1098.1- Main Spar- p.13-3 step 8 & p.13-5 step 1

Section 13: Main Spar- 5 hrs 26 mins (Main Spar 30:17, Wings 34:30, Empennage 266:39, Total 321:07)

Rivet count: 20* (Total 5,767)

Lucky Chapter 13 is complete!! The numbers from my build log tracker tell me I worked 11 sessions averaging 2:45. Not too bad. It took about 7 weeks of actual building to do that. Now for the bad news. Unfortunately there was a two year break in the middle as discussed previously. So in reality, I averaged about 16 mins per week, or 2.5 minutes per calendar day. OK, now that I have entertained myself sufficiently...

The day started off well enough. I set up the spars for self-etching primer along the flanges (pic 1). I had been delaying that for a few days since it had been raining and humid, and I needed a well-ventilated garage. While I waited for the one side to dry before flipping over the other flange, I took care of some admin by annotating the parts I had "pulled" off of my inventory sheet. In the process of doing so, I realized I had not updated the empennage kit inventory the entire year I was in Mississippi. Good thing I had some time on my hands for that. After I flipped the spars and primed the other side and all the dings the main spar got in random spots, I started looking ahead to the next section for the wing ribs and I pulled those parts from inventory.

The primer will take 24 hours to fully set, but can be touched and handled after about 1 hour. All that remained was to rivet the AEX tie downs to the spars and prep the 823PP brackets and bolt them to the spars/AEX tie downs. I was on my last bolt for the night, and I have no clue what got into me, but I completely spaced on how tight I was turning the wrench and ended up collapsing one of the platenuts and shearing it (pic 3). Of course it happened on the last bolt!

So I removed the rest of the bolts, but the over-torqued one would not come out. After thirty minutes of trying everything I could think of, I busted out the #40 drill and went to work on the plate nut and the bolt together. I drilled through, rotated the bolt a 1/8 turn, and drilled again. I essentially cut the bolt in two with a drillbit. Not pretty by any means. Then I continued use of the drill by drilling out the ten rivets holding the AEX to the spar, so I could access the two rivets holding the now-split plate nut (pic 4). Then I re-riveted the plate nut to the AEX, and the AEX to the spar. So 32 rivets today, but only 20 of them count.

Mercifully, the second time around went better than the first, and after some bolt markings, chapter 13 is in the books (pic 2). I only have four days left of building before I have to take a two-month break for work, so I will work ahead with the ribs, and skip over anywhere that directs priming until January when I can order a fresh batch of AkZO. I don't expect to get very far this week, and I will likely spend most of my time fluting the ribs and deburring edges to be honest. So stay tuned for more updates! -M

 

1098- Main Spar- p.13-3 step 4-7 & 9

Section 13: Main Spar- 7 hrs 17 mins (Main Spar 27:21, Wings 30:21, Empennage 265:24, Total 315:41)

Rivet count: 312 (Total 5,747)

It's been two weeks since my last post. I've been getting plenty of work done though.

There's 3.5 hrs of work and 188 rivets not on the video from last week. It was a busy week with work, family visiting town, hosting 8 people in our house, and a long weekend full of fun activities and a baptism to top it off. I worked a few minutes here and there getting all the holes deburred and riveting the fuel tank attach nutplates to the flanges of the main spar.

The video picks up yesterday with countersinking the fuel attach screw holes for a #8 screw dimple from the fuel tank skin.I find it odd that there is an unfinished side to the countersink, but the plans call to do it this way so the nutplate itself can be used to guide the pilot of the countersink. Many would think this is just common sense. I find it pretty neat. I also find it interesting that due to the thickness of the flanges, the #8 screw nutplates are 1100 series (CSK finish), but the #6 screw nutplates are 1000 series (flush fit). Just the little things I notice along the way... But anyways, I digress...

After the first round of CSKs are done, then we attach the access plate nut plates, and CSK those for a #6 screw dimpled skin (or access plate?!). Easy work after completing the #8 screws previously. I think I would have liked to see the plans have you make the smaller #6 CSKs before the #8 ones, but I made sure to count and recount, and verify and reverify that I was drilling into the correct spot lest I avoid a error that would cost 4 figures to fix. I shudder at that thought and am grateful to have avoided such a mistake thus far.

I also attached a small snap bushing and got the tie downs ready for install tomorrow. I skipped over the spot priming so I could do that in a well ventilated garage tomorrow, and have a fresh mind for the bucking on the tie downs. I'd say less than 90 minutes left and we will be done with chapter 13! -MS

1097- Main Spar- p.13-3 step 3 & p.13-4 step 4-5

Section 13: Main Spar- 4 hrs 24 mins (Main Spar 20:04, Wings 23:04, Empennage 265:24, Total 308:24)

Rivet count: 26 (Total 5,435)

Lots of countersinking today...lots...but I'll take any progress after six days straight of work. I finished off the rivet holes on the flanges of the main spars. Just have the #6 and #8 screw holes left to go. Also did the CSKs, deburring, priming, and riveting of the web of the root section of the spars. (There's twenty minutes that didn't make it on the video) Speaking of, I was excited to be almost done with the flanges, and then remembered I still have hundreds of deburrs left to do next time. Argh. Though on a positive note, I only have a few sessions left of section 13, and the next one may be the start of the nutplate attaching step. -M

1096- Main Spar- p.13-3 step 2 & p.13-4 step 1-3

Section 13: Main Spar- 2 hrs 2 mins (Main Spar 15:40, Wings 18:40, Empennage 265:24, Total 304:00)

Rivet count: 0 (Total 5,409)

A nervous day as I began "carving" into the main spars. Such beautiful looking pieces, and now we get to countersink nearly every hole they have. I started with the -3 rivet head holes. My collar was still set to that depth which I discovered when I tried it on a scrap piece, so that part was nice.

Before adjusting the collar for a deeper sink (for the skin dimples), I looked ahead and notice the inboard areas of the spars also needed -3 rivet head sinking. Moved on to there. Two of them were not reachable with the collar, so I am appealing for help on the VAF forum to see what others did. 

Next we will continue with the countersinking for the skin dimples, and then for the -4 rivets and -6/-8 screw rivets. -M

1095- Main Spar- p.13-2 step 7-8 & p.13-3 step 1

Section 13: Main Spar- 4 hrs 31 mins (Main Spar 13:38, Wings 16:38, Empennage 265:24, Total 301:58)

Rivet count: 0 (Total 5,409)

Today was one of those days when you do SO much work and have little to nothing to show for it. The day consisted of taking the j-channel stiffeners from the last build session and using the cleco clamps to secure them 1/16" above the top edge of the main spar flanges. Then we match drilled the stiffeners to the hole spacing from the main spar. We remove the j-channels and set them aside for use in sections 16 and 20 a few months from now.

Since the spars are laying side-by-side, I was only able to work on the outside edges at first. It's not on the timelapse, but I swapped the spars with the help of L to work on sides 3 and 4. The last thing after removing the J-channels was to drill to size the rest of the holes on the main spar flanges with the #40 drill. This is in preparation for countersinking in order to accomodate 426-type rivets for nutplate attachment, as well as accomodating the dimpled skins to fit flush.

One interesting thing is that the plans do not call for deburring the main spar flanges. Part of me thinks that it is obvious to deburr and the plans shouldn't have to tell me to do so anymore, but part of me wonders if it is purposely omitted to not mess with the beautifully anodized surface of the spars. I will have to do more research.

Four and a half hours later, I have 8 sections of J-channel with a bunch of holes in them, and two main spars that pretty much look the same as when we started. Yep, it's one of those days... -M

1094- Main Spar- p.13-2 step 4-6

Section 13: Main Spar- 3 hrs 8 mins (Main Spar 9:07, Wings 12:07, Empennage 265:24, Total 297:27)

Rivet count: 72 (Total 5,409)

I was going to start work again yesterday, but just as I was getting ready to go out to the garage, the washing machine was making a horrible noise. Five hours later after troubleshooting everything and becoming familiar with how a washer is constructed from youtube videos, I diagnosed a $40 part. Sure beats a new washer.

So today I finally got to work on the plane again! (with a slight interruption to go fix the washer after the part arrived in the mail. Two years ago to the day was the last time I touched it. Go figure. Surprisingly, riveting was pretty comfortable. May have overdriven a few of them, but not grossly errant. 

We unpacked the main spars, and then riveted the main spar web extensions in place. Then we dug out the old J-stiffeners and fabricated eight pieces. Between measuring, cutting, and deburring all the edges, that took up all of my time. It's am uphill battle to familiarize myself with the shop layout and reacquire proficiency. I also ended up cutting about two feet off the end of the kit provided pieces to make the short lengths. My bandsaw only cuts about a foot at a time, so I ended up making two cuts. Hopefully I didn't need two foot sections of J-channel later! Otherwise, I'll be ordering fresh stock due to my error. At the end of the video, I'm propping up the main spars so the flanges are straight since the next step requires them to do so, and since I didn't want to leave the spars out there to get warped under their own weight. I doubt that would actually happen, but better safe than sorry. -M

1093- Main Spar- p.13-2 step 1-3 & p.13-4 step 6-11

Section 13: Main Spar- 5 hrs 59 mins (Main Spar 5:59, Wings 8:59, Empennage 265:24, Total 292:19)

Rivet count: 16 (Total 5,337)

This post covers three days of work between 4-6 September 2015 and two hours of priming not seen in the video. These were the last days in MS as was discussed in the last post. It marks the official start of work on the Wing Kit. I had shipped the Wing Kit to MS not knowing if there would be lots of free time to build or not. It turned out that I could have saved myself some trouble by not doing so, since it took a year to finish up the empennage and only 6 hours of work were done on the wings. However, I'm sure that this happened only because I had shipped the kit early. I'm sure if I hadn't, I would have had ample time and be wishing I HAD ordered it. Murphy's law!

We started by pulling the plastic off of lots of parts, labeling them, and deburring lots of edges. Then we got the main spar web extension in place to include match drilling and deburring the holes. The last bit consists of fabricating the wing tie downs (cutting and tapping threads), match drilling them to the main spar, and machine countersinking them to allow nutplate installation. This is one of those depressing moments where 4 hrs of work are spent to tidy up a lot of pieces and four pieces to the assembly. I get the impression that the wing kit will have plenty more of this in the coming months. Onwards we go!