Apr 24-25 - More HS Work

Had to take a week or so off in order to do the annual on the Luscombe. So just a bit of work this weekend: another whack at HS-908 brackets, work on the replacement spar, and organize parts. Work will require a week in Vegas starting next weekend, so it's going to remain quiet on the project front.

Time: 3 hours

Apr 12 - Sunk HS Spar

This post was supposed to be titled countersunk HS spar. But in fact I screwed it up so badly that I had to order a new part from Vans. The issue was that I needed to back the spar with something ore substantial in order to keep the countersink guide pin from wandering. As a result the hole became elongated and too large.

I was, shall we say, perturbed. Not really any guidance in the manual about this. Oh well, as long as the piece was a write off, I experimented. Friends who built RV-7s used a dimpler for this application. So I tried one, but it was just too thick to work well. I did try backing the spar with a piece of metal, and some holes in the workbench top. Much petter, but not perfect. Will experiment some more when I have time. However the next evening or two need to be dedicated to day-job projects.

You can see the issue in the photo below. The hole with the rivet is clearly not the appropriate size (used to be), and the one just to the right of it is oval-shaped. You can click on the photo to see a much more detailed view of the issue. (Warning, 4 MB)

Apr 10-11 - Shop Enhancements and Dimpling

The past few days have been as much work on the Luscombe as on this project. Spent a total of 5.5 hours dimpling metal and (mostly) adding more shop lights and carpeting the top of one workbench. Not much, perhaps, but important...

Total Time: 5.5 hours

April 6 - RH Stabilizer

Only 45 minutes tonight, because I stopped for a beer with a co-worker on the way home. Pulled the blue plastic off the inside, then scored the plastic on the outside and removed it around the holes. This was harder than it sounds, because I purchased someone's un-started kit. Result is that the plastic has been on there long enough that it resists being pulled off.

Time 0.75 hours

April 5 - RH Horizontal Stablizer

Not a whole lot to show, so no pics. Finished clecoing the RH skin to the skeleton, then match drilled the holes and disassembled. Yesterday I set up the cradle and started this process.

Time: 1.5 hours today, 1 hour yesterday

April 3 - Work on Stabilizer Skin

Spent a good share of the day on the RV today, and feel that some amount of progress resulted.

First order of business was to disassemble the pieces that I'd put together so far for deburring. Then I created a stand out of Van's VB-10 plywood templates. Simple to set up, using an air nailer to fasten blocks in place, followed by screws.

Making the nose robs fit inside the skin was another story. LOTS of fluting and persuasion made them fit. Once these parts were clecoed to the skin, I added the rest of the skeleton and match drilled all holes using a #40 bit. Then everything was taken apart yest again for deburring -- this time the skin was deburred. Man, there are a zillion holes! The wings will be really tedious...

Need to add some duct tape to the edges before building the next part, though -- the cradle scuffed up the blue plastic on the skins.

Speaking of that blue plastic, I spent 45 minutes with a solder gun to remove the plastic around the holes.

Finally, I wasted two hours tracking down Adel clamps and some conduit to put into the horizontal stab. The conduit has me a bit worried about life expectancy -- it's some of that split loom that appears to be really cheap PVC. So I may use thin-wall PVC instead. Also need to track down some 1x1 6061 T6 angle aluminum to make brackets like these.

Time: 8 hours

Bucking Bars

This post is arguably really old. Tungsten bucking bars are really popular, but I can't believe what they cost. For a while now I have been purchasing as close to the source as possible, and usually that means in China.

Can't remember where I learned about this particular source, BTW.

www.chinatungsten.com is the website, but just email sales@chinatungsten.com and tell them that you are looking for bucking bars. Had two within 10 days or something like that, via FedEx. I paid $50 and $46 each for the bars shown below, plus shipping, in June of 2009. The total came to $143, and they promised 18 days delivery. As I recall, the actual shipping time was more like 12 days.

Click on either image for a full-size version of the drawing.