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
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
Elevators- 2 hrs 15 mins (Elevators 66:27, Empennage 189:26, Total 210:22) Rivet count: 66 (Total 3,570) Well, these elevators are just dragging on for an eternity. Not only did I not get to finish them over the holiday weekend, but I'll be pushing 70 hours of labor by the time I'm done. Quickly, we finished up the blind riveting from yesterday. Then my pregnant wife helped with cutting the lead weights. She's wearing a respirator just in case, and the garage smelled of acetone, so double whammy. It turns out that cutting the lead indoors was a bad idea. Little pieces went flying everywhere! After two pieces, I noticed and we stopped. Here, the tape breaks off for a half hour while I took the bandsaw outdoors and finished the pieces there. The removal of the backstrip from two of the weights was a royal pain in the rump. Why doesn't Van just send us the pieces already cast to size? The bandsaw heats up the lead pieces significantly. The best method for me was to trim off the strip a sliver at a time. When the weight became too hot to handle, I soaked it in a jar of water and worked the second weight. I swapped back and forth and got everything accomplished. The driveway was a mess after. I tried to vacuum as best I could, but Mother Nature is taking the hit on this one for lead poisoning. I want to keep my wife and dog as far away from the lead dust as possible. A chisel worked great for "deburring" the edges of the weight as we come back to video.
Next, we wrapped the weights with electrical tape. I've seen others do this, and Im not really sure the reasoning. The weights do look much better, and I would assume they are now better protected from bending, chipping, and contaminating other places. With the weights wrapped, it was time to break out the torque wrench and bolt the weights on. Amazingly, it took about 10 minutes per elevator to do so. 25 inch pounds seems like a really low torque setting for these bolts, but that's what the literature calls for. To finish the night, we screwed the cover plates to the bottom skins. These will eventually come off again for further assembly of trim cables, etc. But they are secure in place now. The elevators just need the piano hinge to attach the trim tabs and we are complete! -M postscript- Ironically, a year ago on Thanksgiving weekend, I was bending the leading edge of the rudder and working with the lead counterweights. I found that interesting... We'll have to see what next Thanksgiving weekend has in store for us....
Elevators- 2 hrs 32 mins (Elevators 64:12, Empennage 187:11, Total 208:07) Rivet count: 66 (Total 3,570) This is actually multiple days worth of work, but due to the Thanksgiving weekend, I wasn't able to get a solid chunk of time to work on the elevators. I started out by bending the edge of the top skin so that it will sit flush after riveting the two skins together. Then we used the duct tape and PVC pipe method to roll the leading edges of the elevator and cleco'd them together. After clecoing, there were still a few places where the edge wasn't flush. This simply required undoing the clecos and bending the edge more evenly. It's not perfect, but I'm not too concerned. It will eventually get filled in and smoothed prior to painting in the future. Thankfully, that's all riveted together and complete. My hands are torn up from bending cold metal. Then we blind riveted the cover plate pieces together. Last, I marked off the lead counterweights for the trimming that will take place tomorrow. The video cuts out before I finished riveting the second elevator. I actually left a few rivets for tomorrow as well. -M
Elevators- 2 hrs 10 mins (Elevators 61:40, Empennage 184:39, Total 205:35) Rivet count: 78 (Total 3,504) Today was a short day of work. We removed the cleco's after giving the sealant more than enough time to cure. We also cleaned out the rivet holes of extra sealant. Then we riveted the ends together. I'm not sure if the method that I used for the elevators was different than for the rudder, or if it is that my riveting finesse has increased, but it was alot easier to accomplish this part than what I remember from almost a year ago. It even looks nicer when finished. After, we finished riveting the skins to the end ribs. My squeezer is too big, so I ended up having to use an MK-319 rivet on the last hole of the bottom elevator skin (it matches the two other MK rivets on that skin that are called for in the plans. Finally, we blind riveted the close out tabs to finish the aft ends of the elevator. Next we will finish up with the leading edge, then the counterbalance weights, and finally the trim tabs. I'll be done with the elevators before December! -M
Elevators- 3 hrs 50 mins (Elevators 59:30, Empennage 182:29, Total 203:25) Rivet count: 78 (Total 3,426) Tank sealant still stinks. Literally. It's also a pain to work with. Today we managed to rivet the trim tab pieces together. After, we applied the foam tabs to the trim tabs and cleco'd everything together to let the sealant cure. Then, we got to work on the elevators themselves. We applied sealant to the foam tabs in between the elevator skins. Then, we applied sealant to the trailing edge wedge. We cleco'd everything together and applied weights to let everything sit and cure for the next few days. I can't tell if it's a 45 hr cure or a 112 hr cure time. So I guess I'll be taking the conservative route and wait until Friday. Luckily, in the meantime, I can still work on other random parts such as the counterweights. -M
Elevators- 4 hrs 56 mins (Elevators 55:40, Empennage 178:39, Total 199:35) Rivet count: 400 (Total 3,348) The first hour of this was actually a few days ago, but I forgot to upload it then. Today's work was centered around attaching the front spars and rudder horns to the assembly. The flanges were all riveted except for the part that will have the hinge for the trim tab, and the remainder of the skin was also riveted on. Then the counterbalance assemblies were attached and riveted as well. The pieces finally look like something recognizable. Tomorrow I get to work on the trailing edges and use epoxy sealer as well. The pieces will have to sit for a few days to cure, so it will be at least until next weekend before I finish the elevators. I'm still sitting at that 75-80% of expected work hours [I had forecast 80 hrs for the elevators] to get the project done. Being on schedule (despite the six month layover) is always a nice thing. -M
