Engine mount completed! Finished welding all clusters and reinforcing straps!
Jan 2
.6hrs
Cut square end-caps for landing gear mounting pad.
1.6hrs
Welded caps onto ends of landing gear mounting pad tube.
Jan 3
.6hrs
Filed one side of mounting pad tube.
1.2hrs
Weld on mounting pad tube.
Jan 5
1.5hrs
Flipped fuselage. Not happy with mounting pad look (angled?). Cut long reinforcing straps for new mounting pad tube. Attached, firewall template to re-size holes on existing firewall to match new engine mounting brackets.
Jan 7
1.1hrs
Ground off pad tube.
Jan 8
1.1hrs
Cut caps for new pad tube. File tack welds off of fuselage.
Jan 9
1.5hrs
Flipped fuselage. Took off engine mount. Attached firewall template and adjusted holes for new mounting brackets.
1.9hrs
Adjusted openings in firewall. Rough cut to size. Test fit on firewall... great fit!
Jan10
1.4hrs
Started fitting up skin patterns so that I can start on the cowling.
Jan 11
1.6hrs
More fitting up of the skin, and I see where the top former in front of the passenger's cockpit isn't high enough.
Jan 13
1.3hrs
Cut off former and started grinding down excess weld slag.
Jan 14
1.7hrs
More grinding off and filing of excess weld slag.
Jan 15
3.9hrs
Aligning existing upper former (what a pain in the ass it was this time). Tacking into place with extrat tubing. Cut the lengths of both lengths tubes that will hold the former and fitted them into place.
Jan 16
1hr
Confirmed measurement, height and distance from station zero, for front belly former. Tacked into place.
Jan 17
1.7hrs
Welded on belly support tubes. Cut landing gear pad tube and welded on end caps.
Jan 18
1.5hrs
Aligned and welded on sides of landing gear pad tube (sides running the length of it to attach to bungee truss tube).
Jan 19
1hr
Welded on landing gear pad tube. Looks GREAT!
Jan 21
.9hrs
Sanded slag off of engine mount tube bushings. Reweld one of the pesudo bushings (ground weld off by mistake while fitting them in again).
Jan 22
1.8hrs
Reamed engine mount bushing holes. Ground down 3/8inch bolts to make bolt guides to make it easier to align holes when connecting the engine mount. Started attaching the engine mount (it's TIGHT). Got three of the four bolt guides in.
Jan 23
1.5hrs
Created pattern to now make all of the new openings in the firewall the same. Traced onto firewall and began cutting off the excess stainless steel.
Jan 24
1.3hrs
Finished cutting holes in firewall. Cleaned them up. Banged them flat (from where I was using the snips to cut them). Looks GREAT!
Jan 25
.4hrs
Drew up reinforcing bracket for the firewall outer frame. It needs to be reinforced where the aluminum angle meets at dead-top.
Jan 26
.6hrs
Test fitting and making adjustments to yesterday's braket pattern.
Jan 27
1.6hrs
More adjustments to firewall bracket, then cut it out.
Jan 29
1.3hrs
Go on reinforcing plate to firewall. Drill/cut jig for drilling rivet holes in reinforcing plate.
Jan 30
1.4hrs
Drill holes for rivets in reinforcing plate. Counter sink holes.
1.5hrs
Drill more holes. Counter sink the holes. Shave rivets to 15/64th.
Jan 31
1.2hrs
Rivet on reinforcing plate. Grind slag off of holes (1/4inch holes) in firewall.
Feb 1
.9hrs
Trial fit of firewall again. Holes need to be opened up. A 1/4inch hole for a 1/4inch bolts is TOO tight.
Feb 2
1.9hrs
Firewall off on and off. Trial fit of firewall with adjustments.
Feb 3
1.6hrs
Attach firewall. Attach engine mount. Started reattaching pattern sheet metal skin to fuselage.
Feb 5
1.5hrs
Needed to make a bushing to put on the end of the #40 rivet locator in order to make it a bolt hole locator. The tab holes a 3/8" and the little probe on the end of the hole locator fits a #40 rivet hole... needed to make a bushing to fit over this probe to fit nicely into a 3/8inch hole. Made it. Drilled one hole.
Feb 6
1.8hrs
Drilled holes on back-edge of first upper sheet metal skin. Then marked and did free-hand another row of holes. Marking these free-hand is a lot more accurate it seems. My tool's bushing isn't attached and it allow the aluminum skin to slide underneath the bushing, thus not making it accurate.
Feb 8
1.2hrs
Marking and drilling more holes. Fitting of upper skin.
Feb 9
1.1hrs
Continued drilling holes and fitting upper skin.
Feb 10
1.1hrs
Fitting up of side skins; enlarging holes, etc.
Feb 12
1.3hrs
Looking over fuselage. Checking fit and lines of sheet metal skin. Sat in cockpit to check level and line of upper sheet metal when connected to formers. Making decisions on a few things... and a punch list of some things still to do.
Feb 13
2.2hrs
Raised fuselage, attached port gear. Made rough pattern for side skin gear cutouts.
Feb 16
1.3hrs
Fitted port side skin in place. Fits great... will need some tweaking.
Feb 17
1.8hrs
Port gear off. Scooched over fuselage so that I could put the starboard side gear on. Test fitted pattern from port side.
Feb 19
2.3hrs
Fitting up of the starboard side landing gear (it will need some slight adjusting for some reason). Adjust pattern from port side to fit a bit closer on the starboad side. Marked skin panel
1..5hrs
Confirming cut out marks made on sheet metal skin. Made the cutout. Re-attached skin. Perfecto!
Feb 20
1.3hrs
Started back up on the Upper Wing Center Section. Wrapping my head around what I need to do.
Feb 22
1hr
Work on UWCS. Squaring up the spars, etc.
Feb 23
1.2hrs
Rading up on the UWCS. Looking through posts on the biplane forum, etc.
Feb 24
1.2hrs
Confirming measurements on the UWCS.
Feb 25
.8hrs
More of the same... confirming measurements before locking this together with glue.
Feb 26
2.6hrs
Glued up the box ribs into the UWCS structure. Actually did it twice. The first time I didn't have enough clamps to keep the ribs from sliding from side to side (actually turned out to be a good thing). Almost threw in the towel today because of it. Then... went and found a a lot more clamps and made a second go of it and glued them in place.
Feb 27
2hr
Sanding and feathering box ribs to upper wing center section spars.
Feb 28
1.1hrs
Confirm outer ribs on upper wing center section. Marked for "L" outer rib attach brackets.
Mar 1
1.3hrs
Match-drilled spars to "L" brackets for ribs.
Mar 3
1hr
Looking over plans. Figuring out why ribs are different sizes. Outer rib is larger than box ribs. Asked the guys on the biplane forum.
Mar 4
1.6hrs
Got the answer. Reason for difference in rib sizes: To allow grouting in Pettis bedding on the top-side of the box rib. I would just then lay plywood on top of that area and screw on... not to be glued. After asking about and finding what it was (it's to keep water out), I decided to sand down the outer ribs on the top-side and just glue everything shut for a stronger structure, just like all the other biplanes out there.
Mar 5
1.1hrs
Leveling out ribs on the bottom so that I can match drill "L" brackets. Not happy with the amount of space between the top hole in the "L" bracket that holds it to the spar (I drilled this). Instead of making sure that the bracket was centered over the holes in the spar I alligned it to what I thought was correct. This didn't leave enough meat on the top of the bracket for me to drill... and be happy with it. So... re-make of those "L" brackets.
1.4hrs
Cut new "L" brackets (the longer ones) and started match-drilling these to the spars. (happy face)
Mar 6
1hr
Finished match-drilling spars to brackets. Getting UWCS ready for sanding.
Mar 7
1.1hrs
Leveled UWCS so that bottom of spars would be flush with each other. Drilled holes in four "L" brackets so that I can match-drill to outer spars.
Mar 8
1.2hrs
Match-drill outer spars to brackets. Started sanding top outer spars to be even with box inner spars.
March 9
1.5hrs
Continued sanding outer ribs to be flush with inner box ribs.
Mar 10
1.4hrs
Finished sanding outer ribs. Review of CAD to understand the plywood for the UWCS.
Mar 11
1.3hrs
Began making patterns for lower skins bracket cut-outs.
March 12
2hrs
More pattern work.
Mar 13
2.2hrs
Figured out the gluing of the trailing edge spars. Glued two of the four.
Mar 14
.5hrs
Leveled and glued up the remaining two trailing edge spars on the UWCS.
Mar 15
1.2hrs
Drilled holes in rear "L" brackets for connecting trailing ribs.
Mar 16
1.6hrs
Made adjustment for one rear bracket and re-made. MATCO Wheels and Brakes came. WOOT! WOOT!
Mar 17
1.2hrs
Match-drilled re-made B3 "L" bracket to spar. Started figuring out the bow attachment to the trailing edge ribs... making sure that all ribs were inline with each other.
Mar 18
1.3hrs
Made sure the ribs were square on UWCS and that they were inline level with each other then match-drilled "L" brackets to trailing edge ribs.
Mar 19
1.2hrs
Figuring out how to bevel trailing edge. Tried several profiles of router bits... none really work to make the shape I want. Made small curved pattern out of wood and attached sandpaper and that didn't work either.
Mar 20
2.5hrs
Shaped the bow for the upper wing center section. Marked for addtional feathering. Cut to length.
Mar 21
1.1hrs
Started sanding down trailing edge of ribs to fit the bow.
Mar 22
1.4hrs
Tweaked fit of bows to trailing edge of ribs.
Mar 23
.6hrs
Inspection of MATCO Wheels. BEAUTIES! Reviewed install instructions.
Mar 24
1.9hrs
Cutting triangle blocks; gussets for bow and trailing edge ribs.
Mar 25
1.1hrs
Not happy with gussets. Glued up a thicker piece of wood to make new gussets. Fine-tuned triangle blocks for ribs to spars (angled them).
Mar 26
3hrs
Cut and fitted new gusset bloks for the ribs to bow (looking nice now). Glued bow to trailing edge of ribs. Marked tri-blocks for nails (so I won't split the wood). These will hold the blocks in place and add pressure for the glueing process.
Mar 27
1.3hrs
New corner blocks for outer ribs to bow. Glued in! Drilled holes in corner blocks then tapped nails into blocks.
Mar 28
1.4hrs
Feathered corner blocks attaching bow to outer ribs. Glued and tacked on corner blocks to spars and ribs.
Mar 29
1.2hrs
Repositioning fuselage (1 man in a tiny space)
Mar 31
1.3hrs
More repositioning of the fuselage. Then... putting everything back from where I moved it. I think I have just enough room to put the wheels and brakes on the fuselage in the new location in the garage.
Apr 1
.8hrs
Sanding upper wing center section spar brackets.
Apr 2
.8hrs
More sanding
Apr 3
1.2hrs
Made alignment bushing for 7/16inch front gear attachment... ended up not needing. Took off firewall and engine mount so that I had access to 7/16inch bolt on front geart attach bracet.
1.6hrs
Repositioned fuselage in garage workshop. Reattached gear. Easy-peasy.
Apr 4
1.1hrs
Moved fuslage to allow room for attaching wheels. The move on Sunday wasn't enough.
Apr 5
1.3hrs
Filed slag off of station zero's upper tube. Took tires off of Cleveland wheels. Re-read MATCO manual to figure out how to attach those puppies.
Apr 6
1.1hrs
Inventoried brake attach hardware. Research on attaching wheels and brakes.
Apr 7
1.4hrs
Prepped tires and tubes (aka cleaned the old ones up). Still figuring out how to install. Took one of the wheels apart and started fitting up to the starboard side axle.
Apr 8
1.9hrs
Re-attached firewall and lower side panel skins (ready to make that cowling). Made pattern to re-shape the back of the cockpit coaming (to flare up a bit at the back for attaching).
Apr 10
1.4hrs
Figuring out cowling. The upper wing height above fuselage?
Apr 11
1.1hrs
Adjusting the side panels. Made two tabs to attach upper part of side formers further out than the other tabs allowed.
Apr 12
1.8hrs
Aligned/positioned new tabs (one on either side of fuselage) and tacked into position. Started attaching brakes to onto landing gear.
Apr 13
1.1hrs
Welded on tabs. Filed left over welds from takes off of a few areas of fuselage (keeping busy).
Apr 14
1hr
Cleaned up previous two welds of tabs. Screwed back on side panels. Fits nicely!
Apr 15
1.3hrs
Decided to use the actua rubber shock mounts for hanging engine. Found 5/8inch stock and started to ream it out.
1.6hrs
Just about impossible to ream the amount of material in the 5/8inch tube. Located a thinner wall 5/8 that allow me to insert a 1/2inch into it. Will work great for initial hanging of the engine. Will replace with a single piece bushing when I place my next order with Aircraft Spruce (not spending $20.00 to ship one piece of tubing). Started cutting down stock on lathe.
Apr 16
3hrs
Cut the additional double-bushings on the lathe. Ready for the engine mount.