1091- Tailcone- p.10-22 step 1-3 & p.10-23 step 1-2

Tailcone- 4 hrs 48 mins (Tailcone 87:33, Empennage 263:05, Total 284:01)

Rivet count: 230 (Total 5,321)

This post is actually three days worth of work done a few weeks ago. I'm finally complete with pilot training!!!!!! so I'm catching up on administrative things such as updating this blog!!

In total, the top skin was attached and riveted to the stiffeners, longerons, and frames/bulkheads. That really sums it up! Some of the hardware was attached where the plans called for it. I noticed that I forgot to prime two pieces a few weeks back, so I am going to work ahead to chapter 13 of the wing spars and prime the two pieces along with those from the next chapter before jumping back and finishing up the tailcone with about an hour more of work. -M

This image is here for a question asked on vansairforce.com. Please ignore.

1090- Tailcone- p.10-21 step 1-5

Tailcone- 3 hrs 56 mins (Tailcone 82:45, Empennage 258:17, Total 279:13)
Rivet count: 203 (Total 5,091)

Famous last words indeed! Barely did anything this weekend since we spent Saturday in Huntsville, AL checking out space vehicles and rockets! We've actually got 3 nights worth of work here (Fri-Sun-Mon), even though last night barely counted with less than 30 minutes of work. We continue with assembly by riveting the nutplates to the bellcrank rib angles and then the angles to the bellcrank ribs. Then the ribs get cleco'd and riveted to the bottom skin and 1007 frame. 
We continue by riveting part of the longerons to the aft part of the side skins where they don't match with a skin. The aft deck gets cleco'd to the longerons as well as to the bulkheads and bracket/spacers. All of this is of course much easier said than done, particularly when some of the rivets have to be drilled out and re-done. We finished by riveting the 1009 frame (small piece) to the aft deck. We managed to place our 5,000th rivet today!!!
We'll continue tomorrow with the doubler. Lots of different sized rivets which means lots of adjustments and time consumption. However, once that is complete, we attach the aft top skin in place and start to rivet that! Then just a few more pieces in the forward part of the tailcone, and the tailcone is complete. -M

1089- Tailcone- p.10-20 step 2-7

Tailcone- 4 hrs 11 mins (Tailcone 78:49, Empennage 254:21, Total 275:17)
Rivet count: 483 (Total 4,888)

Lots of riveting today. Having a relatively lax day at work allowed me to spend quite some time on the project. I riveted the rest of the stiffeners to the side skin, and then all the bulkheads and frames to the skins. Then I did the aft bottom skin and the two stiffeners in the very aft part of the tailcone. This evening, -G came back to help otu and we knocked out the remaining rivets between the bottom skin and the side skins and the hard to reach rivets between the skins and frames at the curved part of the cone. We didn't do any of the F-1006 rivets since that happens after the fuselage is made, and we also skipped the longeron rivets since that won't happen until we get all the aft parts assembled and after we add the top skin. Tomorrow I'll continue with the small pieces and I hope to be done with the tailcone by this weekend. Famous last words, right? -M

1088- Tailcone- p.10-20 step 2 (part 2)

Tailcone- 1 hr 38 mins (Tailcone 74:38, Empennage 250:10, Total 271:06)
Rivet count: 311 (Total 4,405)

The riveting continues! -G came by to help out with riveting the stiffeners to the bottom skin. What a difference having another person helping. I highly recommend it. We did 1.25 times as many rivets in less than half the time. Tonight, I also had a bit of good luck. We started to rivet the side stiffeners from the aft end and immediately noticed the holes weren't quite in line. Had we started from the front, we wouldn't have noticed until after riveting a lot rivets. Turns out I had installed the D an E stiffeners in a swapped configuration. So it took nearly 30 minutes to disassemble half the side skin to swap the stiffeners and cleco everything back up. Smooth sailing from there. I'll finish up the stiffener-to-skin rivets tomorrow before moving on to the frame/bulkhead-to-skin rivets. -M

1087- Tailcone- p.10-20 step 2 (part 1)

Tailcone- 2 hrs 20 mins (Tailcone 73:00, Empennage 248:32, Total 269:28)
Rivet count: 246 (Total 4,094)

A milestone day! At 73 hours and counting, I've now spent more than 3 days and counting working on the tailcone. This also surpassed the 71 hour mark set while working on the elevators. The real milestone was in setting my 4,000th rivet! At an estimated 14-16,000 rivets on the project, that puts me at 1/4 of the way with the structure. That's not including the endless hours that will be spent on things like electrical, engine, interior, fiberglass, etc. (All the things without rivets) At 248-270 hrs, I'm roughly about 10% complete with the project! This is both super exciting and depressing that it has taken me nearly two years to get to this point with all the delays and stoppages due to work. More on that tomorrow hopefully. I'm waiting to hear back from a job-related assignment.

The video will show me riveting the the three stiffeners to the right skin. There's still and equal number of rivets on the left skin, and even more for the bottom skin. I have reached a point where I will have to recruit outside help for bucking. In theory, I could back rivet the stiffeners to the bottom skin, but I would imagine Van would have determined the proper building method for a reason, so I'll stick with the bucking bar for now. This one step is on pace to take 7 hours to accomplish. Onwards and upwards! -M

1086- Tailcone- p.10-19 step 1-7 & p.10-20 step 1

Tailcone- 3 hrs 38 mins (Tailcone 70:40, Empennage 246:12, Total 267:08)
Rivet count: 73 (Total 3,848)

The first couple of hours we spent riveting together the remaining bulkheads and frames. Easy work, yet still time consuming. After that was done, I took a break for dinner, and was back at it. The back half of tonight's work was one step in the plans, but it consisted of assembling the tailcone back together. All I will say is that I'm happy that's done for the moment. Step two on page 20 begins the riveting of the skins. The rest of this page may take days if not weeks. -M

1085- Tailcone- p.10-17 step 5-6 & p.10-18 step 1-3

Tailcone- 2 hrs 19 mins (Tailcone 67:02, Empennage 242:34, Total 263:30)
Rivet count: 81 (Total 3,775)

The first 44 minutes of this entry is not in the video. I spent a little bit of time yesterday in the garage, but the heat was unbearable, so I stopped early. I assembled the battery case and all of its associated nutplates.
We begin riveting the tailcone itself by assembling the individual bulkheads. The 1012 and 1011 assemblies were done today. Pretty easy work, but very time consuming working with the small parts, and using the squeezer to get a nice looking product requires messing around with the settings in order to accomodate each different rivet type and size. We continue tomorrow with the 1010 bulkhead followed by the 1009, 1008, 1007, and 1006 frames. -M

1084.2- Tailcone- p.10-17 step 3 (part 3)

Tailcone- 2 hrs 20 mins (Tailcone 64:43, Empennage 240:15, Total 261:11)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,694)

The priming is complete. Started the day off with a trip to Harbor Freight. Surprise win as I walked in and saw they sold gauges on their own for compressors. Figured I'd take a six dollar gamble that it was compatible instead of buying a $150 compressor and it worked! so the old compressor is back in business... Also, yesterday I spent some time looking into possibly getting a new HVLP gun, and I came across a few videos on youtube with a different way of setting it up than I had. Basically, I'm now shooting less volume but as a result using a narrower stream. Works really well for small parts and flanges. Not so well for skins, but it's still manageable. I was able to give two coats to all the parts not primed and give a touchup coat to the parts already primed, and I used a batch and a half of primer. So previously, I was wasting ALOT of primer as extra mist into the air. The downside is that some of the pieces are a little thick on primer due to one previously applied coat that was a lot thicker, and a really thin touch up coat. Hopefully all the pieces still fit together well. I'll find out when I start riveting and there's no going back at this point. As seen below, the garage is a mess with parts everywhere drying out. On to assembly and riveting!! -M

1084.1- Tailcone- p.10-17 step 3 (part 2) and step 4

Tailcone- 1 hr 45 mins (Tailcone 62:23, Empennage 237:55, Total 258:51)
Rivet count: 8 (Total 3,694)

Step 4 actually took place a couple nights ago when my friend C.W. came over and I was showing him around the shop and how everything flows for the build. We assembled the bellcrank assembly and then I let him squeeze a few rivets in. Nothing major as far as progress, but figured I would document it for the build and to keep track of the 15 minutes or so that we spent.

Bellcrank Assembly

I got home from work today in a less than stellar mood. I was hoping a little progress would help, but I was sadly mistaken. I decided to try my theory of waiting for the sun to start to drop before painting. It worked perfectly for controlling heat, but I failed to consider the mosquito population that is out looking for a meal. I even was bit in the face, and let me tell you, it is a lot more painful than one would imagine. The other bit of bad news is that the outflow pressure gauge on my compressor broke. So I won't be able to tell how softly or how hard I'm driving the rivet gun. A weekend trip to Harbor Freight is in order.
I made a big batch of primer tonight, and was able to get all the stiffeners, longerons, the rest of the side skin and one of the top skins. I think I might be able to finish off the priming with just one more batch. I still have the frames/bulkheads, the other side skin, and the other top skin left to go. What I did notice after grabbing the parts when they dried is that some places I didn't get the primer as well as ideal. So I'll say two more small batches, and we are definitely in the clear. -M

1084- Tailcone- p.10-16 step 3-5

Tailcone- 2 hrs 14 mins (Tailcone 60:38, Empennage 236:10, Total 257:06)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

Dimpling is complete! The new dimple die arrived in the mail today. Since I also found out my checkride isn't tomorrow, that meant we had time to get some work in tonight... I started off with all the flanges of the bulkheads and frames, and then finished up the skins . After a dinner break, I was back at the stiffeners with some welcomed help from my wife. I had her hold the stiffeners and move them from the dimpled hole to the undimpled hole while I focused on the actual squeezing of the dimples. It at least felt like it moved along much faster, and a few new blisters might be testament to the fast pace. Needless to say, I thought I was looking at four more hours of dimpling, and it was done in just over two. Now it's just a matter of waiting for an overcast day to get the last of the cleaning and priming accomplished before we get in the full swing of riveting again. -M

1083.1- Tailcone- p.10-17 step 3 (part 1)

Tailcone- 3 hrs 0 mins (Tailcone 58:24, Empennage 233:56, Total 254:52)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

It wasn't as nice of a day as yesterday was. For priming that is. It was a gorgeous blue sky day, but that meant I had to prime parts in the shade under the tree. I will not be doing that again... there was too much dust and bugs to keep track of. From here on out, I'll be waiting until the ideal overcast weather, or I'll just wait until dusk when the sun isn't heating up the metal directly.

Spent about an hour or so cleaning the parts that were ready with acetone, then set up the compressor and parts in the yard. I ended up making two batches of primer to get all the smaller parts, bottom skin, and 75% of the left skin. I still need all the frames/bulkheads, all the stiffeners/longerons, and the two top skins and right skin. Of course this doesn't include the random touchups for paint that didnt apply thick enough on all the pieces. I'm thinking three more batches and we'll be set... Now we just have to wait for the mailman to bring some parts in.. -M

1083- Tailcone- p.10-16 step 2-3

Tailcone- 3 hrs 43 mins (Tailcone 55:24, Empennage 230:56, Total 251:52)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

It was a gorgeous day outside. I thought I'd be able to get all the pieces dimpled and start working on getting things primed up today, but two things happened. First, I severely underestimated how long it takes to dimple thousands of holes. It took nearly two hours just to get the side skins done. I was also able to get the bottom skin and start work on the first of the top skins. Second, my dimple die broke on me...

I tried to round off the sharp edge and see if I could still use it by being careful, but the first dimple I tried didn't come out great and I wasn't about to risk it with 60%+ of the dimples left to go. An internet shopping experience and $40 later, and I'll have a new dimple die in the mail in a few days. I spent the last half hour or so reviewing the plans and marking off the holes that won't get dimpled.

So, three hours of dimpling and I'm not even half way. For every hole on the skins, there will be a hole (or two) that needs dimpling on the substructure frames or stiffeners. So we still have about 4 hours of dimpling left once the new die arrives in the mail. As I marked off what needed dimpling still, I also separated the parts that were ready for priming. I know it will take me at least 4 batches of primer epoxy to get everything done, so it appears I'll at least be able to move forward with priming if the weather tomorrow is as good as it was today. Even so, since I started with the skins instead of the frames, once I do get things primed, I'll only be able to rivet some nutplates while I wait for the remaining parts to get dimpled and primed. Had I started with the frames and stiffeners, then I'd just have to wait to prime and attach the skins,

Also, if ever there was an ad for joining an EAA chapter, this scenario would be it. I knew I was only going to be in MS for a year, and a busy year at that, but I'm sure there's a fellow builder out there that would have gladly lent me a dimple die for a few days while the new one gets shipped. Then again, maybe it's a sign of divine intervention since I'm due for a checkride this week. A sign I should be focused on studies instead of on building... Well, $h!t happens. -M

1082- Tailcone- p.10-15 step 8 & p.10-16 step 1

Tailcone- 4 hrs 48 mins (Tailcone 51:41, Empennage 227:13, Total 248:09)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

Scuffing and Countersinking are complete! Three hours of scuffing was quite the test of patience and ensuring I did everything completely. The first hour was from a few nights ago, but I was too tired and didn't post the video. After the scuffing was all complete, we countersunk the AEX tie-down, a stop brace, and the two longerons. We taped off a few holes on the longerons to make sure they were left untouched. Easy work!

Tomorrow, we'll finish up with all the dimpling, and if the weather is good, we'll start cleaning parts in preparation for priming!!! -M

1081- Tailcone- p.10-16 step 6-8 & p.10-17 step 1-2

Tailcone- 1 hr 31 mins (Tailcone 46:53, Empennage 222:25, Total 243:21)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

As promised, we worked ahead to get the last few parts (bellcrank and battery brace) done. It was a short workday. Cut pieces, finished edges, deburred holes, and even some countersinking. In all of that, I forgot to scuff the parts, so tomorrow, I'll need to be careful around the countersunk holes. Tomorrow I will also be scuffing all of the remaining parts and pieces of the tailcone. Then, I'll go back and finish the countersinking step from last time. When all is done, steps 1-5 (countersinking the longerons and dimpling most of the parts) that I skipped today will finish up the assembly for the tailcone. Afterwards, it will be a matter of finding good weather in order to clean and prime all the parts before starting the riveting process. I feel like I'm moving along fairly quickly, but I know there will be endless hours of riveting those thousand rivets on the outer skins!!

1080- Tailcone- p.10-15 step 4-9

Tailcone- 3 hrs 12 mins (Tailcone 45:22, Empennage 220:54, Total 241:50)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686) 

After an hour and 40 minutes, we finally finished deburring after spending just under 7 hours over the past three days. Sort of. After all the major dimpling is done, there are still a few more parts that need to be cut, trim, edged, and deburred as well. The tailcone will require over 7 hours of deburring holes. Insane.

After that was done, we continued by scuffing some of the parts so they can be primed later on. We then dimpled those parts as the directions told us to. Also in there was a random step to enlarge a hole with a Unibit so we can attach the Tie-down eye bolt later on. 

Step 8 on this page directs us to countersink a part to accept dimples, but my countersink drill is already set for a #40 rivet. The next time I work on this, I will be going slightly out of order. I plan to go ahead and work on the next group of parts until they are done and ready for scuffing. That way, I can go ahead and scuff all the parts and get everything really dirty with all the dust that gets created. Then I'll countersink the longerons for #40 rivets since that is where I have the drill set to. After that is all done, I'll come back to step 8 and adjust the drill for this depth height. It's one of the few complaints I have about Van's. Some things seem out of order for no apparent reason. However, that's also the same thing that keep it interesting. There's the "blindly follow directions" aspect of building, and there's the "understand and comprehend" aspect of knowing exactly how each little drill, deburr, and clamping fits in to the bigger picture of getting the project done. End ramble. -M

1079- Tailcone- p.10-15 step 4 (part 2 of 3)

Tailcone- 4 hrs 27 mins (Tailcone 42:10, Empennage 217:42, Total 238:38)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

DEBURRING. DEBURRING. MORE DEBURRING...

All 4.5 hrs today were spent deburring. Sadly, we're not even done yet. We managed to get all the skins and odds/ends pieces done. We still have three more frames (1006, 1007, and 1008) and all the J-channel stiffeners (12 total). Otherwise, there's really not a lot to say about today. Just one of the necessary albeit unpleasant tasks that need to be done. I hear it gets worse once we start building the wings and there are many, many repetitive steps for all the structural pieces. At least we're 4.5 hrs closer!! Until tomorrow, when we continue to deburr and then move on to the start of dimpling. -M

1078- Tailcone- p.10-14 step 1-5 & p.10-15 step 1-4

Tailcone- 4 hrs 41 mins (Tailcone 37:43, Empennage 213:15, Total 234:11)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

We started off by removing the top skins that we had just attached and match-drilled yesterday. After, we installed two anchor brackets on the longerons with a #12 drill bit, and then we attached the cover plates at the very aft end of the tailcone. We also drilled the nutplate attach holes there.

I worked ever so slightly ahead of the plans by match drilling two of the pieces in the aft end of the tailcone. The plans call for priming and assembling, and then match drilling with #30 and final drilling with #12. I didn't see how it would be possible to get the drill in there once things are riveted, so I drilled them now while it was still possible to use clecos and move the assembly away from the tailcone. We'll see if that comes back to bite me.

We then continued to systematically disassemble the rest of the tailcone. It was crazy to see the workbench completely empty and what used to be the tailcone was now a pile of parts instead of an awesome 3-D creation. We marked off the right side skin prior to removing it and had to cut a piece off of it. Creativity won by clamping the piece down and moving the grinder along the edge that needed to be smoothed instead of moving a whole part. Probably not my smartest moment from a "this is a safe idea" standpoint, but it worked out.

It was then finally time to start deburring. Edges first. Thankfully most of the edges had already been done, so only about 5 or 7 parts needed. Unfortunately, three of those parts were the side skins and bottom skin. Lots of edging after all. The dremel was key for all the hard to reach areas and corners and by opening the garage (sorry for the flooding of light) I was able to have enough space to get the big parts done. 

We finished off by taking 40 minutes just to deburr all the holes on the left side skin. Tomorrow, we'll get the other side skin, the bottom skin, and the rest of the parts (maybe) before the dimpling process begins! -M

1077- Tailcone- p.10-12 step 8-9 & p.10-13 step 1-7

Tailcone- 4 hrs 21 mins (Tailcone 33:02, Empennage 208:34, Total 229:30)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

We started by finishing yesterday's work of match-drilling the stiffeners to the forward top skin. With a limited number of clecos, there was some creative reshuffling to have enough of them to properly match-drill. After, we match-drilled the remaining holes of both top skins to all the frames and longerons.

Next, we spent an hour and a half to fabricate two braces. No clue why it took so long, but they came out looking dang good...! The rest of the work today was spent match drilling the top deck into the longerons, and the remaining spacers, frames, and the two brackets that we just created.

This was the last of the major construction for the tailcone. The next step has us starting to take things apart... which means the arduous dimpling and deburring steps are just around the corner! -M

1076- Tailcone- p.10-12 step 1-7

Tailcone- 3 hrs 3 mins (Tailcone 28:41, Empennage 204:13, Total 225:09)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

We started today by deburring the edges on some skins. Then quickly attached the aft-most frame to the tailcone assembly. We placed the top stiffeners in their location, and then cleco'd the first of the skins on top. As expected, I ran out of the silver cleco's so I had to do some creative re-organizing of the existing ones. After match-drilling the skin to the underlying stiffeners, we attached the second skin. That's all the time I had today, but tomorrow will be a nice opportunity to get some work in since it is a holiday from work! -M

1075- Tailcone- p.10-11 step 3-5

Tailcone- 1 hr 21 mins (Tailcone 25:38, Empennage 201:10, Total 222:06)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

The name of the game today was to drill. Every future rivet location that is common between the outer skins and the frames or bulkheads was matched up today. The bottom skin too...
Pretty simple work today. However, I made three significant observations tonight:

1) For every hole that was match-drilled (a lot of them), there are at least 4 surfaces that will need to be deburred. So that's three hours of deburring that will take place in the future that I'm really not looking forward to.

2) Now that I'm done with the side skins, the next stage of building involves adding the top skins to the assembly!! This means more drilling and deburring, yes. However, the aesthetic feedback of seeing a project slowly coming together is what I'm really looking forward to. 

3) I'm low on 3/32" clecos. The tailcone looks like Pinhead, but I'm going to need more clecos for the top skins. This means I'll have to spend some time rearranging clecos to use less while maintaining structural strength. I'm at one cleco every third rivet, so looks I'll be going to 1 per 4. I don't mind, it's just an observation of wasted time.

-M

1074- Tailcone- p.10-10 step 1-6 & p. 10-11 step 1-2

Tailcone- 3 hrs 16 mins (Tailcone 24:17, Empennage 199:49, Total 220:45)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

Continued work today by attaching the stiffeners that were fabricated yesterday and match drilling them in place. Then manufactured a spacer out of stock aluminum and taped it in place. I didn't have carpet tape per the instructions, but a few well placed pieces of masking tape will get the job done just as easily. Two more pieces were deburred on the edges and added in place. This is where the horizontal stabilizer will eventually attach to the tailcone. 

Lastly, we added the two longerons that were made and bent months ago. I needed to use the Dremel to file away a bit of the frames that weren't quite big enough to accommodate the longeron edge. After, the majority of today's work took place. We clamped the longerons in place to the skins, and then drilled through them using a #40 drill. Lots of aluminum everywhere and two major structural pieces are now attached and part of the tailcone assembly! -M

1073- Tailcone- p.10-8 step 4-7 & p.10-9 step 1-5

Tailcone- 2 hrs 27 mins (Tailcone 21:01, Empennage 196:33, Total 217:29)
Rivet count: 0 (Total 3,686)

Yeah! Back to building!! It's been five months since I've touched anything in the garage. Pilot training has been consuming my life with 12 hour days and our firstborn made her way into this world six weeks ago. No complaints, though, everything that has happened in the last 5 months has been worth prioritizing over.

Today we started by cutting some pieces to make stiffeners and braces for the back end of the tailcone. Funny enough, I made two braces when I only needed one, so I'll be needing to order a 7 inch piece of angle iron (aluminum) from Van's to make whatever part that extra was going to be originally. At least I screwed up a $3.35 part instead of a $100 skin. I'll take it as beginner's bad luck for getting back in the swing of things.

After, we cleco'd the last frame to the front of the tailcone, and then attached a few supporting parts. Lastly we made more stiffeners for the front of tailcone that will eventually support the plane's battery. After countersinking, and match drilling the platenut holes, it was time to call it a day. G has some beers and working while drinking is never a good idea. I'll continue tomorrow. -M

1072- Elevators- p.9-18 step 3-8 & p.9-19 step 1-2

Elevators- 2 hrs 12 mins (Elevators 71:07, Empennage 194:06, Total 215:02)
Rivet count: 58 (Total 3,686)

The Elevators are finally finished!!! I started them 11 months ago.... Talk about a long time for progress. 

Today's work was the exact thing I did last week, but mirror imaged for the right elevator. Not much to report here other than it's finally done! 

We'll find a place in the house to store these parts, and then continue work on the tailkit that was started months ago. -M

1071- Elevators- p.9-18 step 1-8 & p.9-19 step 1-2

Elevators- 2 hrs 28 mins (Elevators 68:55, Empennage 191:54, Total 212:50)
Rivet count: 58 (Total 3,628)

Wow, I really can't believe it's been nearly two months since I've done work on this. School has been kicking my butt. Christmas was fun, but I spent most of it traveling to see family. I was hoping to get the elevators done before the new year. Now, the past two weeks have just been brutal, and the cold weather makes it even harder to go out and work on things. Enough excuses. I finally got my safety wire and pliers ordered and was ready to finish the elevators. The first part of this video was from 8 days ago on the 11th. I forgot to upload it and the timelapse merged both days into one video.

I've been following the last two pages of the elevator manual. Cut the piano hinge to size and then drilled each half to the elevator and trim tab. The bending of the piano hinge was surprisingly easy, but still took quite some time. Finally, a little bit of safety wire to secure the bent hinge in place and the left elevator is complete. About two more hours and the right elevator will be done too! -M