Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Hawaii

I just got back from some major relaxation in Hawaii, hence why the airplane news hasn't been rolling in. This weekend hopefully I'll get those ribs riveted on with the help of my dad who is in town!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Paint Time!

Aileron brackets riveted!  These things look very very cool.  I did this inbetween coats of primer on the wing ribs.

 Here is a picture of the "dusting" of the primer onto the ribs.  I was at the hanger from about 530 to 845 painting them.  It was pretty cool to see them painted and stacked.
 Here is the aileron brackets before they were put together getting reprimed to get those freshly countersunk holes.

 This was all done last night.  This morning I woke up early for some reason so I headed to the hanger before work and grabbed all of the ribs.  They look great!  I need to do just a little touch up, but overall I'm really excited.  Once my dad gets into town we'll be hammering the rivets home to get these attached to the spars!

Here they are sitting next to the right wing ribs!

Wing Ribs

I wasn't happy with how the aileron brackets looked after spraying.  I think I'm failing to get a good rinse of the etching compound.  I ended up taking the wing ribs home and washing and etching them in the bathtub late in the evening so tomorrow I can straight from work to the hanger and paint them.

Also, it was pointed out to me that I forgot to countersink the aileron brackets for the flush mount rivets, so I countersunk those and have added them to the pile of things to prime.

Wing Ribs

Tonight I went to the hanger with some new tools. First, I got a space heater to make painting work a bit better.
 Then I started by tearing up some sand paper to deburr the edges of the corners.  The tearing I think make it tear further too easily, so I began cutting it into strips instead.
 While I was working on this, the paint tent was heating up.  Once it hit 70, I sprayed the pieces for the aileron brackets.

I also cleaned and etched the ribs for priming once the edges were good!  Here they are drying in the heated tent.
 Finally, I was given some leading edge jigs so I set up the right wing leading edge.  Here the two of them are sitting right next to each other.




Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Ribs

I made a decision. Single conduit lines down each wing, but I wanted to open up the pitot tube holes so I could fit in plumbing for angle of attack (AoA). Tonight I did that, this time with the step drill instead of a hole saw. I found the results were better...

Also, my conduit arrived from Vans with the tie downs. Thats about all I did tonight...

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Weekend in the hanger

This weekend wasn't as productive, but I did get some new materials and such.  My order from Vans arrived with the conduit and tie downs.  I also decided that I was going to do a SafeAir1 pitot mast, and ordered that.  From Cleveland tool, I ordered a double offset rivet set so I will be ready for the wing rivetting.  But enough about toys, lets get building.

I put the right wing up on the table, match drilled the ribs to the spars, and dissassembled everything.  I did not take any pictures of this.

I also made a quick jig for pilot holes for running conduit.
Then I went through both stacks and drilled the holes.

Once this was done, I deburred everything, pitot holes, conduit holes, tooling holes, corners, and basically am ready to clean, etch, and prime the ribs.  I think I am going to get some emery tape though and do a bit more work on the corners while waiting for the summer to kick in and heat up my workshop.

Once I was done cutting myself on sharp corners, I started putting together the leading edge cradle.  I got some 3/4 inch plywood with the help of a friend, and so I feel like its sturdy.  It won't win any awards at a carpentry show though.  Here I just have the skin in it.
I went ahead and clecoed the ribs in as well.  I started on the top side of the wing and at the front of the leading edge, and clecoed up to the rear side.  Then did the back.
 Lots of clecos.
This will have to wait until I have the ribs riveted on, the skins tentatively on, and then it will get placed on.

Lastly, I match drilled and deburred the aileron brackets for the back.  Heres the pile of them waiting to be cleaned and etched and of course primed.

In other news, I will be trying to find a new place to house this blog because apparently I'm out of space for photos.  I want to include the full size images because its been helpful to see other peoples full size images, so I will be trying to locate a place to stash them for now.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Rear Spars, Wings

Tonight I put together the rear spars.  They had dried completely, so I assembled the left hand side.  I started by taking a sharpie and putting a line through any holes I was supposed to skip for now.  When I got to the two reinforcement plates, I switched and circled the holes that I could actually rivet because there were fewer of those.  For the rear spar fork reinforcement, I put clecos in all of the holes I wasn't allowed to rivet.  More on that in a bit.






Once all of the pieces were riveted on, I cleared off my work table and put the main spar down on the far side.  I started placing the ribs into the appropriate slots on the main spar, and then clecoed them in.  Then I started putting the rear spar on.  The first few ribs went fine, but then on the fourth one, I realized I had moved the clecos to help pull the pieces together a bit more, and had then riveted the empty holes on the very ends of the fork.  So this meant I had to drill them out.

Here you can see third from the left, riveted holes with sharpie marks across them.

I drilled out the first hole no sweat, it truly went just about perfectly (all things considering).  The second one didn't go as well.  Once it was out, I realized that not only had I riveted holes I wasn't supposed to, I had just removed one rivet that didn't need to be removed!  Obviously I was a bit excited.  I reriveted the hole, and drilled out the appropriate one, and continued down the wing.  Once all the ribs were attached at both ends, I took a few quick pictures, waited for the grin to subside, and found someone else in the hanger to show it to.


Next, I went down each end and match drilled all of the holes.  When I next go in, I'll be taking off the ribs, drilling out two holes for conduit on each rib, deburring all the recently drilled holes, and deburring the corners.  Then its to the clean/etch/prime booth.

New Priming System

After a quick tour of another RV-7 builder's shop, I decided to finally jump off the rattle can primer ship.  I have been getting more and more frustrated by needing to evactuate the room after spraying, or wear my respirator the entire time, and after seeing the simplicity of his system, I switched.  I got a cheap 15 dollar gravity fed spray gun from Harbor freight, set up a spray tent in my workroom, and ordered cleaner, etcher, and single part primer from Stewarts Systems.

The first items to get the new primer treatment were the pieces for the rear spars.  Here is a picture of the rear spars.  It seems to leave a good solid coat, and its a lot less toxic than the rattle can.  I'm very happy with the switch.

Wings, Rear Spar

Tonight I match drilled the pieces for the rear spar.  I started with the reinforcement fork, and immediately wrote the note to myself to dimple the spar flange before assembly.  I clecoed everything and started drilling.  Not exciting.

Next, I did the reinforcement plate for the end because it was easy to put it flush to the edge.  This one was relatively simple, just some drilling.  For the middle piece, however, it was a little more complicated.  The middle piece required more creative clamping, but luckily I had purchased cleco clamps.  Next I took a sharpie and colored in the hole that needed to be removed.  After I drilled all of the holes, I took the pieces apart and made two quick holes in the piece for pilot holes.  The step drill worked wonders here, but I still ended up using a file to get the hole cleaned up and to the correct size.
Once complete, it was time to repeat the same steps on the right wing.

Tie Downs

Tonight I started fabbing the tie down assembly.  I started by cutting the inserts with my new bandsaw.  Having a bandsaw makes life so much easier.  A lot of other people said "don't wait, get a bandsaw" and I waited, and now will repeat their sentiments.  Once I realized I could get a little one for just shy of $110, I jumped on it.
Here are the inserts sitting on the main spar
And now pinched under the tie down.


Next, I drilled one hole in the tie down using the measurements from the blueprint, and then attached it, using the spar as a guide for the other 3 holes.  Once those were drilled, I bolted it and started drilling the next four holes that go through the little spacers.
I don't have many pictures for the next part because it was extremely frustrating.  You have to drill the holes through the tie down and the spacers for the rivets for the nutplate.  This was difficult to do because it was hard to clamp the nutplate to the assembly.  I ended up using channel locks and then clecoing the first hole, and then drilling the second, but one of my tie downs has a nutplate that isn't lined up perfectly vertically.

Next, all that was left was to tap the end ( I tapped the wrong end, so I had to tap it twice), and then prime and assemble!

As a note, the same steps were followed for both wings.

Wings, Front Spars

I got back to the wings now that I'm more settled in.  I finished all of the countersinking and started installing plate nuts.  Once those were installed, I did the countersinking of the bolt holes.




The spar got primed afterwards.


Here are more plate nuts mid spar.
All installed!
More priming...

New Workshop

I was told we'd be moving hangers soon, and was allowed to select a room.  I was under the impression I'd be able to start moving after March 1st, but I got a call one Saturday evening and told that all of my stuff had already been moved!  A huge thanks to the people who carefully moved all of my stuff to the new location!

Now I have a room all to myself.  It was originally a conference room so I get to use this big heavy desk as a workbench.  It also has a nice cabinet in the corner which seems perfect for the bench tools...


I am absolutely thrilled to be in a bright, heated workshop now where I feel like I can make changes that will help the build.

Christmas

Christmas rolled around and my folks got me a very very nice bench top drill press to help in the process.  Heres a picture of me after Tyler helped me set it up.

Tail (kinda) Done!

The completed tail!  Heres some pictures of me too excited to do anything but grin.



Heres my friend Tyler who has lent a hand many a time.

Elevator take 2

Well I decided not to jump ship and went back to work on the elevators.... The first elevator is complete, and this elevator is the one with the trim tab so its more complicated.  Again I cut, match drilled, deburred, dimpled, and primed the reinforcements.

Heres the viking boat you build for counterweight.

Riveting on the reinforcements with the rivet tape I finally purchased.

The inside as the reinforcements are riveted...
All installed!
Putting the skeleton together for match drilling....

Next I needed to make the panel for the trim cable access.  Here is the reinforcement plate that gets attached to the skin.  I first match drilled it to the skin, and then dimpled the skin and the plate.  You can see the dimples here.
Next I dimpled the inside holes, deburred them, and began attaching plate nuts.  These were kinda a pain to install just because of getting access to the back of the rivet with the rivet set.
And the dreadful folding.... Heres my wood block inside.

Markings for proper location
The top block.
And my decently acceptable, but honestly bothers me, folded edge.
Deburred and primed, now its time to rivet!
The horn getting attached to the skeleton.
Next I attached the trim cable access plate assembly.

And finally riveted the skeleton in!  With the help of some friends, we got the leading edges rolled and attached.  It was actually really difficult due to the strength of the skin.  It also means that we were trying to just get it done and didn't get any photos of the process.