Drilled the rear attach tabs for the belly stringers. Match drilled the stringers. Re-worked the notches I made in the port and starboard belly stringers. Also ground down the front tabs so that they wouldn't interfer with the side sheet metal.
Jul 16
2.2hrs
Drilled rear attach points for port and starboard side stringers. Match drilled stringers to rear attach points.
Jul 17
1.5hrs
Looking over plans to sort out what I need to purchase for the trim/servo (again) and the pushrods for the elevator controls.
Jul 18
2.1hrs
Stood back and wrote down what still needed to be done with the fuselage. Looked over plans... Worked on aligning the rear and front flying wire attachments. Drilled pilot hole in 1/2 of the front bracket. Still need to weld front bracket together and then match drill with back 1/2 of bracket.
Jul 22
1.9hrs
Tacked on upper, rear flying wire fittings, Welded together the upper, forward flying wire fittings.
Jul 24
1.4hrs
Match drilled upper, forward flying wire fittings. Interference with a side stand-off... need to figure it out before attaching fittings.
Jul 29
1.5hrs
Cut the front stand-offs on both upper, side formers. Ground down with grinder.
Jul 31
1.2hrs
Re-made both stand-offs for the upper, side formers.
Aug 2
N/A
Road trip up to Bob Boyer's hangar. Beautiful place... full of Jacobs engines and airplanes.
Aug 3
N/A
Spent about 5 hours today trying to figure out the Jake and how to mount the mount to the fueselage.
Aug 5
2.2hrs
Welded on both replacement stand-offs.
Aug 12
1.3hrs
Worked on filing down those four weld marks left from cutting off the stand-offs from the above mentioned stand-offs. Just a little sanding and they'll be ready to go.
Aug 14
2.5hrs
Aligned the two front stay wire brackets on the fuselage and tacked them on. Those and the other set of brackets didn't look right. Spent time investigating this. Also thought about what I still need to do and when I want to do it.
Aug 16
3.3hrs
Grinding tip of new tail spring to fit tail wheel. Need to re-make the tail wheel bracket (the existing is 1 3/4inches wide the new one will be 1 1/2inches wide)
Aug 19
2.5hrs
Re-making of tailspring attach bracket. Not happy with the first re-make and then not happy with the third re-make.
Aug 20
1.7hrs
Cut and reamed both tubes for tailspring bracket. Filed down the top of the one half to accept 1/4inch rubber pad.
Aug 23
3.ohrs
Finished making the "C" side of the tailspring mount. Cut the tubing from the engine mount ring.
Aug 26
1.7hrs
Match drilled cup to other half of tailspring bracket. Filed and sanded other half of tailspring bracket. Needed to grind down bottom end of tailpost tube to fit the tailspring bracket into place. Still need to weld a metal plug on the end of the tube to seal.
Aug 28
1.7hrs
Spent 2.2 hours on it tonight, but spent about 1/2 hour looking for stuff. About ready to weld the part of the tailspring bracket that attaches to the fuselage... held it up to the tailpost to take a good look at placement and saw that the bolt holes on the bracket wouldn't allow me to thread the bolts through it when welded in place. End result... I need to cut the bushings off of the "C" part of the bracket, weld on a build-up and then reweld so that I can use the older, wider bracket 1/2 (the one that welds onto the fuselage). Drilled the inital hole for the 3/8inch bolt in the rectangular tube in the lower fuselage. Only got half of that done too. Couldn't find the Dremel to cut off the bushings and couldn't find the metal drill block to drill a 90degree hole.
Aug 20
3.8hrs
Made bushing for tailwheel front attach and welded it on. Cut and welded on the build up on the sides of the "C" side of the attachment.
Sept 2
2.2hrs
Finished 2nd or 3rd bad "cup" and started on the 3rd or 4th useable cup ? Learning ?
Sept 4
2.1hrs
Two new bushings for the tailspring attach bracket- Filed down "cup" side slightly to accept bushings and align with other 1/2 of bracket. Welded on bushings. Tried out on fuselage. DONE !
Sept 6
4.1hrs
Aligned and welded on the tailspring bracket. Did it a few times as a matter of fact...
Sept 9
2.1hrs
Notched additional tubing for station 124. This is to support the area around the stab wire attach straps. Similar to the Standard Skybolt.
Sept 11
3.1hrs
Cut new 1/2inch x .o35 tubing to replace the 5/8inch x .o35 tubing I cut for the stab wire attach area. The "vertical" tubing it was intersecting at the top longeron was 1/2inch x .o35. No sense in overkilling it. Notched and tacked these on. Also notched a piece of 1/2inch x .o35 for a cross tube just in front of the stab wire attach. Keeping the 5/8inch x .o35 cross tube just behind it as well.
Sept 13
3.1hrs
Worked on welding up the above mentioned tube cluster (then ran out of A of the A and O). Worked on the preliminary figuring out of the elevator control rod linkages (mounting of idler arms and reverser) and working through an issue with the stringer (that the new cross tube interferes with).
Sept 19
2.4hrs
Various things... attached Idler Arms and Reverser to measure tube lengths. Re-marked and re-measured the port and starboard belly stringers. Need to revise back-ends and make new ones. The new ones are ready for drilling and notching. Made four new tabs for mounting the leading edge of the turtledeck.
Sept 20
.8hrs
Put bends in upper and lower halves of upper wing fuel tank
Sept 21
1.1hrs
Straightened out short bends in fuel tank halves then drilled all the under sized rivet holes. Getting ready to join these two together.
Sept 23
1.8hrs
Deburred all the holes in both the upper and lower halves of the fuel tank.
Sept 25
2.5hrs
Welded up the upper cluster for the stab wire support tubes and the lower side of the lower, cross-tubes. Re-made one of the belly stringers.
Sept 27
1.9hrs
Finished notching the re-dos for the stringers.
N/A
Still figuring out the sway wires for the upper wing center section. I'm thinking I need a set of two-eared fitting on the front... just like the ones in the back.
Sept 30
2.5hrs
Started re-making the front sway wire/strut brackets
Oct 1
N/A
Spent time researching the angle that the above brackets need to be bent to; 150 degree and 117.5 degrees. Thank you very much.
Oct 2
2.4hrs
Two new 1/2 brackets (larger) made. Filed and sanded smooth edges on all four bracket halves that will not be welded. Drilled under-sized holes in all four.
Oct 4
3.9hrs
Bent the front sway wire halves to shape. Sanded faces smooth... removed scratches. Welded both sets together.
Oct 7
2.4hrs
Bent plates that weld to the front sway wire/strut brackets. Welded one to bracket.
Oct 9
1.8hrs
Welded up second sway wire/struct bracket. Made a few measurements for the heel trays and seat pans. More mounting tabs are needed.
Oct 11
4.7hrs
Welded on additional tabs for pilot heel trays. Figured out supports for seatbelts. Made jig. Started cutting tubing.
Oct 12
1hr
Drew up and cut out pattern for seat pans. Laid out heel trays on material.
Oct 14
1.8hrs
Match-drilled holes in the forward sway wire/strut brackets. Test fitted the paper pans up to both pilot and co-pilot's seats. They fit, just need to modify the back of each for seat-back tubes.
Oct 16
2.1hrs
Tacked on forward sway wire/strut brackets. Contiuned work on the co-pilot's seatbelt harness support.
Oct 19
1.9hrs
Tacked and finished welded the co-pilot's seatbelt harness support then welded it onto the fuselage.
2900 hours !
Oct 21
1.4hrs
Cut and notched both forward tube supports for co-pilot's seatbelt harness.
Oct 22
2.1hrs
Welded the four clusters for the forward supports on the co-pilot's seatbelt harness support.
Oct 25
2hrs
Spent a few hours thinking things through about the build. In the garage work shop looking at it... thinking.
Oct 26
4.1hrs
Making tabs for enclosures around the pilot's seat (sides and bottom).
Oct 28
1.4hrs
Bending a few tabs. Making the initial paper pattern for the empenage side enclosures (on either side of the pilot's seat).
Oct 30
1.3hr
Work on the enclosures around the pilot's seat; thin masonite pattern for the sides and the paper pattern for the bottom...
Nov 1
5.1hrs
Fine tuned the bottomw enclosure pattern. Made the forming jig for it. Cut out the 3003 aluminum. Clamped it. Banged it. Trimmed it. Still needs finishing.