Tack/weld on second side-rail. Trim fit third side-rail.
Sept 18
1.3hrs
Continued trimming fitting third side-rail on starboard side.
Sept 19
1.1hrs
Finish fit and tack and weld on of third starboard side-rail.
Sept 20
1.7hrs
Cut welds off second side rail (because of bowing again). Clamped on straight tube then tacked and re-weld to longeron. Initial fitting up of first side-rail on port side.
Sept 22
1.5hrs
Fitting up the new pseudo longeron.
Sept 26
1.5hrs
Cut and file two new stand-offs for the pseudo longeron.
Sept 29
1.3hrs
Aligned and tacked/weld stand-offs for pseudo longeron.
Sept 30
2.1hrs
Mark, measure, cut, file, sand first port side-rail. Fitted up to fuselage.
Oct 3
1.5hrs;
Tacked and welded on first new port side-rail.
Oct 4
1.1hrs
Aligned, fit and trimmed second, second port side-rail.
Oct 6
1.6hrs
Aligned and tacked second port side-rail in place (with bow). DAMN !
Oct 8
3hrs
Un-tacked, aligned, un-tacked, aligned, finish weld second side-rail. Aligned and fitted second, third side-rail. Needs to be trimmed down.
Oct 9
3.4hrs
Final welds on side-rails. Started fitting up sheet metal skins.
Oct 12
1.1hrs
Cutting of some of the sheet metal skins.
Oct 13
1.2hrs
More measuring and cutting of sheet metal skins.
Oct 14
3.6hrs
More cutting and fitting of sheet metal skins. Started fitting and designing of back windshield.
Oct 16
1hr
Continued work on poster board shape of back windshield
Oct 18
.7hrs
Revised initial shape of windshield.
Oct 19
1hr
Made windshield longer - new pattern
Oct 20
.7hrs
Modified shape I just made. Final design ready for testing with sheet metal pattern?
Oct 23
1.5hrs
Back windshield; trace and cut test pattern. Need to adjust to fit fuselage better.
Oct 27
1.6hrs
Tweak and adjust pattern. Made sheet metal test pattern. Still to try on fuselage.
Oct 30
1.5hrs
More tweaking of the rear windshield.
Nov 2
1.5hrs
New aluminum pattern made. Seems to fit real good.
Nov 3
N/A
Spent time researching material for windshield.
Nov 6
.9hrs
Located .040 3003-H14 blank for back windshield. Started CADing the curves. Printed out curves in pieces. Not working out so well.
Nov 9
1.4hrs
Hand drew windshield pattern on aluminum. Ready for cutting ?
Nov 10
1.5hrs
Needed to re-draw pattern. Back-end needed to have enough area to bend a "capture" to top of Plexiglas. Re-drew. Ready for cutting and bending ?
Nov 14
.8hrs
Windshield tested test-pieces on fuselage.
Nov 16
1.3hrs
Drew up new pattern.
Nov 18
1.2hrs
Cut, bend, test. Tweek.
Dec 23
1.4hrs
Draw new pattern. Made mistake. Need to re-draw.
Dec 27
6.9hrs
Drew grid to make sure windshield is symetrical. Masked off with tape and drew new pattern. Make ANOTHER mistake. Will need to re-draw.
Dec 28
1.9hrs
New pattern drawn on aluminum. Looks good. Ready for drilling... then cutting out of window openings.
Dec 31
3.5hrs
Cut, filed and sanded the rear windshield blank to shape then drilled all 96 holes. Still need to drilled the holes for the corners of the windshield window openings and then cut the windows out.
Jan 1
1.5hrs
Cut the window corner curves with a 1 1/8inch hole saw cutter; centering drill, hole saw cutter, deburr. Repeat...
Jan 4
1.6hrs
Drilled, notched and bent trail-edge of windshield.
Jan 6
3.6hrs
Bent the blank to shape. Rough-cut openings for windshields. Finish cut openings in windshields, filed and sanded to lines. Ready for the flanges to attch it to the fuselage.
Jan 8
2hrs
Made patterns for windshield to fuselage brackets.
Jan 9
1.4hrs
Decided that I could make a better windshield based off a few things I learned from the final one I just made. Drew up new grid on blank sheet of .o40 3003-14 aluminum.
Jan 10
1.3hrs
Started drawing new windshield pattern.
Jan 11
1.2hrs
Continued drawing pattern.
Jan 12
.8hrs
Finished drawing pattern. DAMN ! it took a long time !
Jan 13
2hrs
Printed out and cut out and glued relief holes onto pattern. Made a few changes from the first one.
Jan 17
.4hrs
Made decision to attach bracket with rivets instead of bolts. Drew location of rivet holes on pattern.
Jan 19
.5hrs
Rough cut-out of pattern.
Jan 20
1.2hrs
Drilled/cut-out 1 1/8inch corners for window openings.
Jan 21
2.2hrs
Drill number 6 machine screw holes.
Jan 22
1hr
Drill half of the rivet holes.
Jan 23
1hr
Drilled additional rivet holes.
Jan 24
.6hrs
Trim, filed, and sanded windshield blank.
Jan 26
1.2hrs
Bend windshield to shape. Rough cut the openings out of three windows.
Jan 27
1.6hrs
File and finish sand faceted windshield blank
Jan 29
1hr
Create paper patterns for Lexan windows.
Feb 1
2.2hrs
Cut Lexan window blanks (test pieces).
Feb 3
1.6hrs
Received number 6 machine screws with nuts. Nut isn't as thick as the internet said it would be. Machine screws are 1/8inch too long. Will need to buy additional screws. Holes are too small for machine screws. Reamed out to 3/16inch.
Feb 9
2.3hrs
Notched trailing edge of windshield. Not that good looking
Feb 10
1.5hrs
Re-did notches. Very happy with the way they look now.
Feb 11
2.6hrs
Drilled holes in Lexan window blanks. Used a number 12 drill. Tested pieces in windshield frame. NICE !
Feb 12-15
N/A
Finding a solution to bending the bracket to the curve I needed.
Feb 16
1hr
Made flanging tool. Did a few test pieces to refine technique.
Feb 17
1.6hrs
Made the first of three brackets; drew up pattern, cut, drilled, flanged, cut, file, finish sanded edges. Tried out on windshield. Looks great!
Feb 19
1.1hrs
Second side bracket all finished. Same work as the other bracket.
Feb 20
1.1hrs
Final bracket finished. Ditto on above work.
Feb 23
1.6hrs
Match-drilled all brackets to the windshield.
Feb 25
5.1hrs
Re-make port bracket. Tested... tweaked all three brackets. Riveted them onto windshield.
Feb 26 - Mar 6
N/A
Reviewing instrument panel. Trying to rememember how I had instruments arranged. Figuring out how many switches I thought of an what they were for. Can't find my layout of panel. FINALLY found the layout, I think. Doesn't have what the toggle switches are for.
Mar 7
1.5hrs
Started designing/making side panel; starboard side.
Mar 10 - 17
10hrs
Figuring out instruments (again) since it's been so long... I almost forgot what I had planned. And since I'm figuring out instruments I'm figuring out breakers, toggles, etc. Need to learn basics of electrical. I easily put three hours a night on this stuff. Only recording one hour a night.
Mar 18 - 30
5hr
More reading up on electricity. Not there yet!
Apr 1 - Apr 21
6hrs
yeah... not much reading about electric. Figuring out what to do with the instruments too. Thinking ALL new... instead of old.
Apr 9
1.7hrs
Fitting up sheet metal skins.
Apr 14
2hrs
Made jig for drilling holes in sheet metal skin.
Apr 15
2.6hrs
Jig didn't work as planned. Needed to take the skins off the fuselage and use jig to center over holes. Drilled all holes on all three upper skins.
Apr 21
2hrs
Dry run fit of sheet metal skins. Getting fuselge ready to turn-turtle so that I can work on the sides and bottom skins on the forward section.
Apr 23
.6hrs
Flip fuselage. Test fit sheet metal side panel, station 0.0 to 24.0.
Apr 27
1hr
Fitting up port, lower, side-rail. Position it. Drill holes in sheet metal to hold in place. Marked for trimming.
May 2
1hr
Flipped fuselage back over. Attached side-rail and fitted up aluminum skin to forward, lower port side. It's ready for tacking on.
May 6
2hr
Welded on lower, port side-rail. Filed and trimmed lower, starboard side-rail.
May 7
.5hrs
Aligned and welded on lower, starboard side-rail.
May 13
.4hrs
Cut bottom, front sheet metal skin.
May 14
1.3hrs
Fitted and cut lower belly skin; station 0.0 - 24.0.
May 20
1.5hrs
Refitting of starboard side-rail. Need to re-make.
May 21
2.5hrs
Riveted anchor-nut plates into the extra bent-up side-rail piece I had. Cut to size. Fitted up to fuselage.
May 25
2.1hrs
Lower, starboard side-rail welded on. Decided to re-make the belly former between station 0.o and 24.o. Made new pattern for location.