Rear side-formers; drilled the bolt holes in both then match-drilled the anchor nut plates for rivets.
Sept 19
1.2hrs
Bent over the edge on one of the rear, side-formers.
Sept 20
.7hrs
Bent the other rear, side-former.
Sept 21
1.4hrs
Drilled the holes for the filler piece that goes between the turtledeck and the frame cross member. Bent tabs and fitted to turtledeck.
Sept 22
1.8hrs
Worked on the main gas tank; tweak the form, re-read the chapter in the Skybolt Manual.
Sept 23
2.8hrs
Fitting up of the main gas tank. Riveting on anchor nuts to two of the side formers.
Sept 24
2.4hrs
Aligned, tacked and welded on tabs on one of the upper formers.
3900 hours !
Sept 26
.5hrs
Cut new rear, side former blank and drilled bolt hole openings.
Sept 27
1.2hrs
Match-drilled holes. Initial bend in piece.
Sept 28
1.1hrs
Finished bending piece then dimpled holes.
Sept 29
.8hrs
Riveted on the anchor nut plates to the new rear, side former.
Oct 1
N/A
For two hours I worked on trying to figure out how to bend these formers without a bender. No joy !
1.7hrs
Aligned and tacked on another row of upper former tabs.
Oct 2
3.1hrs
Prepped for attaching tabs to upper, front former. Decided to change the stand-off on that former from .032 flat to .375 x .028 tubing. Cut out existing while fitting in new tubing. Tacked in place.
Oct 3
1.5hrs
Weld up the front, upper former.
Oct 4
1hr
File/sand excess welding on front, upper former.
Oct 6
.9hrs
Tacked all except two of the remaining tabs on the upper formers.
Oct 7
2.4hrs
Made holding/spacing jig for the two remaining tabs. Tacked. Then re-tacked three that I knocked off ! Sured up other rabs with new tacks.
Oct 8
3.3hrs
A few sessions; welding on tabs to upper formers and cutting two blanks for the lower side-formers.
Oct 9
.5hrs
Not counting the 1/2hr looking for the paper patterns... I was finally able to glue up the hole spacing patterns on one of the blanks and file it down to a straight edge.
Oct 10
1.3hrs
Filed second bottom, side former front edge. Drilled all the holes/openings for bolts.
Oct 11
1.1hrs
Initial bends made in both bottom, side-formers.
Oct 12
1.3hrs
Finish making bends in both bottom, side-formers. Ardorous job of taking of part of the paper pattern for riveting.
Oct 13
1hr
Deburr and dimple anchor nut rivet holes. Riveted in all anchor nut plates on both bottom, side-formers.
Oct 14
2.4hrs
Initial work of making 30 more tabs for mounting skin; cut patterns, drilled holes.
Oct 15
1.5hr
Cut apart and ground to size all 30 additional tabs.
Oct. 16
1.4
File/sand edges of tabs.
Oct 17
2.6hrs
File and sand tabs. Trim and file tabs to size.
Oct. 18
1.7hrs
Started changing flat metal former stand-offs to tubing.
Oct. 19
.4hrs
Filed off some of the existing weld from former, former stand-off.
Oct. 20
2.2hrs
More work on replacing existing stand-offs on side formers.
Oct 21
2.4hrs
Filed away excess weld from previous tand-offs. Welded four stand-offs as much as I could without turning the fuselage on its side.
Oct 22
2.4hrs
Still a lot of excess weld to grind/file away so I worked on that at first. Sanded it too. First set of tabs are in the jig. Need to take a few measurements before tacking into place.
Oct 23
1.2hrs
Align and tack on starboard tabs to side former.
Oct 24
1.8hrs
Align and tack tabs on Port side former. Finish weld tabs on starboard side former.
Oct 25
.4hrs
Weld on additional tabs.
Oct 26
2hrs
Started fitting up upper sheet metal patterns.
Oct 27
2.3hrs
More test fitting of sheet metal patterns. Placement of back windshield pattern.
Oct 28
1hr
Glued up and placed addtional rough patterns on the top, foward fuselage. Test fit of windshield again.
Oct 29
1.2hrs
Began finish welding on the motor mounts. Welded six of the eight sides. Need to turn fuselage to get at the bottom sides.
Oct. 31
.9hrs
Welding of motor mounts to fuselage.
Nov 1
.8hrs
More welding of motor mounts to fuselage
Nov 2
1.7hrs
Finished welding motor mounts to fuselage. Also finished welding motor mount mounting tabs to fuselage and finished welding on a few of the upper formers that were just half-welded.
Nov 3
1.7hrs
Reamed the motor mount tabs. Cut down and filed both sets of seatbelt, shoulder guides.
Nov 4
2hrs
Cut angles on the seat belt guides.
Nov 6
N/A
Decisions about seat backs, tabs, etc. Thinking things through.
Nov 7
2.6hrs
Decided to change up the seat backs. Worked on the new CAD drawing. Making the back like the seat pan.
Nov 8
1.9hrs
Made simple jig for aligning tabs on turtledeck former (just behind the pilot's head). Aligned and tacked on all four tabs; two on each side.
Nov 9
1.9hrs
Put finish weld on four tabs I tacked on yesterday. Figuring out how I really want to do the seat backs, or at least the pilot's seat back (which is the complicated one).
Nov 10
2hrs
Drew up pattern on paper. Glued to aluminum sheet blank I cut from larger roll. Ready for cutting.
Nov 11
2.4hrs
Drew up pattern for second seatback pan. Rather complicated piece.
Nov 12
1hr
Cut the aluminum blank, glued on pattern and drilled corner holes into blank.
Nov 13
.7hrs
Cut out first seat back from aluminum blank. The simpiler front one.
Nov 14
1.1hrs
Cut out the back seat from the aluminum blank.
Nov 15
1.4hrs
File edges of pilot's seat-back pan.
Nov 16
1.4hrs
File edges of co-pilot's seat-back pan.
Nov 17
.8hrs
Finished filing pilot's seat-back pan.
Nov
18
1.4hrs
Mark and bend long ends of seat-back pans.
Nov 20
1.8hrs
Additional bends in seat back pans.
Nov 21
1.9hrs
Went to fit up the seat back pans on the fuselage and saw I needed to grind off existing tabs. Ground off tabs on pilot's seat.
Nov 22
1.4hrs
Ground off tabs on co-pilot's seat.
Nov 23
1.3hrs
Finish filed and sanded all the tab welds I ground down/cut off.
Nov 24
.7hrs
Jig work for the first seat-back pan.
Nov 25
2.1hrs
Annealing and bending all four sides of co-pilot's seat-back pan.
Nov 26
2.9hrs
Cleaned glue from pilot's seat-back pan. Marked and bent the tips for riveting. FIled slots for tubes (upper area of pilot's seat back).
Nov 28
1.5hrs
Trimmed top edge of pilot's seat-back to fit. Started annealing and making bends.
Nov 29
.5hrs
Tried working out the bends on the pilot's seat-back. Not working quite the way I wanted it to.
1hr
Drew-up new pattern on CAD.
Dec 1
1.5hrs
Drew up new pattern on paper.
Dec 2
1.1hrs
Cut blank to make new pilot seat-back pan. Glued on pattern and cut out shape.
Dec 3
1.5hrs
Filed and sanded edges smooth then bent up sides.
Dec 4
2.3hrs
Fit and notched seat-back pan. Initial annealing and wrapping.
Dec 5
1.9hrs
Tweaking wrap. Figuring out a few things by looking at the fuselage; battery access. Attaching back seat-back pan, etc.
Dec 6
1.2hrs
Figuring out how to attach seat-back pan for back seat.
Dec 10
1.6hrs
Measuring, checking, drilling holes for seat-back pan attachment for pilot's seat.
4000 hours
Dec 11
1.2hrs
Drill rivet holes in seat-back pan for back seat for anchor nut plates. Deburred all holes.
Dec 12
1.9hrs
Rivet on all sixteen anchor nut plates to back-seat pan.
Dec 13
N/A
Figuring things out. Checking what needs to be done and need to be purchased. (2 hrs)
Dec 15
1.4hrs
Making new attach bracket for the tail cone (first one is now too low on vertical stab's leading edge.
Dec 16
1.5hrs
Making and fitting up the filler pieces on the tailcone. Both made. One glued on.
Dec 17
1.8hrs
Glued the second filler piece on the tailcone first thing in the morning. Mounted and started figuring out the lines for the throttle quads to engine connections. Mostly research. Actually three or four hours of research.
Dec 19
1.8hrs
Ground off existing tailcone bracket, filed and sanded smooth. Fit new bracket up to leading edge of vertical fin.
Dec 20
1.1hrs
Aligned and welded on the tailcone bracket, plus a few additional welds that needed to be done around the bracket.
Dec 21
1.1hrs
Cut most of the excess tubing left on the engine ring.
Dec 22
1.4hrs
Grinding down what was left from me cutting. Still need to weld a few nicks then file.
Dec 23
1.8hrs
Cleaned and filed down areas where tubing was. A little sanding and it's ready for the motor mount.
Dec 24
1.8hrs
Something with the seat-back pans. Can't read my damn writing !
Dec 26
2.7hrs
Anneal and bend of the tabs on the front seat-back pan. Refiguring out the battery tray and all it's brackets. Decided to re-make the tray. Will need to cut off existing one.
Dec 27
.8hrs
Cut-off existing battery tray.
1hr
Grind and file down excess tube from where battery tray was welded to fuselage.
Dec 28
1.6hrs
Re-design, and making of jig for new battery tray.
Dec 29
N/A
Spent several hours setting up the table for the upper-wing center section. Looked over the plans and re-read how the new CAD is different than the original drawings done by Curtis. (use original drawings)
2.4hrs
Made the jig, cut the tubing and tacked the tubes together for the re-designed battery tray.
Dec 30
3hrs
New shelf/tray made for the battery; cut, file, sand, drill.