More
notching of intercoastals. Moving right along?
Aug 31
2.2hrs
Notched tubes for Station 77.o to Station 85.o intercoastals. Yeah... I thought I did them earlier too. Turns out I notches Station 77.o to 105.o.
Sept 1
3.2hrs
Spent all this time notching the tube that
goes from station 85 to station 105. STILL a little notching to do.
Sept 3
2.7hrs
Finished, finally!, the last intercoastal tube station 85.o to
station 105.o. Used the Joint Jigger to notch both ends of two intercoastals, station 105.o to 111.o. Notched up one of these
intercoatals to a final fit.
Sept 4
1.2hrs
Finished notching both intercoastal tubes between stations 105 and 111. Opps... cut too much off one side of one tube. I'll
be making that one again. I'll use this pattern for the new tube... just need to keep it a little bit longer. Should be finished notching these tubes next session.
Sept 6
2.5hrs
Measured, cut and notched a new tube for the intercoastal 105.o to 111.o. Went to cut and notch the two .625 x .o49 tubes for intercoastals 161.o to 168.o and discovered the tubing that I thought I had was instead .o35. I'll need to order about 4 feet of .625 x .o49 from ACS on Monday. Drilled oil access holes for all the remaining loose fuselage tubes.
Sept 7
2hrs
Started tacking remaining tubes into place. Came up on upper diagonal tube from station 85.o to 111.o. Just a little too much of a gap on the one side. Spent the rest of the session notching a new tube for that diagonal.
Sept 8
2.4hrs
Tack welded up the remaining tubes in the fuselage (all except the two side diagonals from lower station 162.o to upper station 168.o of which I just ordered from ACS today.) Re-cut one of the diagonals going from lower station 105.o to upper station 111.o. I'll double check tomorrow... but I think I'm ready to put this on that rotissere.
Sept 9
1(3hrs)
Checked to make sure all tubing was all tacked into place. Then started the ardurous job of taking the table apart with the fuselage still sitting on it. Talk about fighting with your environment. Took all of
three hours. I'm only adding an hour onto the build. NOW I can build that rotisseri and start welding it up.
Sept 11
(1.5hrs)
Didn't "work" on the biplane tonight, but I did run around getting items for the "Road Trip" on Saturday... tie-downs, lifting straps, etc
Sept 13
(12hrs)
Road Trip Denise and I drove up to the Northeastern part of New York state to pick up this big ol' Jacobs engine.
Sept 14
(3hrs)
Attempted to take the crate, with the Jacobs, off the truck at Whitey's airport. Wasn't able to do it.
Sept 15
2.8hrs
Time spent building the rotesserie to spin the fuselage to finish weld it. Still a little work to do on it.
Sept 17
N/A
EAA Chapter 216 Meeting. Spoke to Whitey about bringing the engine over to his place. Good time talking to Ed, Tom, Bob and the
other guys about airplanes.
Sept 18
1.5hrs
Constructed the rest of the rotesserie. Screwed and glued. Will let it set overnight for the glue to dry.
Sept 24
3.1hrs
Finally got the fuselage on the welding spit. Took about an hour... had those gotchas to contend with. Spent the rest of the time measuring, cutting and notching the final two tubes.
The first tube was finished in a matter of minutes (exagerating a bit here.) The second tube took the rest of the work session to notch. Funny how this second tube was my "practice" piece. Glad I purchased three
sections of tubing from ACS for the two I needed. I'll notch this final one tomorrow and be done with it. Then it's on to finish welding the fuselage. finally...
Sept 26
1.9hrs
Approximately 1 hour to cut the final tube (thought I screwed it up for a moment while notching it.) A bit of practice with welding.
Sept 27
2.4hrs
Tacked the last two diagonals onto the fuselage then messed with getting things ready for welding. Then.. I finally did it. Made the first two finish welds on the fuselage. Not half bad looking either.
Sept 28
2.1hrs
More finish welding. Two clusters; the two that are on either side of the tailwheel mount.
.8hrs
Got pretty much through another cluster weld then the A on my O/A system dried up on me. Time to get more gas. Wanted to put at least two hours on it tonight; two more weld clusters.
Sept 29
(.5hrs)
Three tries before I got the acetylene hooked up without it bubbling out gas.
1hr
Finished the weld on last night's weld that I had to stop on because of the lack of acetylene and welded up another cluster.
Oct 6
2hrs
Two more clusters welded up.
Oct 8
4hrs
Two additional clusters. Both were real hard to get to at times.
Oct 9
2.2hrs
One additional cluster. These clusters with seven tubes going into them take some work.
Oct 12
(5hrs)
Unloaded and uncrated the Jake at Whitey's airport. Surprise... it's a 300 hp Jake, not the 245 hp I thought I purchased. Actually he said it was an R755. Didn't say whether it was the -9, -A2 or -B2. Whitey had an old, what looked to be like, Hamilton Standard constant speed prop. Said I could have it ! It has bent tips and one of the trailing edges looks to have some type of deformation. I'll have to see if I can get it repaired.
Oct 13
2.4hrs
Welded up one seven-tube cluster tonight. That and fiddely farting with trying to get a few photos of me welding.
Oct 15
3.1hrs
One cluster welded up... an eight tube cluster.
Oct 16
2.4hrs
Two additional clusters welded up; a five and a seven cluster.
Oct 18
1.2hrs
Another cluster welded up !
Oct 19
2hrs
Welded up an additional eight-tube cluster. Still have a little to do to finish it next session.
Oct 20
2.5hrs
Finished the one I was working on yesterday (took about an hour just to finish it up.) Welded up an additional six-tube cluster.
Oct 22
2.4hrs
Welded an additional six and four-tube cluster.
Oct 23
2.6hrs
Another two clusters welded up. I'm now up to station 49.o6
Oct 25
.5hrs
Cleaned up several welds before spraying them with primer to keep them from rusting. Hooked up the
two new cylinders so that I could get welding.
2.3hrs
Welded up a six-tube cluster.
Oct 26
1.9hrs
Another six-tube cluster welded up. Tomorrow I'll be welding up the passenger hand holds.
Oct 27
3.3hrs
Tonight I completed two seven-tube clusters and welded up four of the five clusters that make up one of the passenger hand-holds.
Oct 28
2.8hrs
Welded up the passenger hand holds; seven smaller clusters.
Oct 29
2.6hrs
Welded all the clusters that were in the floor area of the passenger cockpit; five clusters.
Oct 30
2.3hrs
Welded up the two most forward-lower clusters.
.3hrs
Cleaned up and painted several of the cluster I've welded up over the past few days.
Nov 2
1.3hrs
Finished up a CAD drawing for Rear Lower Wing Fitting. Started CAD drawing for Front Landing Gear and Flying Wire Attachment
(3hrs)
Drove over to Whitey's today. Started talking to Whitey and Walt (A and I) about what to do to begin tearing down the radial.
Nov 3
.8hrs
Continued working on CAD for Front Landing Gear and Flying Wire Attachment. Still a little more to do.
2.5hrs
Welded upper cluster at Station 0-0.
Nov 4
1hr
Continued drawing up Front Landing Gear Attachment. Asked question to biplane forum about discrepancy in sizes. Told it was explained
in the small manual that came with prints. They were right.
Nov 5
.9hr
Finished up Front Landing Gear Attachment CAD. Drew up Stringer Stand-off Pattern.
2.4hrs
Welded up the last corner cluster at Station 0.o (still need to weld up that massive cluster in the center of Station 0.o. Cleaned welds and painted.
Nov 6
1.3hrs
CAD drawing of the Stick Boot Pattern and Aileron Actuating Arm.
2hrs
Drew and cut out paper pattern for the modification to the move of the intercoastal that go from Upper Station 24.o to Lower Station 0.o. Finished weld on the Upper Longerons at Station 168.o; the tail post. (approx 1 hr welding)