More riveting on the instrument panels. Just about done with them.
May 1
3.2hrs
Design, cut, drill and match-drill cover plate for front pit's instrument panel face.
May 2
1.4hrs
Practiced for about 45 minutes with the hole locator tool. Made sure that it would work on the covers I was making for the instrument panels. Also fitted up and bent the two covers.
May 3
2.4hrs
Started attaching the cover on the first instrument panel box. It turned up to be a practice piece. Learning a few things along the way.
May 4
1hr
Drew up and cut out a new shell for the back instrument panel.
May 5
1hr
Filed edges of shell... then, another try at match-drilling shell to instrument panel. Top matched. Sides were about 1/2 way off.
.8hrs
Cut new blank for new shell.
May 6
3.2hrs
Fitted and match-drilled newest shell to back pit's instrument panel. Persistence paid off and it worked this time.
May 7
3.1hrs
Attached the shell to the back panel on the back pit's instrument panel. YES !
May 8
.5hrs +
Spent hours out in the garage workshop looking at the instrument panel in the cockpit. Too big; too deep. Re-do; measured and cut a new blank to remake shell.
May 9
1.3hrs
Filed and match-drilled new shell; 4inches instead of 5inches deep.
May 10
N/A
Figuring out what to do with the front instrument panel...
Welded up the harness support and tacked it into place.
May 17
1.5hrs
Welded on the main support to the fuselage. Notched and fitted the first of two forward, angled support tubes for the shoulder harness support.
May 18
1.3hrs
Notched the second angled support tube. Took me longer the second time around and I had a pattern for the one end of it ?
May 19
1.5hrs
Welded on the front, angled tubes for the shoulder harness support.
May 20
2hrs
Spent way more time on this than two hours. Looking through the micofilm for the motor mount nacelle fitting drawing. Found it !
May 23
1.5hrs
CADing motor mounts
May 24
2.3hrs
Cutting first part of motor mount. Also... started thinking about re-CADing; thinks may not be as they appear to be...
May 25
2hr
Re-drawing motor mount parts.
May 26
1.2hrs
Glued on and rough-cut the first motor mount part again.
May 27
1.5hrs
Second and third pieces of the first motor mount fitting cut and filed to size.
May 28
2.8hrs
Drill holes in three pieces of first motor mount fitting. Weld on battery tray (pain in the arse).
.8hrs
Draw up and rough cut four harness webbing guides.
May 31
N/A
Looking at fuselage. Figuring things out.
June 1
N/A
Thinking hard about the how to make the brackets for the throttle controls; on line and reading Tony's books.
Jun 2
1.2hrs
Rough-cut two of the three pieces for the second of four motor mounts.
Jun 3
1.2hrs
Rough-cut two more. Same pieces but for another motor mount fitting.
Jun 4
1.2hrs
Rough-cut two more parts for the motor mount. Ground down to size all the parts cut so far.
Jun 5
1.7hrs
Rough-cut and drilled the remaining three parts and then ground them all to shape.
Jun 6
2hrs
Filing sides of all the parts cut so far for the motor mounts.
Jun 7 - 9
N/A
Re-thinking all this bending of the motor mounts
Jun 10
1hr
Checking and re-checking the calculations of bend allowance and set-backs.
Jun 11
1hr
Started bending the fittings. Cut the 2x4's for the crate of which I'm not counting as time.
Jun 12
N/A
Spent all day getting the Jake crated up.
Jun 14
1hr
Began making bends on motor mount fittings.
Jun 15
1hr
Re-made one of the center pieces of one of the fittings. Filed and then bent first bend.
Jun 16
4hrs
Bend second arm on all four motor mount center pieces. Needed to re-make two of them.
N/A
Trip to the airport to load out the radial for the trip back to my place.
Jun 17
.8hrs
Cut off lips of motor mount side pieces. Made match-sets of all four. Needed to tweak bends on the side pieces to make true 90 degree bends.
Jun 19
1.9hrs
Made all four bends on the outer two pieces of the first motor mount fitting. Rough-cut the angles on them too.
June 20
1.1hrs
Repeat of yesterday on the second motor mount. Learned a lot and it's paid off.
June 21
1.5hrs
Repeat of the past two days. Although, I made two in half the time.
Jun 23
.5hrs
Went down to bend the 45's on the center section of the motor mount and discovered I needed to grind down the wings so that they could bend past the bottom section. Spent the time trying to file them down. There's got to be an easier way.
Jun 24
2.7hrs
Used a hand-held grind to grind down the wings. Bent then rough cut two of the center section pieces of the motor mount.
Jun 25
1.8hrs
Bent and ground to rough shape two sets of side pieces.
Jun 26
3.1hrs
Ground all 12 pieces down close to shape. Filed and sanded to lines.
Jun 27
.7hrs
Drew up motor mount fitting base plate on CAD.
Jun 28
N/A
Need to modify patten before cutting out bottom plates for motor mount fittings. Decided to look to see what needs to still be done on the fuselage; Process of putting items made onto fuselage to see what still needs to be done. Lots !
Jun 30
1.4hrs
Cut out, ground and filed to size, and bent wings on two of the four motor mount bottom plates.
Jul 1
1.4hrs
Made the two additional motor mount bottom plates.
Jul 2
1.4hrs
Burned off the patterns from the motor mount pieces. Ground off the tack welds from station 0.o (the whole sway wire dealio).
Jul 5
1.4hrs
Squared the motor mount pieces up and then welded the outside of four of the outside pieces.
Jul 6
1.4hrs
Welded up the remaining pieces; four outside and four inside.
Jul 10
1.6hrs
Welded the center sections to the two outer sections on all four fittings. Only welded the curved part on each.
Jul 11
1.1hrs
Final four welds on two of the motor mount fittings.
Jul 12
.9hrs
Welded up the two additional motor mount fittings.
Jul 13
2hrs
Re-weld on two of the weld lines on the motor mounts. Tacked the other two fittings onto their mounting plates. Looked at (again) and decided to move forward with doing the fabric on the seats and rear fuselage dividing panels in a "Military" looking canvas.
Jul 14
1.3hrs
Finish welds on the first of four motor mount fittings.
3800 hours !
Jul 15
2hrs
Finsihed the welding on two more motor mounts.
Jul 16
.9hrs
Welded up the last motor mount fitting.
Jul 18
1.5hrs
Finishing touches on the motor mounts then position and tacked them into place !
Jul 19
1.2hrs
Made blank pattern of firewall for locating motor mount fitting openings before cutting actual holes in the firewall.
Jul 20
1.9hrs
Figured out and made the patterns for the openings in the firewall.
Jul
21
2.2hrs
Measure, mark and cut openings in corrugated plastic firewall blank. Measured and aligned on firewall. Taped motor mount opening patterns in place.
Cut 2x4 straight-edge at 20degree angle. Additional testing. Good results.
Jul 29
1.5hrs
Drilled all 12 holes in the firewall.
Jul 31
2.2hrs
Cut all four openings in the firewall. Still need to have their edges cleaned up.
Aug 1
.7hrs
Cleaned up one of the openings in the firewall.
Aug 2
2.2hrs
Cleaned flashing from the other three openings in the firewall. Test fit to fuselage... centers nicely.
Aug 3
2.1hrs
Made six bushings to secure the firewall to the fuselage. Still need to cut a few washers to weld to the ends then weld them to the fuselage.
Aug 4
1.9hrs
Cut out and filed/sanded six .o50 thick washers for the firewall mounts. Made a simple jig for welding the bushing and the washers together.
Aug 5
1.5hrs
Welded the washers and bushings together to make the firewall mounts.
Aug 6
1.7hrs
Aligned and tacked on firewall mounts.
Aug 7
1.2hrs
Cut-off and re-aligned one firewall mount. Re-tacked another. Trial fit of firewall again. Designed and cut pattern for aluminum seat back corner cover.
Aug 8
1.5hrs
A night of re-doing things; re-checking, re-tacking, re-reaming...
Aug 9
1.5hrs
Re-jigging the firewall for proper location. Testing; drilling into the stainless steel seeing if what I thought would work would work. Don't use a wood backing block.
Aug 10
1.2hrs
Designed a different way to clamp the wood in place for the height of the firewall. Got all things aligned for the final time? Well see tomorrow...
Aug 11
1.4hrs
Checked the firewall alignment again... then drilled four of the six holes. The firewall is in place.
Aug 12
1hr
Final two bolt holes in the firewall. Taped display board in place to see what it would look like with sheet metal in place.
1.7hrs
re-Made an upper former that's located just behind the front seat.
Aug 13
1.2hrs
re-Made the upper former. Again.
Aug 14
1.2hrs
Fit and tack new former.
1.4hrs
Adjust upper former at pilot's cockpit. Cut too short and had to used an extra one I had for that area to align, cut and tack.
Aug 15
1hr
Actually a lot more time than an hour. Figuring out the tabs and strips I want to use for attaching the sheet metal skins.
Aug 16
1hr
Same as yesterday. Figuring out the tabs and strips. A lot more time than an hour spent on it.
Aug 17
1.6hrs
Drilling and deburring 33 holes in 33 former tabs.
Aug 18
1.7hrs
Cutting out and grinding to shape 33 former tabs.
Aug 19
2.2hrs
Bent and trimmed former tabs.
Aug 20
1.7hrs
Filing and sanding the sides of the tabs. Half-way done.
Aug 21
2hrs
Grinding and sanding former tabs to size. Spent time figuring out how I need to jig and space them for welding.
Aug 22;
2hrs
Finished former tabs (grinding to length). Spent time figuring out the finishing of the gap just below the turtledeck in the pilot's cockpit area.
Aug 23
1.8hrs
Working on the trim for gap just below the front turtledeck as mentioned above.
Aug 24
1hr
Change of plans on that piece for filling the gap in front of the turtledeck. Using the smaller "L" extrusion. It's now notched. Fits great. Need to now cut and bend mounting tabs on the top.
Aug 25
1.3hrs
Drilled, notched and filed smooth... the L-shaped extrusion for the gap between the turtledeck and the tube in front of it.
Aug 27
3.5hrs
The tinnerman nuts are the wrong size. Need to send back and exchange. So... need to fill time. Decided to make the side formers for the sheet metal. Hand-cut the starboard .o25 sheet metal blank, then drilled holes for the anchor nut plate openings and then match-drilled the rivet holes for the anchor nuts.
Aug 29
1.5hrs
Cut the port .o25 sheet metal blank on the bandsaw (saw that I could make it smaller and could do it on the bandsaw) then drilled the holes for the anchor nut openings.
Aug 30
1.1hrs
Match-drilled holes for rivets in port side former. Banged the starboard former's bottom bend.
aug 31
.9hrs
First banged former looked great so I decided to do the second one.
Sept 1
1hr
Test dimples then dimpling both side formers.
Sept 2
1.5hrs
Filed down rivets. Failed attemps at riveting in the close quarters of the bend. Will need to modify one of the squeezer heads.
Sept 3
1.9hrs
Rivet anchor nut plates onto both side formers. Happy with the second one... not the first one. Bend is too close to where I need to rivet for the first one.
.9hrs
Cut .o25 steel sheet to re-make first one.
Sept 4
.9hrs
Bent then drilled holes in re-make of first side former.
Sept 5
1.8hrs
Squeezed rivets in above side former.
Sept 6
1.3hrs
Cut re-make of second side former then drilled holes. Ready for riveting.
Sept 7
1.2hrs
Match-drilled rivet holes. Bend edge. Dimpled rivet holes. Ready for rivets.
Sept 8
1.6hrs
Riveted the anchor nut plate onto the second forward side former. Cut the blank for the center, starboard side former.
Sept 9
1.3hrs
First middle, starboard side former; drilled, match-drilled, then dimpled. Ready for rivets.
Sept 10
2.5hrs
Worked the one center side-former; drilled screw holes, match-drilled rivet holes, put bend on edge then dimpled.
Sept 11
.8hrs
Riveting.
Sept 12
.5hrs
Drilled out rivets then re-riveted piece I drilled rivets out of.
Sept 13
1.4hrs
Working on jig pattern for holding sheet metal tabs in place. Glued down pattern and drilled holes.