piece of steel in between the flanges of the rib and pounded on one half
of the dimple set.
 |
| 3/18/2005 |
4.1 |
I primed the spar, ribs and other items not already primed. I then
riveted the spar and ribs together. The next step before riveting on the
skin was to ad a dab of RTV between the stiffeners. I just realized I
don't have RTV and it is too late to go to Home Depot. First thing
tomorrow...
The picture at the left is of the front bottom of the rudder and the
one to the right is of the top of the rudder with the fiberglass tip
temporarily in place.. |
| 3/19/2005 |
4.4 |
I riveted the understructure to the skin and then rounded the leading
edge using some 1 inch conduit. I then riveted the leading edges to each
other using blind rivets. That's it. Done for now. |
| 5/15/2005 |
1.8 |
I am waiting for the wing kit to arrive. I decided to take on the
fiberglass.
 |
| 05/19/2005 |
1.3 |
Today I received the rudder stribe/position light from Van's. I cut a
hole in the rudder bottom and epoxied in two washers and nuts. The
picture above shows some screws I put in to hold the nuts and washers in
place while the epoxy cured. |
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