Coming up with a few different designs for the paint.
May 25
2hrs
Revised wood jig to make metal Axel Support Jig. Cut apart metal Axel Support Jigs, ground welds, placed back in to wood jig, tacked and ready to go !
.5hrs
Went over to Denise's to test fit the Axel Support Jig on the fuselage. Works ! Dropped a plum bob from the jig and it falls where it's suppose to fall.
May 26
4hrs
Bent the 24 degree 45 minute bends in the foward landing/flying wire brackets. Sanded the scratches out of the brackets... which took forever. Yep... that's it.
2.5hrs
Made the pattern for the cover plates that will be used to hold the lead for balancing the elevators. Cut all four out of .o40 4130, bent 15 degree angles on what will be the open end, then welded two of them onto the one elevator.
May 27
2.2hrs
Welded on the second set of plates for the mass balancing lead on the elevators.
1.3hrs
Re-researched what needed to be done for the bushing on the front landing gear/flying wire bracket. Then... cut to length two pieces of 9/16" x .o65 tubing and reamed to 7/16". Still need to drill holes in brackets, weld tubing to bracket, etc.
May 28
3.5hrs
Drilled holes in forward main gear/flying wire brackets. Squared up bushings, that weld into bracket, on Micro-lathe. Weld bushings into both brackets.
.9hrs
Drilled the holes in the rear landing gear brackets.
May 29
1.5hrs
Cut out pattern for Rudder Horn, glued onto 4130, cut out and ground and filed edges. Still needs finish sanding, holes drilled and ears bent on it.
Jun 1
2.3hrs
Cut the tubing out from between the ears on both Foward Landing Gear/Flying Wire brackets. Filed down excess tube and sanded to a 150 grit smoothness.
Jun 2
2.2hrs
Sanding sanding sanding. Getting the scratches out of the rear brackets for the main landing gear. Oh yeah, made the 1.75" spacer block for the Rear bracket.
1hr
Made the temporary brass bushing for slipping the 3/8" rod into the 7/16" hole. Sliced about a 1/16" cut in the 1/2" brass tube I purchased from the Home Depot. Fitted this over a 3/8" tube, put a little squeeze on it and then got to filing filing filing... sanding sanding sanding. Looks good and it's a tight fit.
.5hrs
Tried beating the ears over on the Rundder Horn. Impossible. Destroyed one end of one of the dead-blow hammers. Need to remake tommorrow.
Jun 3
3hrs
Cut a new Rudder Horn out of 4130. Left the ears on it about 2" longer than they need to be. Easily bent the ears over (as opposed to impossible yesterday.) Drilled the two 3/16" holes and sanded all edges and surfaces to a 180 smoothness.
Jun 4
2.1hrs
Made the jig for keeping the forward and rear main gear brackets inline. Filed the inside 1" hole on the rear brackets so that they would allow a 1" tube to pass through them. Made a dry run to make sure everything lined up. Looks good !
Jun 5
1hr
Set up the second jig to make sure that it worked. Needed to re-cut the 3/8" tube for the spacing. Gathered everything that I think I need to work at Denise's and set it aside.
3hrs
Had the Servo Horn, Tab Horn and Servo Trim Shaft already cut out. Decided to grind/sand smooth and drill the holes in them. Unhappy with the holes I drilled in the Tab Horn so I completely remade it. Now I can mark these off my list.
1400 hours !
Jun 7
1.9hrs
The laborious task of filing and sanding, to 180 grit smooth, the edges of three very small fittings; SP3PW-033 for front spar.
Jun 8
2.2hrs
More fittings... more filing... more sanding. Ugh !
(.4hrs)
Ran out ot the Home Depot to pick up a 1/2" drill bit for drilling these fittings. Great deal was found. Instead of (1) 1/2" bit for $11.00, I picked up a set of 14 for $19.00. Same exact brand... just a special on them. allll riiiight ! This time isn't being added to my totals.
Jun 9
3.1hrs
Yep... more fittings... more filing... more sanding. Drilled the 1/4" and 1/2" holes in all eight.
Jun 11
.9hrs
Finally got around to cutting apart my aluminum bending blocks. All three were still attached... from when I routed them in the 2" x .5" x 24" piece of stock. Bent all four -033 fittings 13 degrees.
3.7hrs
Filed and sanded with 80 grit then 100 grit then 180 grit... both sides of all eight of the above fittings.
Jun 12
1hr
Cut, ground down, drilled and sanded the second Tab Horn (needed two.)
1.3hrs
Primered several parts to keep from rusting.
Jun 13
1.1hrs
Cut both the tail wheel retainer and mounting plate out of their respective 4130 material. Ground down and finish-sanded the retainer. Locked it in the vice with the 1/8" bending block and bent both ends. Ahhhh... it's a little too big. Looked at the plans again only to see that what I drew up in the CAD was the
wrong size. More of that learning.
.3hrs
Re-drew the retainer in DeltaCAD and printed it out. No time today... I'll cut it out tomorrow.
Jun 14
2.6hrs
Made an additional retainer... not happy with the bends on it... a little too wide. I didn't sight the sight line correctly... I'm thinking. Made another retainer... happy with that one.
1hr
Cut and reamed the two 3/4" tubes that get welded onto the retainer. Drilled the holes in the mounting plate. Will use that to jig the two upright tubes for the retainer.
Jun 15
2.7hrs
Finished, wasn't happy, then remade, then re-remade, then re-re-remade the mounting plate. FINALLY got one that I was happy with. Made a small jig out of MDF for mounting the tubes to the retainer.
1.1hrs
Finished sanding the edges of the mounting plate, Took the small jig I had made for positioning the tubes on the retainer and welded up the tubes to the retainer.
Jun 16
4.5hrs
Spent today making both Elevator Horns. Looked beautiful until I bent the ears on each piece. One still looked beautiful, the other one... not so much. Since these are a matched pair... looks like I'll be making two more. This .100 material is breaking my ball-e-tos.
Jun 18
4.0hrs
Re-made the Elevator Horns using .100; from print out of the drawings to finish sanding the edges. Whew !
Jun 19
3.4hrs
Made the heads for the two Idler Arms. I had mistakenly made the ones for the Standard Skybolt previously.
Jun 20
4.5hrs
Actually spent 5.o hours, .5 of which was running up and down stairs. Cut the tubes for the neck and pivots for the Idler Arms; squared the pivot tubes up in the lathe and notched the necks with the Joint Jigger. Made the jigs for Idler Arms and then tacked them together.
Jun 21
1hr
Welded up one of the two Idler Arms.
Jun 22
1.2hrs
Welded up the second Idler Arm. Cleaned up the two Elevator Horns.
Jun 23
2hrs
Worked on the landing gear; notching the rear fittings and marking the front fittings.
1.5hrs
Nothced both front landing gear brackets. Sanded a few other fittings and then primered them to keep from rusting.
Jun 24
4.1hrs
Researched how and where to attach/space anchor nuts on the hinges on the Trim Servo Tabs. Cut hinges to length, measured, marked and drilled holes for screws.
Jun 25
1.3hrs
Aligned hinge in first Trim Servo Tab. Cut Servo Tab from Elevator. Marked and started cutting holes for anchor nuts.
Jun 26
3.3hrs
Drilled the rest of the holes in the one Trim Servo Tab. Spent the rest of the time figuring how I was going to align and drill the rivet holes
for the anchor nuts. Figured it out... now all I need to do is do it.
Jun 29
2hrs
Still working on riveting, or should I sawy, getting the Trim Servo Tab ready for riveting. Looking through books, researching online, the size hole to be used on cherry rivets and counter sinking techniques. I don't want to be screwing up the Servo Tab. Not an easy thing to re-make.
Jun 30
1hr
Figuring out how to use the counter-sink tool. Drilled eight holes for the rivets for the anchor nut plates to hold the hinge for the Trim Servo Tab. (whew!)
2.6hrs
Drilled the additional holes, that I could, for this first hinge (side) and counter-sunk all the holes and riveted in place all the anchor nuts that I could.
Jul 2
2.0hrs
Thought I was going to tack weld the landing gear fittings onto the fuselage... not sot. Had to do take off some additional metal from the first rear fitting I was going to tack weld. Aligned the front and the back with the 3/8" tube and tacked them into place. Went to take the tube out and it had swollen. Waited for it to cool... still stuck. Tried to lightly bang the tube out... the back fitting cam untack. The wood was also burned pretty good. Back to making two wood spacer; one for each side. Need to sand down the outside of the 3/8" tube to allow it to separate from the fittings easier.
1.0hrs
Finished putting the anchor nuts on the one side of the first hinge. Still have three more sides to go. They should go a bit faster... now that I've done it already.
Jul 3
1.9hrs
Match-drilled all the holes for the screws in the elevator. Drilled all the pilot holes for the rivets too. Going much faster.
1.8hrs
After one hour I had all the anchor nuts riveted in. Spent the additional .8 hours attaching the hinge to both pieces, making sure that it worked.
Jul 4
1.5hrs
Cut the Trim Servo Tab from the Elevator. Match-drilled screw holes in Trim Servo Tab.
Jul 5
1.6hrs
Drilled the rivet holes in the third hinge side and riveted the anchor nuts on.
1hr
Match-drilled the holes in the elevator for the forth, and final, hinge side.