RV-9

Jan 7-14 -- Assemble Left Wing Skeleton

2012-01-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

The photos below show progress that is an accumulation of off and on work for quite a few days.

Primed all the ribs, then riveted them to the main and rear spars. Looks like the rivets on the trailing spar are backwards from what the plans recommend (manufactured head on the thinnest side to avoid rib distortion); however I squeezed rather than use a gun, and there is no sign of distortion.

Still just a few holes left to rivet.

Today my good friend Michael Beare stopped over to help drive rivets into the main spar. I started this part of the riveting solo last weekend; however the result was that at least half a dozen rivets needed to be drilled out. Completely different outcome with his help -- and he is experienced to boot!

Total Time: 10 hours

Jan 2 -- Left Wing Ribs

2012-01-02T16:45:00.000-08:00

Enlarged all holes in ribs for both wings to accept bushings for the conduit (I caved -- going to run conduit). In fact, I added holes for a third conduit run to the pitot and aileron bell crank. Need power for pitot heat and the autopilot servo.

Then I assembled the left wing (excluding nose ribs) and match drilled the ribs to both the main spar and the rear spar. Then deburred and used Scotch-Brite to scuff the ribs up in preparation for priming. Took the lot outside and cleaned them up with Coleman Fuel.

One rib received primer -- just as it started raining. Am going to have to wait for a dry weekend day to finish that part.

Total Time: 5.5 hours

Dec 31 - Jan 1, 2012 -- Work on Ribs

2012-01-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

Slowing up to do some research, because all of the sudden I am being bit by lack of planning ahead. For example, it's time to have an autopilot servo; however I haven't even evaluated the various choices.

Also time to drill holes for wiring in the wings. Many people run a single conduit; however I am running at least two in order to keep electrically noisy runs (strobes) away from things like antennas. Also need to consider how to service the not-yet-selected autopilot servo, which will be mounted short of all the way out there in the wingtip. Ordered some bushings to install in the holes, drilled holes that are too small for the bushings (just in case they don't work out).

Should I even run conduit? It's made from material not allowed in certified planes, and frankly I just don't trust it not to cause issues. Won't wire laying loose in there chafe from vibration? Lots to decide. Soon.

So each rib now has two 3/4" holes. One key learning along the way: Unibit (the actual brand) bits rock. Harbor Freight knock-offs suck.

Finally, also created a tool to measure aileron alignment later.

Total Time: 5 hours

Dec 28-30 -- Rear Spar and Ribs

2011-12-30T21:52:00.001-08:00

Puttered at replacing the parts that I messed up the other day, and some "work work" that ate almost two full days. Then went back to the main wing ribs to make certain that they were square in all dimensions. Used a machinist's square, the flanging tool, and also a fluting tool.

Oh, and you can see my high-end storage approach to the spars. Am still trying to avoid building the stand for these spars, in hopes that my garage will somehow get bigger via positive thinking.

Next up is drilling holes for conduit in the ribs. But first I need to figure out how many conduit and pitot runs are required for all the various systems. Realized today that I even need to pick out an autopilot, because its time to install servo mounting brackets. Leaning towards a Dynon, but am going to bounce this off others before deciding.

Lots of deferred decisions are suddenly rearing their heads. Suppose that's a sign of progress!

Total Time: 5 hours

Dec 19-27 -- Rear Spar

2011-12-27T20:40:00.000-08:00

Been working on the rear spar for days, yet it seemed so simple...

Initial challenge was priming parts outside in the dark. A total of five nights -- each time going back to touch up one more spot. Finally had some daytime on Dec 23rd when I came home early. Should have just waited :)

Then there was the matter of working on the plane while quite sick with a bad cold that made me woozy. Lesson learned: don't.

So I also managed to screw up a couple of parts, which I am now waiting for from Van's. These were installed and looked very nice indeed! Until I discovered (a) a missing row of dimples, and (b) that I has countersunk the wrong holes in the doubler. Oh well, now an expert at drilling out rivets...

These are the parts that are in the top of the lower right photo. New parts will be here in a day or two.

Total time: 6 hours

Dec 18 -- Drill and Prime Rear Wing Spar Doublers

2011-12-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe that it took all day to accomplish this, but it did. 9:30-5:30 to be precise, with a couple of breaks for things such as eating.

Shaped and match drilled the various doublers for the rear spar, with a oblong hole for the ailerons accounting for quite a bit of this time. Also dimpled and countersunk a number of holes.

Then used ScotchBrite to scuff the doublers and both rear spars. Had hoped to prime today; however by the time that I finished all of this, it was too dark outside to paint.

The result doesn't look a heck of a lot different than the previous post, does it?

In the end I decided that even a bad prime job was north of not even trying. So I set things up to prime where some light is afforded by the fixture on the front of the garage. Might have to touch up the front of the house if overspray "decorated" the garage door, but it's worth that amount of bother.

Total Time: 7 Hours

Dec 17 -- Deburr Rear Wing Spar and Doublers

2011-12-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

Deburred the rear spar channel (W-907A), doubler plate (W-907B), and all related doubler plates (W-907C, W-907D, and W-907E).

Total Time: 2 Hours

Dec 16 -- Final Nutplates on Main Spar

2011-12-16T21:58:00.000-08:00

This is going to seem like a weird post because the only progress is 6 nutplates. However they were a Big Deal in terms of hassle.

For starters, the nutplates are on the drawing but I can't find any reference to them in the instructions. Other RV-9 blogs voice a similar concern. So hopefully they are installed correctly!

The countersink cage wouldn't fit into some corners, and I spent several days and trips to the store looking for creative workarounds. Then I found the tool. In my tool box! Doh... There's a photo of the bad boy below.

Also, some of those rivets look funky. However when I carefully checked them, they are actually just fine other than one that is countersunk 0.001" deep.

At any rate, we'll call this 3 hours of work, but that's a lie on the way low end of time wasted. Looks like it's on to the rear spar next.

Total Time: 3 Hours

Dec -- Install Aileron Bellcrank Brackets & APEX Plates

2011-12-03T22:03:00.000-08:00

This seems like such a small thing, but took a fair bit of work for the details. Installed the aluminum APEX parts to act both as a tie-down ring mount point, and also to hold the aileron bellcrank brackets.

Torqued all AN-3 bolts to 25 inch-pounds.

Total Time: 3 hours

Nov 23-27 -- Install Nutplates

2011-11-27T18:23:00.000-08:00

This is getting repetitive: installed more nutplates of varying sizes in varying locations, over a period of several days.

Unfortunately my attempt to drill holes for the Apex tiedown bars did not go well. The first one suffered from layout issues that made the holes off-center. Bottom line is that a ruler plus marking pen is simply inadequate for accuracy. Looking online, it appears that others pioneered this mistake well in advance of today.

On the second bar, I was able to produce a unique piece of art. The work scooted under the edge if the stop on the saw. Result: wrecked aluminum and broken tooth on the aluminum saw. Luckily the blade held together, so no amputations. Ordered a new blade, two new hunks of aluminum, and a beer.

BTW, for others building RVs, these apex plates can be ordered with the pain of tapping the hole already finished. See Cleaveland Tool's website.

Total Time: 3 hours

Nov 21 -- Install Nutplates

2011-11-21T21:16:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a series of boring posts. Tonight I installed 8 of 24 nutplates that will hold access plates attached to the wing spar.

Total Time: 1.5 hours

Nov 19 -- Finish Nutplates for Fuel Tanks

2011-11-20T19:21:00.000-08:00

Exciting, huh? Spent all day attaching a gazillion nutplates for the fuel tanks. Guess that's penance for having fun flying the Luscombe yesterday. But it does make for completion of one paragraph in the instructions!

Total Time: 7 hours

Nov 17 -- More Holes

2011-11-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

Tonight consisted of three tasks -- and I will be at these for quite some time.

First, I primed a bunch of nutplates. They are plain steel, so if anything ever needed priming in the Pacific Northwest, these nutplates would be at the top of the list. Note that the photo shows two types. I only used the flat (small) ones, but figured that I may as well prime some of each.

Then each center hole was drilled to 3/16" (instructions are very vague here), and the bottom of each hole was deburred.

Next up was to create a template piece of metal to use for testing countersink depths. The aluminum test piece is the same thickness as the tank skins (0.032"), and dimpled for a #8 screw.

I started installing nutplates, one or two at a time, and riveted them in place. The nutplate will sever to center the countersink bit.

Set up my new single-fluke bit and gingerly drilled to the correct depth, testing with just the screw and also with the metal template to make certain that all is correct. Think that I need to go just a touch deeper; however want someone else to look at my work first. Easy to drill deeper, but not so easy if the holes are too deep...

Total Time: 2 hours

Nov 16 -- Countersink Wing Spar

2011-11-16T21:14:00.000-08:00

Tonight was Hole City. Counter-sank half of the holes in both of the wing spars (where the fuel tanks will bolt on). All this made possible by the arrival of new single-flute countersink bits, because the old ones were too dull to work. This countersink is sooo much nicer than the standard ones!

Building both wings at the same time, so overall progress will be faster due to efficiencies. Or at least that's the lie that I am telling myself.

Not much else to say, other than there are still lots of holes to work on!

Total Time: 1.5 hours

Nov 12 -- Start Wing Spars

2011-11-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

Big day in that the two wing spars, which had been leaning against the garage wall since last April, finally slid out of their plastic bags to join the project. They are supposed to be hung on a wing stand; however I am delaying that day until really needed, because the stands burn up a lot of real estate in the garage.

Once out, I also opened up the many hardware bags of rivets, screws, and fittings. Tucked each of them away in a wall-storage bin with clear plastic drawers. Hopefully the parts organization is logical enough to find the parts when needed later.

And finally the first couple of nutplate rivet holes were countersunk.

Below are photos that are mostly for the records -- and that show the hand-etched serial numbers of each spar.

Total Time: 7 Hours

Nov 9-11 -- Build a Rib Flange Straightening Tool

2011-11-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight's mission is to build a straightening tool for the rib flanges. A video of the idea is here, and a fancier tool was found in a Van's Air Force forum post.

Well, "tonight" turned into three nights thanks to interruptions such as the family's Domain Controller crashing, a surprise launch of a new Amazon Web Services region, etc., etc. Nonetheless, the two photos below represent the tool. This puppy is slick, and initial tests indicate that I should save a ton of time on the wings. Just wish that I'd built it for the empennage ribs...

The base and wood immediately on top of the base are pine. All wood directly attached to the metal sidebars is maple from my scrap box. That maple was originally intended for new cabinets, but I know that you won't tell anyone!

Here's the bill of material, if you want to build your own:

1 ea. 2x6, cut to 18" long
1 ea. 2x4, cut to 10" long with an 11 degree undercut bevel on the "business end"
1 ea 1x1-1/2 maple (or any hardwood). I cut mine to 16" and it could be longer. Also thing that a 2x2 might be sturdier -- this handle takes a lot of abuse
1 ea 3" long block, made from the same maple stock. I used my biscuit jointer to insert a couple of wood biscuits and glue up a double-height block. Probably overkill, but I got to play with more toys that way.
1 ea. 3/16x1x3ft Weld steel flat bar, purchased at Lowes and cut into 2 ea 10" lengths. OK, cut into 12" lengths and then shortened to 10" when I screwed up alignment on 1/4" holes in one end.
2 ea. 1/4-20 x 2-1/2 bolts, also from Lowes Aircraft Supply. These are not aircraft grade bolts -- they just look like it.
Washers and self-locking nuts for the bolts. I managed to purchase 1/4-20 bolts and 28-TPI nuts. Like I said, Lowes is not aircraft grade -- and mixing things up like they did was annoying. Fortunately I had nuts on hand.

Total Time: 2.5 hours (not counting going to Lowes to find a hunk of steel).

Nov 8 -- Deburr Wing Ribs

2011-11-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight was straightforward: Crack open a stack of wing ribs and de-burr the edges on them.

Still need to de-burr all the rivet holes.

Total time: 1.5 hours

Nov 5-6 -- Finish Empennage

2011-11-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

Last post on July 4, and in between was pretty much all travel. Around the world sounds like the adventure of a lifetime, until you do it twice in ten months...

This weekend was back at the project, and it was momentous! Finished work on the empennage, or at least as much work as can be done right now. Fiberglass tips and final assembly come at the end of the project.

Built trim tab #3, which came out great, assembled the elevators to the horizontal stab, and drilled an important hole in the elevator horns.

But not until a friend with a flying RV came over to eyeball my work. As per one of the photos below, alignment was off a bit once parts were assembled. Everyone told me that this is normal, although that seems odd in a CNC environment.

In order to drill that hole thru the center bearing, I used some punches from Harbor Freight that fit precisely into a wide variety of hole sizes. In this case it was a 1/4" pin that created the dimple to use as a starting point for the drill. After a #40 pilot hole, worked my way up thru a #30 to a 1/4" bit. The #30 intermediate hole included part of my finger, although I decided that assembling the finger at this time might be inconvenient.

I also realized how woefully dull my inherited drill bits are, so I ordered $300 worth of new cobalt drill indexes -- the first time in my life that I actually purchased all the bits new as a set. Probably should have done this years ago.

All parts now hanging on the garage wall, and it's time to start on the wings.

Total Time this weekend: 19 hours

July 4 -- Build Tool to Insert Elevator Bolts

2011-07-04T20:52:00.000-07:00

The instructions say that it's time to attach the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer, in order to check clearances and drill another hole. Yikes, this whole assembly process is a royal pain, and it took lots of searching online to see what others did. So here's a post on a tool that I built, and two other tips. Hope it saves others some time. (Sorry, no help on the agony bit...)

First, it's tough to slide a bolt thru the holes because it's tough to align the parts. Someone else posted a tip that allen wrenches make a great pin because the 90 degree bend acts as a handle. Even better, use a small one first, then guide a larger one into place. See below for a photo of the larger inserted into the assembly.

Even with this trick, it's still a pain to insert the bolt. In fact, I was speaking like a pirate while I tried with no success... Then I saw a tool that Dave Parsons built for his RV project. Mine is less refined, but works like a charm! I flattened out a couple of leftover pieces of aluminum that began life as stiffeners. The 1" belt sander worked well to cut a slot and generally shape things, followed by some metal forming in the vise. Wow, does this thing work well!

Finally, it was still tough to slide the bolt all the way home. Cleco pliers solved that!

Next up is figuring out what's rubbing. I am fairly certain that the rubbing comes from a rivet shop head that stands too tall. But not much time this weekend for building. Squandered the available time flying, bike riding, and refinishing the deck. What a spectacular Fourth of July!

Total Time: 3 Hours

Jun 30 -- Installed Counterweights

2011-06-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

Not much to say. Some trimming to clear rivets, bolted 'em on. Bigger news is that it now sounds like all of August except for a few days will be spent traveling for business. Not good for enjoying summer or for build progress.

Like everything, tonight took way longer than it sounds like it should have.

Total Time: 1 Hour

Jun 29 -- Cut Elevator Counterweights

2011-06-29T22:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight was more thinking than doing... Cut 4 lead counterweights for the elevators. Once again my investment many years ago in a power miter saw paid off.

The weights will still need minor tweaking in order to fit past rivets; however an initial try-fit indicates that the initial cuts are right on the money. :)

Total Time: 1 Hour

Jun 26 -- Install Trim Tab Hinge & Threaded Rod

2011-06-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

Short session today, because it was a spectacular Sunday in Western Washington so Michael Beare and I went flying in his Luscombe.

In order to insert the servo into the access opening, you need to power it up to move the screw to the extreme "trim up" position. Great, except that I forgot about this (a day passed), so I cut the stainless 8/32" threaded rod to the wrong length.

Picked up a new threaded rod for the trim servo, installed that, and trimmed the edge of the trim tab (is that recursive?) where it was hitting the elevator when positioned at an extreme "down" angle. Also bent the hinge pin per the photo below, in order that it can be safety-wired to the elevator. The safety wire will be installed later.

Total Time: 1.5 hours

Jun 24 -- Work on Electric Trim Servo

2011-06-24T22:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight it was time to assemble the parts that were primed last night, and to see how everything fits. Thanks to clearance issues it was not really possible to use clecos during try-fit.

Three things needed resolution:

The servo is a really tight fit in the access hole. (WHY? another 1/8" clearance would have been wonderful and would not cause structural issues.) The edges of the nutplates needed to be filed down so that they did not protrude into the opening.
In a similar manner the edges of the access opening needed to be relieved near the throat, because the clevis pin on the servo was binding on the edge of the opening.
Finally, one corner of the servo was hard to insert into the hole. So I drilled a new hole and installed a rivet there. That made room to relieve the corner, as shown in the photo below.

Total Time: 1.5 Hours

Jun 23 -- Start Work on Electric Trim

2011-06-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

Relatively short session this evening. Set up the mounting brackets for the electric trim servo on the elevator. The trim is mounted in the elevator and positions the trim tab via a control rod.

So tonight it was a matter of laying out the bracket holes, drilling, deburring, dimpling, and priming. This is the reason that God invented Lilac Bushes: to hang airplane parts from.

Total Time: 1.5 Hours

Jun 22 -- Install Trim Tab

2011-06-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

I didn't post Sunday's work on the elevator, where I redrilled one rivet twenty times. In the end I stuck a pop rivet in the hole :(

Tonight was different. Attached the trim tab to the elevator and am pleased with how it came out, per the photos below.

Some tips for others:

I left extra material on the left end of the half of the hinge that attaches to the elevator. That way right-left adjustment could be controlled by jamming the end against the corner of the trim tab cutout on the elevator, and I simply sanded it down to get the exact spacing that I wanted. This eliminated trying to control two dimensions at once as I clamped things up.
Others started drilling holes at one end and working their way along the hinge, with a cleco in each hole that they drilled. I carefully drilled one hole in from each end, and then drilled a couple in the middle before splitting the difference on the rest of the holes. Kept the trim tab in place the entire time, in order to prevent the half that I was working on from sagging.

Time Sunday: 5 hours
Time Today: 2.5 hours

Jun 18 -- Trim Tab & Left Elevator

2011-06-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

What you don't read here is also an important part of the project. Everything has been on hold because the drill press needed repairs (the chuck kept falling off). Took the spindle to a local machine shop; however when I got the part back the chuck wobbled slightly. Not good! EBay solved the problem after some off-EBay dickering with a dealer.

Per an earlier post, the first run at a trim tab hinge was all boogered up. So this time I used a #41 drill bit and a rivet fan to carefully lay out and drill the hinge holes. At least with this rivet fan a #41 bit is perfect in the rivet fan holes, as you can see in the photo below. Using the rivet fan really helped clean up "eyeball" variances from hole to hole. Simply clecoed then ends, then drilled holes in between, using the rivet fan to guide the drill press directly.

Used ProSeal to glue some foam ribs inside, and also carefully riveted the tab together. It's sitting in a corner for a week or so while the ProSeal sets up.

Next I closed up more of the left elevator and also glued up the apex wedge in its trailing edge. Hard to believe how much day all of this ate up, but a great way to spend a rainy Saturday.

Total Time: 5 Hours

May 30 -- Left Elevator and Trim Tab

2011-05-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

Been forever since I worked on the project. The Luscombe annual, followed by a trip to Europe for close to a month conspired... And now a deck refinishing project lurks. Couldn't finish it last summer thanks to neck surgery. Not to mention that the drill press is in pieces for a long-overdue overhaul.

At any rate some modest progress.

On the elevator, I drilled the trailing edge wedge, also known as the apex wedge. Learned a lot on previous attempts, so this time I used angle iron for the trailing edge to keep everything lined up. Also used the new battery-operated drill for countersinking. Slow speeds really help with control.

The trim tab is starting to come together, although I did have some issues thanks to dimpling. See the photos for where the dimple die interfered with the bent tab at the end of the trim tab. Had to do some repairs, so back into the clamping blocks...

I also went off plans with standard rivets in place of the pop rivets on the plans. Hoping that there are no issues when it comes time to squeeze them (doubt there will be as long as I perform this operation before inserting some internal foam ribs). Also dimpled and primed the forward trim tab spar.

Hard to believe; however this was:

Total Time Today: 5 hours

April 12 -- Elevator Trim Tab

2011-04-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

Posts have been sparse lately, thanks to work. Silence cloaked what activity did occur, and perhaps that is just as well.

Picked up a spare elevator trim tab skin while at Vans to get the wings. At the time it looked to be wasted money; however statistically an extra skin is a good investment.

Sure enough, the first attempt was a fiasco when I bent the tabs at the end. Issue was that I pranged the aluminum in every conceivable way while bending. Some (OK a LOT of) research online turned up that (a) the block recommended for forming the bend should be harder than pine, and (b) there is no such thing as "tight enough" when clamping the block down.

Fortunately(?) the mess known as our garage has some hard maple stock in it. Karin's childhood bed frame, to be precise. A piece of that maple made a great forming block, with more maple affixed to the sides of the wood to keep everything aligned. Then three screws in the bottom of the block served to clamp the assembly, and a humongous C Clamp worked on the other end. The genesis of this approach came from this page -- about halfway down.

That's a 10 degree angle in the maple, and I used a jointer to make certain all was super smooth. (The jointer is another bit of clutter in the garage.) The pieces tacked on the side don't quite touch the bottom of the block, in order to ensure that there was not any tilt induced by alignment issues. This setup took me 4+ hours to build, including time spent on some bad tries.

Some thoughts for others who may be reading this blog post as they consider their own construction project.

Make certain that you clamp tightly and precisely. Bend the bottom tab first, then the top tab over the bottom. It's easy to miss in the instructions; however the bend line should intersect the middle of those "u" notches on the aluminum. Consider that the top bend will be over the bottom one, so make certain that the first one is spot on.
Vans says to use a rivet gun to finish off the bend. I found that was a way to scar the aluminum. Besides, a block of maple and a hammer are all that are required.
My bending brake (per Vans instructions) was made with wood from Home Depot. It was wet, green, and warped. Stuck it thru a planer to true it up, then left it on top of the table saw for a week. Result was a rusted table saw top, and wood that warped again. You can draw your own conclusion...
That same brake will be used later for (longer) ailerons. Word is that I should have purchased wood long enough for a six-foot brake. I didn't, which is either good or bad, depending on your thoughts about the previous point.

Total Time: 10 hours (includes the bad trim tab not shown here)

Click on photos for a close-up view.

Mar 25 -- Pick up Wing Kit

2011-03-27T18:27:00.000-07:00

Does this time count towards building hours? :)

Picked up the Wing kit at Van's Aircraft, just south of Portland, OR. Went down the previous afternoon via Amtrak (bullet train from London to Paris could teach these dudes a few things...). Next morning I rented a U-Haul and picked up the wings for the drive back to Seattle.

Will leave the U-Haul saga out of this (executive summary: U-Haul #FAIL), other than to say that as the photo indicates, there was not much inside the truck. Needed a 17 ft truck in order to accommodate some long pieces such as fuselage longerons.

Once home I inventoried the loot over the weekend. Came up with some errors on Van's part, so it definitely pays to spend the time looking thru the kit. Going to be a while before these parts get used: still need to finish the empennage, and the reality of business travel is also setting me back.

One great delay though: NASA invited me to a Shuttle launch in April. I'll be one of 100 people at a TweetUp. Can't wait!!!

Mar 5 -- Elevator Trim Tab

2011-03-05T23:09:00.000-08:00

Lots of "enabling" work today.

Started by melting plastic off the outside skin of the elevator, then drilling and deburring both the skin and trim tab rib. Didn't even bother with clecos before match drilling, because when I lined parts up it was obvious that once again CNC had everything spot on.

But most of the time was a matter of cutting foam for ribs and also some wood for forming blocks. Once again the miter saw came in handy with its clean cuts. So did the table saw.

Total Time: Can you believe that I burned over 4 hours on this?

Feb 26 -- Rivet Left Elevator Bottom Skin

2011-02-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Technically this is two days, because a couple of days ago I riveted the gusset on to the rib. What a pain -- over an hour and about 6 drilled rivets later there were 2 installed rivets. Some fool posted on their site that out of 15,000+ rivets, they only drilled out 200 or so. Calling BS on that stat...

Today was just a bit of time on the plane. Riveted the bottom skin to the E-901 spar, then attached the Counterbalance assembly to the spar. This is the reverse order of the instructions, and works out better. One pair of rivets buried way down inside connects the counterbalance assembly directly to the spar. I used (gasp!) pop rivets. Out of site, just as strong, and the result is a much better grip than trying to get in there and buck a standard rivet.

Next up will be the trim tab spar. But I need to go heads down on work for a week or so, meaning that all progress will stop for now.

Total time: 1.5 hours

Feb 23 - Backrivet Lower Stiffeners, Install Trim Servo Reinforcement Plate

2011-02-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

Tonight I installed the nutplates on the trim servo reinforcement plate, then installed the plate on the lower skin. Next up was backriveting stiffeners to the lower skin, with some NAPA gasket material behind them to dampen vibration that others report causes cracks in the skin.

Total Time: 2 hours

Feb 22 -- Re-do the Elevator Trim Mounting Plate

2011-02-22T21:14:00.000-08:00

The first run at this plate didn't go so well: see the "before" version on the left in the photo below. In my attempt to counter sink the holes for nut plates, the countersink bit walked and ruined the piece by decorating it with ovals.

The replacement part showed up today. This time I enlarged the #40 pilot holes in the part, and then drilled #40 holes into hard maple, in order to provide a hole that would prevent the bit from walking. What a difference!

Stopped for the evening after counter-sinking, deburring, cleaning, painting, dimpling.

Total Time: 1 hour

Feb 21 -- Rivet Spar to Left Elevator Top Skin

2011-02-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

Tonight I riveted the E-902 spar to the top skin of the elevator. About 20% of the rivets could be squeezed; the rest were accessed by clamping the bottom skin to the table and then spreading the top skin so that it was possible to get a bucking bar in there to buck the rivets, two at a time.

Backriveting doesn't work here, because the skin flexes and it is not possible to keep the rivets flush against the steel backplate.

I'm learning to cut objectives down into smaller sessions. Get better results when I slow WAY down!

Total time: 1.5 hours

Feb 20 -- Backrivet Stiffeners

2011-02-20T15:27:00.000-08:00

Back-riveted the stiffeners to the top skin, with ProSeal under them to act as a vibration absorber. Was able to rivet a couple of lower ones too, before the ProSeal was too set up to be usable.

Bunch of rivets are going to need to be drilled out and re-set, because the shop heads are messed up. tough working conditions in there, trying to spread the skins enough to rivet. Don't want to clamp them open, because that damaged the other elevator.

Also cut down some angle iron into flat steel plates to use for riveting in tight places. The EAA Website has a great video tip on how to do this.

It got exciting though, because I did the cutting on the table saw, and the sparks ignited about 8 cubic feet of sawdust inside the saw base! Was time to clean it out anyways...

Total time on the plane: 1.5 hours.

Feb 19 -- Dimple & Prime Left Elevator

2011-02-19T17:53:00.000-08:00

Weekends are priming days, because there's light outside (and I get into enough trouble about the smell of fresh primer just from bringing the parts back into the Garage).

Today I primed the stiffeners after masking off the side that will face the elevator skin. Plan to use ProSeal between them and the skin, in order to prevent vibration caused by cracking.

Next up was dimpling the skin, with Karin's help. Then I scuffed the inside skin, cleaned with Coleman fuel, and masked off areas where ProSeal will be applied. Oh, and of course primed the inside of the skin.

Some more drying time and riveting can begin.

Total Time: 2.5 Hours

Feb 18 -- Workbenches

2011-02-18T20:38:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd post about the workbenches that I built for this project. They are essentially the popular table design that was published by EAA Chapter 1000 many years ago, with the following modifications.

I built these a year ago, so this is a very tardy post.

The original plans result in tables that are simply too heavy, in my opinion. A session at the local lumber emporium got me thinking. (I did not go to a big box store, because their wood is not worth buying.) There are others who devise elaborate casters and wheels, yet these tables are light enough to move, and still sturdy enough for abuse.

Instead of 2x4s, I used 2x3s. Lighter, cheaper, and at least as strong!
Instead of 2x3 frames for the top and shelf frames (supports), I cut the 3/4 ply down to make table top edges and cross-members. Then I used biscuits, glue, and a nail gun to assemble everything. Finally I glued and nailed 1/4" ply on the top to ensure that the structure remained square and rigid. Could have used 3/8" ply on top; however I planned a more robust work surface -- and had the 1/4" ply in the garage, and therefore in the way.
In the photos below you can see that on one of the tables I extended the lower shelf edges lengthwise in order to tie them to the 2x3 upright. Then I used 3/4" ply above and below it (still on the upright) instead of a 2x3. This turned out to be a much better arrangement, because it was both light and sturdy. Note that these extensions are slightly shy of reaching the end of the frame. That removed any fine alignment and cutting which would be required for a "perfect" fit. And in one of the photos you can see the same technique to avoid final fit issues with the lower shelf.
Table tops were another deviation. On both tables I used 3/4" press board, which once again was already in the garage.

On the first table, I simply followed the EAA plans and made the top as wide as the frame (no overhang), then covered it with carpet.
However on the second table I added the thickness of a 1x3 all the way around in order that I can clamp things to the top. Because the overhang is exactly the width of the thickness of a 2x3, I am able to clamp one under the edge to effectively remove the overhang when needed. This is a very useful feature!

Mentioned elsewhere, but the tops were simply screwed on, because easy replacement sounds like a future convenience.

Oh, and not all the wood matches because it was a great opportunity to work on the scrap collection that was in the way of the airplane project (still more to clean out before the wings arrive...) The garage interior decorator was goofing off that day...

Click on any of the photos for a full-size view.

Feb 17 -- Drill & De-bur Left Elevator

2011-02-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

Van's replied to my email today to say that the stiffener issue from yesterday is a non issue. "Build On" was the message.

Tedium tonight... Drilled out all the holes in the skin for the stiffeners (the ones that officially need to be clecoed together and then match drilled). Per yesterday, I am counting on CNC fit to make things "just fit". History says that they will.

Next came manual de-burring of each side of each hole. At least it's done now.

Seems like some errors in the instructions for the next few steps on this assembly, so going to surf some other builder sites to see what I can see.

Total Time: 1.2 hours

Feb 16 -- Left Elevator Stiffeners

2011-02-16T21:17:00.000-08:00

Continued work on these tonight. First I cut the majority of them down to the correct length for this elevator (they need to be shorter because the trim tab). As I cut each one to length I also tapered the rear edge of each stiffener to match the taper on the original (longer) ones. Doh! They don't need the taper! Gonna have to check in with Van's Aircraft to see if this is worth re-doing...

Also drilled the pilot holes in each stiffener out to #40. I didn't cleco things together first, because these CNC holes are so accurate that there's no point in aligning to match drill. Put another way, on the other elevator I did more damage via kinks in the skin when I tried to open it wide for all the stiffener work.

Next I scuffed the pieces with Scotchbrite pads (a lot easier than after dimpling), and finally it was time to dimple each stiffener.

Total Time: 1 hour

Feb 14 -- Left Elevator Stiffeners

2011-02-14T21:46:00.000-08:00

Celebrated Valentine's Day in the garage. (We never celebrate it...)

Tonight I spent 45 minutes making stiffeners, which meant pulling off the protective plastic, cutting them, and deburring the edges. This elevator requires that most of the stiffeners be cut to a shorter length, but that was out of scope for tonight.

Total Time: 0.75 hours

Feb 13 -- Left Elevator

2011-02-13T16:14:00.000-08:00

Match-drilled the spar, and ribs for the left elevator, then deburred, dimpled, countersunk, cleaned, dcuffed, and primed a number of parts. deburring is easy using the Scotchbrite wheel; albeit a bit tedious. (Dimpling is really tedious. And as you can see in the photo, lilac bushes are there primarily to hang parts from.

There is a doubler for a recessed area that holds the trim servo. I managed to make two oval holes while counter-sinking for nutplates, so a new part is on order from Vans.

Finally riveted together the counterbalance ribs. A bit ahead of myself there, because there is still a lot of work to do with stiffeners and the skin.

Total time: 7 hours

Feb 9 -- Start Left Elevator

2011-02-09T21:02:00.000-08:00

Fixed one last rivet on the trailing edge of the right elevator, then started the left one. Actually, I did just a bit of work on the spar the other day (deburred the edges).

Tonight I pulled the blue plastic off the inside of the skin, and then used a solder gun to met strips off the outside where rivet holes are. Next came deburring the edges of the skin (wicked sharp!). Finally started clecoing parts together.

Only 6 weeks until I pick up the wing kit -- gotta get my butt in gear!

Total Time: 1.75 Hours

Feb 6 -- Right Elevator Trailing Edge

2011-02-06T19:28:00.000-08:00

First things first. That epoxy on the trailing edge was an awful idea. What leaked out was hard to get rid of, it goobered up rivet holes, and didn't really adhere to the aluminum that well. OK, the adhesion issue was most likely my failure to remove primer from the subject surfaces...

Pounded in all the rivets, but frustrated and quit for the day. Will finish the rivets and making certain that it's straight with no epoxy in a fresh session. Suspect that 25% of the rivets need to be drilled out because the shop heads tipped over. :(

Did start on a bit of drilling and deburring for the other elevator while waiting for 24 hours on the epoxy...

Total time: 1.5 Hours

Feb 5 -- Finish Rudder, Work on Elevator

2011-02-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

The rudder had to sit for a week, in order for ProSeal to finish curing. That was OK, because it was a rough week at work, and there was no opportunity to work on the project anyways.

Today I pulled the rudder off the angle iron (straight as an arrow!) and installed the trailing-edge rivets. That angle iron made a really nice surface to rivet against. Also discovered that in one place where I needed to install an "oops" rivet (hole was enlarged for some reason) that the result was almost a perfect flush surface on the shop head side. Wonder if this is a best practice!

Next up was the elevator. After the first debacle with a screwed-up wedge, I made a jig for countersinking holes this time. See the photos below, but laid the bad wedge in the jig first and then inserted the new wedge. Result was that everything is level and stable for drilling.

Next came dimpling on both skins, using a vise-grip dimpler. Finally I used marine epoxy from Home Depot to glue the wedge between the skins, with everything clecoed down to an angle iron. Should be dry enough to rivet tomorrow night.

Total Time: 6 hours

Jan 30 -- Glue Rudder Trailing Edge

2011-01-30T13:38:00.000-08:00

Today was a short session on the plane per-se (the rest of the day included cleaning more junque out of the garage in preparation for the wings).

In a previous post I mentioned that fellow EAA chapter member Rob Kochman gave me a piece of angle iron from his RV-10 project. The angle iron was laid on top of the work table, over a piece of 3/4" plywood. The ply was about 4" wide x as long as the table, and served two purposes:

First, it raised the trailing edge of the rudder off the table a bit, because the rudder trailing edge holes are not perpendicular to whichever side happens to be laying against the table top.

Second, the ply is sacrificial wood when holes are drilled in the angle iron. All the pundits say that an advantage of the table top as spec'd in EAA Chapter 1000 drawings is that you can replace it when too many holes are drilled. But here we are not even half way thru the empennage and the table top already looks like some poor slob in New Jersey who owed the mob money.

Masking tape covered the angle iron, so that errant ProSeal wouldn't goober it up.

Next I drilled holed in the angle iron using every third hole in the rudder as a template. Was afraid that I'd mess up the other side of the rudder, which didn't turn out to be the case. Note to others: drill holes in every hole, and do it the first time that you drill the rudder rather than later, which avoids this concern.

Next I suited up an broke out Pro Seal to glue everything together. Used the smallest size that Van's sells, and still only used up 75% of the batch. You can see in the close-up photo below that a bit of ProSeal squeezed out. A couple of very small 3/4" blocks of wood inserted into the trailing edge kept it open to enable application of the ProSeal. Using a small mixing stick, I spread it between rivet holes -- which were bare aluminum. My theory is that primer will lift off the surface, making the entire exercise pointless. Will trim that once this stuff dries -- touching it only serves to spread goo on everything.

Once finished I had to drill mot of the holes that were skipped, in order to make everything cleco down perfectly flat. Used some decrepit clecos, because ProSeal might ruin them.

Everything needs to set up for a few days, so that's it for now on progress.

Total Time: 1.5 hours

Jan 24 -- Install Rib Counterweight

2011-01-24T21:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes things just work out. The replacement screws for the counterweight arrived, so I went to re-install the counterweight in the rudder tip. Realized that it was originally installed in the incorrect place, and I would have had to take the rudder apart to correct the issue. Whew!

So a hint to other builders: double-check the counterweight location against the plans one last time before you cover it up!

Also riveted most, but not all, of the tip rib on. That rib covers the counterweight, so this was a major catch. Still a few rivets to install, including the pain-in-the-ass ones near the trailing edge.

Total time tonight: 1.5 hours

Jan 22 - Finish Rudder Leading Edge

2011-01-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

This was a tough weekend to work on the plane, thanks to competing activities (Luscombe, work, and Karin's Prius' battery dying).

Main thing that I completed was the leading edge of the rudder, complete with pop rivets.

Started by rolling the edges some more around a 3/4" pipe. The online blogs seemed in agreement that each of the three separate sections needs to be rolled separately. Sure enough, went a lot better that way. In fact I was too aggressive in one place and had to back things off again.

Wavy edges are better, but not perfect. At least they won't be visible! Overall the rudder has more blemishes that I expected -- but it's still safe and very functional.

Still need to install the trailing edge and also the counterbalance weight and rib.

I also made a jig to drill the trailing edges of the elevators. Will save that write-up for later.

Total Time (not including making the jig): 1.5 Hours

Jan 20 -- Rudder Skin

2011-01-20T21:30:00.000-08:00

Today the replacement parts showed up for the elevator trailing edge, along with some ProSeal to glue the trailing edge of both the rudder and elevator. Put all that aside to continue working on the rudder skin.

First I noticed that the rivets I squeezed yesterday we about 0.001" too small on the shop head, so I re-squeezed them.

Next I squeezed a couple of rivets in the elevator horn that needed a different yoke on the pneumatic squeezer.

Finally, I used a pipe with Karin's assistance to roll the leading edge of the rudder. I am not happy with the result, so stopped to look at other builder websites and learn how they did this. Great info online -- sooooo much better than the last two planes I tried to build!

While I now have great ideas for tomorrow, I made the mistake of trying an edge-rolling tool on the leading edge. Going to need to unwind the mess I made -- however (fortunately) this edge will all be hidden once the plane is completed.

Still need to install the counterweight and counterweight rib. Expect the screws tomorrow.

Total Time: 1.5 Hours

Jan 19 -- Rivet Rudder Skin

2011-01-19T21:28:00.000-08:00

Riveted on both sides of the rudder skin, with the exception of counterbalance rib and one rivet on each side at the bottom. Need to wait for replacement screws to arrive before I reattach the counterbalance weight -- which has to happen before riveting one last rib on. No pics tonight: I think that you know what rivets look like...

Total Time: 1.75 Hours

Jan 18 -- Start Skinning Rudder

2011-01-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

Waiting on parts for the elevator, so I switched back to the rudder. Quite a while back I set the rudder aside because someone was promising an anti-tail-wag trim kit. That never materialized, so it was time...

Initial riveting was the area where the counterbalance rib and skin all meet. Note to others: the instructions call for the lead weight to be installed prior to this riveting. But the weight should go in after the first few rivets, because it interferes with bucking. Of course I bunged up a Phillips head screw getting the weight out, so now I need to order a couple of real odd-balls: AN509-10R16.

Dinking around with that weight and a couple of bad rivets ate an hour :(

Total Time: 1.5 hours

Jan 14-16 -- Right Elevator

2011-01-17T22:04:00.000-08:00

Started to button up this elevator. As you can see, some of the rivets are way up in there, and I was really worried about how to set the rivets. In fact I drilled for pop rivets in a few places that -- as it turned out -- were not required.

First order of business was to attach the counterweight rib to the spar, which was tougher than it should have been. In fact there are other ideas about the order of assembly -- see http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=9756 for one discussion. In one of the pics below you can see that I was able to squeeze a bucking bar into an open space. Then I realized that if I simply opened the top skin, it was easy to use a pneumatic squeezer and gun. Doh!

Did use chisels as bucking bars in a few corners, though.

Once that was completed, I used a combination of solid and pull rivets to attach the bottom skin. A friend gave me a hunk of angle iron to work on the trailing edge (need the angle iron as a jig). Had to order a new wedge for the trailing edge -- I REALLY screwed that puppy up.

And oh -- I'm in deep now! Just ordered the wings...

Total Time: 7 hours

Jan 13 -- Right Elevator Stiffeners

2011-01-13T21:01:00.000-08:00

Back-riveted the right elevator stiffeners to the bottom skin. That's the last of the stiffeners on the right-hand elevator.

Managed to pound one rivet without the backplate behind it, which resulted in a minor deformation of the skin. Will look at it this weekend and decide whether or not it needs repair. The deformation is barely visible in the close-up photo below.

Total time today: 1.25 hours

Jan 12 -- Right Elevator

2011-01-12T22:56:00.000-08:00

Spent an hour finishing up the riveting to attach the right elevator skin to the top of the elevator spar. No pics; however that section is done. One small rivet for Mike, one... oh, never mind.

Had to stop to take Anna to the airport. Off to the final semester of college. :)

Total time tonight: 1 hour

Jan 10-11 Rivet Spar to Top Skin

2011-01-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

Only a third done after 2 hours' work, but am slowly riveting the spar to the top skin. Might be more accurate to describe this a "riveting patiently", so that hopefully I don't bung up the skin with the rivet gun.

A good share of the time went into figuring how to clamp the skin open without putting another kink in it.

You can see in the photos below how I went about clamping things; and it's worth noting that even after all this I was operating the bucking bar by feel. Only one rivet drilled out so far on the spar, so crossing my fingers.

And finally there's the obligatory photo of an endless row of rivets. Remember that there is a second one of these coming up!

Total Time these 2 days: 2 hours.

Jan 9 -- Right Elevator

2011-01-09T20:48:00.000-08:00

Still working on this elevator. Main output today was that I back-riveted the stiffeners to the top skin.

If you are another builder, the way I held the skin open might be of more interest. There are all sorts of blogs that illustrate how to hold the skins open with duct tape. In my experience tape lifts rattle-can primer, so I used the ground wire out of a hunk of 14 gauge romex (14/2-G NM) and poked it thru a couple of 3/32" holes in the bottom skin. This had an unexpected benefit: the loop of wire slides easily up and down the vertical post clamped to the back side of the table. The result is much easier on the skins!

Note that for each stiffener I had to un-clamp the skin, in order to install a new row of rivets and also adjust the backplate position.

Total time today: 3 hours (Went flying too...)

Jan 8 -- Right Elevator

2011-01-08T22:44:00.000-08:00

What a great way to celebrate my birthday: I spent most of the day working on the project. A number of tasks were accomplished:

Enlarged selected holes in the skin and bottom spar to 1/8" (#30 drill bit). That's because a holes will require pop rivets in the bottom skin where I can't reach with the squeezer. After a considerable amount of research on other builder sites, I confirmed that there were a few additional rivets that need this treatment. Which is what I thought, but the instructions fail to mention. See the image below for details; the holes marked with the elipses and 1/8" are not practical to rivet with solid rivets because the counterbalance rib blocks access.
Used a spoon to smooth out a few kinks in the skin. This particular skin is a total pain in the ass to work with -- not looking forward to back-riveting the stiffeners.
Painted the inside of the skin.
Riveted the spar and horn together.

Total time today: 5 hours

Jan 2 -- Elevator Work

2011-01-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

Today was an exercise in deburring, dimpling, priming, and rivet squeezing. With an outdoor temp around 29-30 F, a lot of the painting took place inside -- although large surface areas were an outdoor activity.

Rivet squeezing was frustrating. The photos below show great results (those are not smilies on the rivet heads); however the squeezer tipped quite a few shop heads, so I spent at least 45 minutes drilling the bad ones out and re-squeezing with a stiffer yoke on the tool.

Progress is being made at a glacial pace.

Total time today: 3 hours

Dec 26 -- Work on Right Elevator

2010-12-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

The project just sat for a long time, thanks to work -- which included multiple trips, culminating in an around-the-world trip to Singapore and then India. Would have preferred to stay home and build the plane; however work is what it is...

No pics -- just worked on more internal parts and dimpling. Am not following the instructions closely, because they called for installation of the stiffeners before the parts I am currently working on. However that approach seems like it will simply get in the way of dimpling. (Others have blogged about similar deviations.)

Tomorrow it's off to Portland to check out a project that is much farther along -- and is for sale. Not convinced that I will purchase it, thus continued work on my empennage.

Work is going to get even crazier in the coming months. Not certain that I will even have time to go out to the garage to look at the project.

Total time today: 2.5 hours

Nov 7 -- Start Right Elevator

2010-11-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

RV-9s are noted for "tail wagging" in rough air, so someone is developing a solution in the form of a rudder trim tab and electronic controller. I heard about this within a day of starting to skin the rudder, and decided to set the rudder aside in order to wait and see what the options are. Products such as this take an order of magnitude longer to develop than predicted, so I may well finish the rudder without a trim tab. However it doesn't cost anything to wait a while...

Spent a good share of the day getting started on the right elevator. Cut stiffeners to length, then trimmed to shape, match drilled them, deburred both the stiffeners and elevator skin, removed plastic protective coating (stiffeners only), used Coleman fuel to remove plastic covering residue, and finally dimpled the stiffeners. I will need an end person to help with skin dimpling, so that waits for another day.

The photo sequence does a good job of showing how things progress from parts covered in blue plastic to (in this instance), parts such as stiffeners that are dimpled and almost ready for primer.

Of course I really should have been working on...work. I am such a slacker.

Time: 5.0 hours. (Yes, this took a whole lot longer than it appears.)

Oct 30 -- More Rudder Work

2010-10-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

Been over a month since this blog was updated: the result of being in Europe for several weeks, followed by catching up with life. I did actually work on the project last weekend too; however that work consisted of drilling out the rivets that attached the rudder horn. I'd missed a couple of bunged-up rivets.

The last several days consisted of reworking those parts, plus adding a counterweight to the rudder. Had to relieve the edges of the lead weight just a bit to make it slide into place. Note in the photos that I also primed the counterbalance. Not certain that lead and aluminum set up galvanic action; however not interested in finding out the answer...

Time: 3 hours

Sep 26 -- Rudder Horn

2010-09-26T20:08:00.000-07:00

Not much building at the moment, because the day job is all consuming. Did get the rudder horn attached after both priming and a final coat of paint.

I was able to set solid rivets by using the longeron yoke in the rivet squeezer. Probably could of turned the bottom rivets around so that the shop head was inside the rudder horn; however this direction made both control and inspection much easier.

Time: 0.5 Hrs

Sep 6 -- More Countersinking and Priming

2010-09-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot to report for Labor Day: primed parts, a tad of riveting (doublers) and finished countersinking the trailing edge insert. Mostly a weekend with Patrick, as he starts his visit from Africa.

Time: 2 Hours

Sep 5 -- Dimple, Prime, Countersink Rudder

2010-09-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days represented quite a bit of progress on the rudder, but without major visible results simply because this assembly involves so much effort. I dimpled everything that requires dimpling (hopefully), and then primed a few parts. Need to go back to NAPA for another can of primer, though -- and am also considering whether I should powder coat the rudder horn and rudder horn brace. (More correctly, whether I should farm them out to a shop -- Harbor Freight powdercoat sucks.)

Finally, I clamped a piece of wood to the bench and match drilled it with the trailing edge angle aluminum. Then I started countersinking 3/32" holes in it -- in anticipation of riveting the rudder's trailing edge. The Net is full of various opinions about this particular issue, and I see that others are particularly concerned with making certain that the edge is straight and true. You'll be reading more about this as I continue.

All of the workshop time today was without the neck brace. Karin says that I seem to be hunching forward though, so it's back on again as I post this entry.

Time: 5 hours

Sep 1 -- More Rudder Construction

2010-09-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

It's been three weeks since a blog post, with lots of non-building stuff in the middle (surgery, Patrick was ambushed in Namibia, Anna was not having the best of luck in Bolivia, I refinished the deck, etc...)

Nonetheless, I actually worked on the rudder! That includes the day I went in for surgery, the day after I came home, and a lot of other days. Think that the hours worked were much longer than stated below; however I lost track and never got around to blogging. Wearing a neck brace is a pain.

As usual, lots of plastic peeling involved...

I will let the photos speak for themselves. You can see where I had one issue with holes drilled too close to the edge of a trim strip. What you can't see is that I bought another part and promptly repeated the mistake.

Next up is deburring, dimpling, priming, and riveting the silly thing.

Time since last blog post: 8 hours

Aug 8 -- Install Stiffeners on Other Rudder

2010-08-08T20:17:00.000-07:00

Today's work on the plane was fairly limited. Used the rest of the Proseal and installed stiffeners on the other rudder skin.

Also squeezed in 0.4 hours in the Luscombe with a work mate (nasty weather precluded more), and a belated anniversary dinner with Karin. Last enjoyment of any of these three activities until I recover from surgery.

Time: 2 hours

Aug 1-7 -- Rudder Stiffeners

2010-08-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

Have been plugging away at this each evening this week. Well, not quite... The pain from the ruptured discs continues, and between medication, not feeling well, and lots of "real work", time spent on the RV was not a lot. And now I have to go in for back surgery on Wednesday, so there will be close to five weeks of no progress coming up.

You can see in the photos that I primed parts, dimpled everything related to the stiffening ribs, and even riveted them to one skin. The other skin is hopefully tomorrow's project.

There are many reports that cracks appear once the plane is in service. These cracks are always around the end of the stiffener closest to the trailing edge, and common wisdom is that ProSeal will help dampen vibration, and therefore reduce flexing that causes cracks. I almost traced the parts onto 0.020 aluminum, instead of using the standard 0.016 skins, because others have also reported that thicker metal solves the problem.

I decided on the ProSeal approach. Purchased an ounce from Van's and put it under each stiffener -- paying particular attention to the ends. For this part of the assembly I tried to be a neatnik, so I used masking tape to mask off areas where I don't want Proseal to find its way onto the skin. I mixed half the Proseal in the bottom of a yogurt cup, then worked as fast as possible in order that the Proseal would not set up before I finished.

As I assemble the skins to the trailing edge, I plan to add additional generous quantities to the skins in order to dampen vibrations. But for now it's only under the stiffeners.

This was the first run at back riveting, too. In one of the photos you can see the cool tape that holds lines of rivets in place. Sure beats picking off the remains of masking tape! I used a flat steel plate underneath the skin, but first I wrapped the edges in tape to prevent scratches. Still managed to rivet one spot with out the plate under it. Fortunately the damage was easy to repair.

I also continued priming everything with NAPA MS 7220 grey. Others pooh-pooh primer; however as the owner of a Luscombe that was built in 1947 without internal primer paint, I am convinced that (a) you need primer for a long-lasting plane, and (b) airplanes stay in service much longer than anyone expects. So I want mine preserved for the first Klingons that visit Earth.

Total time this week: 8 hours.

July 30-31 -- Started Rudder

2010-07-31T20:15:00.000-07:00

Fortunately the rudder work is do-able while on meds for what is now officially a ruptured disk in my upper back.

The plans are less than obvious, so some points here may help others. I made the stiffener ribs, which starts with cutting 8 pieces of pr-drilled angle in half, then putting a taper in each of the 16 angles that result. The plans are not intuitive...

Each piece has some small half holes that are markers for where to draw a straight line and then trim the angles down. This is not mentioned in the instructions. I trimmed all pieces like this, then cut them to length by matching them up with various locations on the rudder skins. Ignore references to "from the front" in the instructions. I still have absolutely no idea what that reference is to (front of what?).

Also not mentioned is that you don't need to worry about which way is "up" for the stiffeners. They will only fit one way.

Not mentioned is that you need to flute the stiffeners, in order that they will lay flat and not distort the rudder shape.

Others say to use ProSeal when attaching, in order to prevent cracking in the skin later. Guess that it's time to order some -- or maybe I'll just use some RTV, since I already have it.

Have seen all sorts of crazy ways to cut down the stiffeners; however I simply used a pair of straight tin ships -- the old kind, without serrated blades. Don't forget to cut the butt end of the stiffeners at an angle (not square), in order that they won't interfere with the rudder spar when assembled.

It is hard to believe, but what you see in the photos below represents over 4 hours of work. Lot of that is belt sander and debur work on the edges. I went backs over each piece to make certain that the taper has a clean and straight run.

Time: 4 hours

Jul 27 -- Just Like Kindergarten

2010-07-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

The rules are the same as kindergarten: when you're done, pick up after yourself. Those dudes that build a plane during their lunch hour in 10 weeks never seem to account for this time. I spent just over an hour hanging up the vertical stabilizer (had to move a ton of "stuff"), and cleaning off the work tables.

Carpeted tables are nice and scratch free -- until little bits of aluminum get embedded in the carpet. I tried using a vacuum from the shop; take my advice and steal the family upright when you are not being watched. It was actually meant to clean junk out of carpet.

Still in pain with this pinched nerve, so that's all for tonight.

Time: 1 hour

Jul 25 -- Finish Vertical Stabilzer

2010-07-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

At the urgent care clinic yesterday the nurse practitioner told me to be a vegetable. So I compromised by not taking the narcotic pain meds and only working on the RV for five hours.

Finished the stab today, but not before making the same mistake that I've heard about others making. Connected the rivet gun to the high-pressure hose, which bent and beat things up -- you can sort of see the damage in the close-up photo below.

Time: 5 Hours

Jul 24 -- Not Building Today

2010-07-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

Ouch! Pinched nerve for last 8 days. On Metaxalone plus hydrocodone and it still hurts like hell. Not going near power tools in this state.

Jul 23 -- Replace Rivets

2010-07-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

Have been away from the RV project, just as predicted, due to work.

Some of the rivets in the rear spar for the vertical stabilizer are "tipped", and the working theory is that 1/8" rivets are too much for a 4" yoke on the squeezer, so the yoke is flexing. So I installed a smaller yoke, drilled our about 15 rivets, and replaced them. Some of them twice. (That's the "you shouldn't do this on a Friday night" effect.)

The photo below shows one of these rivets. This particular one is waiting for my attention tomorrow. So not done -- more of this drill and replace coming up...

Time: 1 Hour

July 11 -- Rivet Vertical Stabilizer

2010-07-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

Spent just over 5 hours today riveting the skin to the stabilizer, and also riveting the rear vertical spar together. In terms of assembly, all that remains on the vertical stab is to rivet the rear spar into place, and to rivet two rivets at the top, in a very tight spot on the leading edge.

However I am not happy with some of the 1/8" rivets that the squeezer seems to have "tipped" a bit. So want to look at all of them carefully before closing the structure up. Going to be a busy 2-3 weeks at the office, so not certain when I will get back to the RV.

Time: 5 hours

Jul 5-10 -- Vertical Stabilizer

2010-07-11T09:19:00.000-07:00

Just because I haven't posted in a while doesn't mean that I have not been building. The vertical stabilizer goes together relatively quickly; and as a result progress has been visible and steady.

I did take time out though, for business travel and to go to the Arlington Fly-In to look at details on other RV-9s.

One step in construction involves drilling lightening holes in the doubler for the rear spar. The prints show the distance on-center between each hole; however that struck me as a way to introduce stacked errors. So for others who follow behind me, I made this chart that shows distances from a common point: the edge. (Click on the image for a much more usable version.) Much more accurate approach, in my opinion.

To call out a few other details:

In the photo that shows those lightening holes, you can also see where I added nutplates to a rib. Enlarged the skin dimple to correspond...
Once again I added a conduit to run the vertical length of the stabilizer. Have seen any number of components, from strobes to cameras, to antennas, installed up there.

Total time over these days: 6 hours

Jul 4 -- Vertical Stabilzer

2010-07-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

Rain on the Fourth of July provided an opportunity to make a lot more progress than what you see in this photo. Have the vertical stab, skin included, match drilled and deburred. Still need to dimple, countersink, install some more nutplates, another conduit, prime, and of course rivet the whole thing together. This assembly is sure a lot simpler than the horizontal stab, though!

Time: 4.5 hours

Jul 3 Horizontal Stabilizer Completed

2010-07-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

Have spent the last week piddling at this; however life prevented dedicated sessions. Today I finally squeezed the final rivet, then hung the assembly out of the way in the garage.

Am spending most of the holiday weekend on the wrong end of a big sanding machine, getting the deck ready to refinish. So not a lot of building will happen.

Time: 3 hours

Jun 29 -- More Nutplates

2010-06-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight I worked on the other side of the HS, incorporating lessons learned on the last rib, but having to work around the fact that the rib is already attached to the spar. Am ready to start attaching nutplates, with holes, dimpling, etc. all finished.

Well, except for one hole that looks too tight. Will re-evaluate that one tomorrow.

Time: 1 Hour

Jun 28 -- Nutplates in Ribs

2010-06-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

Had to take a hiatus: first for business travel, and then for more important things such as time with children.

Vans instructions note that you should leave out a few rivets in the HS inboard ribs, in order to install nutplates later to hold on a fiberglass fairing between the empennage and the fuselage. Wait a second... shouldn't these nutplates be installed now?

Sure enough, others have figured this out too -- not always prior to closing up the HS, unfortunately. Bought some nutplates on eBay, ordered rivets to hold them in, took a deep breath and drilled/dimpled/riveted/squeezed.

Of course one of the two parts involved was already installed, because I didn't come to this realization until well into things. However as of tonight the first rib is ready to install. Hopefully the other side will go OK, since one end is already riveted in place.

Time: 2 hours

Jun 19-20 Shop Work and Vertical Stabilizer

2010-06-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

Not a heck of lot of airplane work this weekend. Was the perfect weather to work inside on a plane (low 50s and rain); however had to put out a fire with the bumper sticker site related to address verification. Seems that the Web Service vendor is turning off the old version in 30 days, so I had to code up an update for the new version of the service. Most likely their initial warning about this change wound up in my junk mail filter. The hard part isn't rewriting this -- it's figuring out the code that someone else wrote the first time.

Saturday I spent mega $$ to purchase an industrial-grade air filter for the compressor, and to st up two lines: one for high-pressure air at 100 PSI that the rivet squeezer will use, and another set to 40 PSI or so for the rivet gun. With two lines there is no need to change pressure settings all the time.

Following the instructions provided with the unit, I located it 25 feet downstream from the compressor. Physically the filter and compressor are next to each other -- I simply used a 25 ft coil of hose, hung on the wall, to provide the distance. This is required to allow the air to cool enough that moisture condenses before reaching the filter.

Note the photo below. This was screwed to the wall, which I previously covered with 3/4" plywood as part of the garage remodel in prep for building the plane. You can also see that I marked out "don't drill here" zones to make this worry free. Hmmm, I should become a consultant and charge BP big bucks by selling them a map of the Gulf of Mexico -- all hatched out with a marker...

Which brings us to the galvanized pipe. That vertical run has a fitting at the top for the hose, with a quick-connect fitting. Then there is a 12 inch run with a ballcock at the bottom, intended to act as a drain to keep water out of the filter. There is also a drain on the bottom of the filter. However when it comes to painting I'll still need a desiccant cartridge in the hose ahead of the paint gun.

One final thought about this setup. Do your homework before hunting down the parts. Went to two different commercial shops (one being an auto paint supplier) and the help in each was absolutely worthless. They didn't even know what the filter did! I am done supporting local businesses -- they can't even claim value added in the form of knowledgeable help.

Very little actual aircraft construction: all I did was de-burr and flute the ribs for the vertical stabilizer. You can see the fluting pliers in the second photo. The idea is to correct bend induced in the ribs when the edges were turned up. Not going to re-tell the entire story about fluting here; however it's fun to watch the rib straighten back out and lose the bow that was there before this operation.

Total time: 5 hours, with 0.5 hours on the plane per-se.

Jun 15 -- Start Vertical Stabilzer

2010-06-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

Waiting on some nutplates for the horizontal stabilizer, so go started on this. Not a lot to show for 90 minutes, but that is mostly because it took 45 minutes to find the brackets that will hold on the rudder. Sheesh...

Just some clecoing and a tiny bit of match drilling.

Time: 1.5 hours

June 11 More Riveting

2010-06-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

Worked on the opposite side of what I was riveting last night. The ribs at both the outboard and inboard ends are not installed yet on this horizontal stabilizer. Want to install nutplates first. At the outboard end to hold plugs for the lightening holes, and on the inboard end to hold on the fairing between the HS and fuselage.

Time: 1.5 Hours

Jun 10 -- Riveting

2010-06-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

Not much to say tonight. Clecos disappeared, rivets appeared. Not enough of either...

And unfortunately the other side still looks like a porcupine.

Time: 1.5 Hours

Jun 9 Start Other Side of Horizontal Stabilizer

2010-06-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

It's rinse and repeat time. Tonight I set up to start the other half of the HS. Work consisted of setting up the other skin (nose ribs already installed), then using clecoes and finally the rivet squeezer where possible. No noisy riveting, because at the end of my work session it was already 9 PM.

Time: 1.25 Hours

Jun 8 More Riveting

2010-06-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

The goal this evening was to finish as much of the riveting as possible on this side of the HS. The inner rib is not ready to rivet, because I want to install nutplates first, in order to make it easy to install and remove the fairing between the HS and fuselage. Those parts are enroute from Aircraft Spruce.

Also have to repeat all of this on the other horizontal stabilizer before installing the rear spar.

Time: 1.75 Hours

Jun 7 Rivet HS Spar

2010-06-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

Not much to report tonight. Finished riveting the forward spar on the right-hand horizontal stabilizer. Had to drill out a few and re-do them along the way.

Time: 2 hours

Jun 6 Start HS Assembly

2010-06-06T21:46:00.001-07:00

Not a lot done this weekend, in large part due to supplies that failed to turn up in time. (OK, I ordered the wrong rivets in one case.)

First project was to use RTV to affix the plastic conduit in place. Went to NAPA to pick some up, because my Amazon Prime order was a no-show. Also picked up another can of primer while I was there -- sure hope it goes on sale again soon!

Original plan was to drill out some rivets on the spar that I wasn't wild about. I was able to get past that by deciding that ugly was OK :)

So I am starting to rivet the skin to the ribs, and the ribs to the spar. Lots of riveting to go, and am being careful to avoid smileys and to make certain that the rivets are properly formed. Maybe 20% complete on this side of the horizontal stab -- you can see a horizontal line of rivets if you look closely. But I doubt the neighbors appreciate riveting after 9 PM, so I called it quits...

Time: 3 hours

May 29-31 -- Memorial Day Weekend

2010-05-31T22:01:00.000-07:00

Three whole days off -- what an opportunity! Quite a bit of work, with results to show.

Day 1
Primed spars and miscellaneous parts, then started to cleco the results back together. The big news, though, is that I installed the first rivet! It also became the first rivet that I drilled back out, because the result sucked. In fact, there were quite a few rivets drilled out due to the fact that I was having problems handling the rivet squeezer. The trick to drilling them out is to drill into the head, then use an awl to twist the head off. A few times that didn't work; however a cold chisel definitely did once the head was weakened by a hole in it.

I finally mounted the squeezer in a vise, and things went much better after that. Can't believe how slick this squeezer is! Wish that I'd had one for my last airplane project.

Day 2
Primed horizontal stab inner skins, and continued to rived the spars. My nemesis, the HS-908 attachment brackets, continued to cause problems. The plan is to re-install all those rivets once I order more. It was a riveting technique issue...

Also picked up some new plastic pipe for conduit in the Home Depot Aviation Department. The final choice is overflow pipe for hot water heaters. Simply cut a metal fitting off one end. No idea right now what I'll install in the tips -- but am guessing that it will either be a camera or a ham radio antenna of some sort.

Day 3
Riveted brackets for elevators on to spars, then attached nose ribs to skins. The middle nose rib on each side is a two-person job, and I am indebted to Jim Piavis who came over to help out with this part of the project.

The plans are not very clear about how to attach fairings, and it's important to install nutplates now if they will be needed later. So email sent to Fairings Etc. for guidance.

Total time this weekend: About 14 hours.

May 25 -- Countersinking

2010-05-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Finally done with the annual Luscombe gathering. Only an hour tonight; however I was able to finish countersinking the horizontal stablizer. Think that the countersink bit is dull though, and will purchase a new one the next time that I order tools.

Now it's time to prime parts and try-fit the electrical conduit that I purchased.

Time: 1 hour

May 16 -- Prime Ribs

2010-05-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

Work on the plane is still sandwiched between "real work and getting ready for the Luscombe Gathering in Columbia, CA next weekend. Yesterday I spent the day at Paine Field (KPAE) flying kids on Young Eagles flights. Kids were awesome; however the BEST moment of the day was when the tower transmitted "Boeing 777; you're number 2 to land behind the Luscombe". Of course a few seconds later they changed their mind and told me to switch runways.

Oh yeah, about the RV project...

Today I went "off plans" for the first time. I plan to turn this plane into an electronics platform for things I haven't even thought about yet. Accordingly, I am running convoluted loom as wiring conduit to any location with a fiberglass fairing: in this instance the tips at the end of the horizontal stabilzer. You can see in the photos how I made a jig to hold the nose ribs for drilling. (The ribs were not really primed prior to drilling, but the camera was off with Karin when I made the holes.) Those pins are nails inserted from the back side of the wood after drilling holes. Then I cut them off with a band saw and cleaned up the nail with an abrasive wheel.

Still a few more holes that need countersinking; however I wanted to start priming parts on the weekend when ligth was good. Once again the photo is a reconstruction -- but you can see that I am hanging these parts from lilac bushes to paint them. (It was dark by the time the camera came home, so photo quality is not high.)

There is plenty of controversy and discussion about what primer to use, and how to prep the surface. I decided not to go the alodine route, despite having some of the old-school chemicals in the garage. Once a year or so NAPA sells self-etching primer for 50% off. So I cleaned out a NAPA store in anticipation of this moment. Not every franchise offers it at the sale price -- so I looked at www.napaonline.com to find a store that did. It's TEC 7220. And per the recommendation of others, I cleaned the parts up with Coleman fuel. Just happened to have a gallon in the garage, so the price was right, and it was a great opportunity to find a way to use up the fuel. Only issue seems to be that despite doing all of this outside, Karin is still complaining about an odor in the house.

All in all, a most excellent weekend. Flying, building, and sunshine.

Total time today on the project was 3 hours.

May 10 -- Finish Countersinking HS Spars

2010-05-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Was determined to finsh this step tonight, and it was a pain because I used a Milwaukee heavy (duty) drill, in order to keep bit speeds low. One of the initial issues that I ran into was a wandering bit on the air drill. The countersinking is not quite finished; however this was the majority of it in the horizontal stabs. The bit seems to be getting a bit dull, so it's time to order a replacement. (It served well, building another entire RV ahead of mine.)

Time: 1.5 hours

May 9 -- Countersink Horizontal Spars

2010-05-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

Been a few weeks since any activity on the project. Was getting ready to fly the Luscombe to Columbia, CA for our annual event, had to perform the annual on it, and spent a week in Vegas working (Vegas == YUK!).

Finally today I was able to finish match-drilling the new HS-908 bracket and also counter-sink the front spars. Still need to drill the rear ones, but also need to get some work work done this evening.

Been a not-so good weekend though. Saturday I took off in the Luscombe, and just after announcing my intentions and lifting off, I smelled burning electric smells. Radio is now dead, and it smells like the burning was inside of it. Off to the shop Monday AM.

Today was spectacular! Karin and I went hiking this afternoon, and I suffered a severe asthma attack, and was unable to reach the destination -- a mere 1-1/2 miles total each way. Last time I had one of these was in the eighties, so probably need to look into the correlation between asthma and even-numbered decades...

Total time today: 4 hours

Apr 29 -- Drill Spar and HS-908

2010-05-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

Despite the many posts about my attempts at manufacturing HS-908 brackets, they still were not right. Latest issue was that they were not quite aligned with each other.

So I manufactured yet one more, then drilled it by clamping it back-to-back with the one intended for the opposite side and match-drilling a hole in the new bracket.

Next, I clecoed the new bracket to the spar and clamped angle aluminum to both of them in order to make alignment perfect. Figured this part out with the help of Google. Wow, this airplane stuff is so much easier than back in the seventies when I last tried to build a plane.

Time: 1.5 hours

Apr 24-25 - More HS Work

2010-04-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

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.

March 28 -- Cleco Horizontal Stabilzer Together

2010-03-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

At long last I finally mounted the HS-908 brackets to the horizontal stabilizer spar. Then I assembled the ribs and spars into the skeleton of the tail assembly. Lots of drilling to enlarge holes, follwed by lots of vaccuuming to stay ahead of all the aluminum shavings.

Next step in the instructions: dissasemble all these parts. Going to be lots of this try fitting as I proceed.

Time: 4 hours

March 27 -- Drill Holes in HS-908

2010-03-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

I'm as sick of these parts as you are about reading them. However today I finished everything short of affixing them to the plane.

First order of business was to pick up a parallel set at Harbor Freight, in order to have a more accurate means of laying out the hole pattern. I searched EBay for these first, and while some more interesting ones came up (notably coated to prevent rust), in the end it was just simpler to pick them up locally.

Using a combination of the parallel pieces of steel, along with some right angles and an ultra-fine sharpie, I was able to lay out accurate lines to drill holes.

Below you can see the final result (there were two brackets in the end), as well as how I accomplished this.

Time: 1.5 hours (not counting the trip to Harbor Freight)