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
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
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
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!!
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
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
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
