Made the first of four angled notches on the outside bottom of the first Upper Wing Center Section spar.
Jul 4
2hrs
Notched the three additional spar ends.
Jul 5
1.2hrs
1/2 hour figuring out the tubing, aluminum and any additional wood I need for the Upper Wing Center Section. The rest of the time I spent deciding on how I was going to cut the notches in the two outside trailing edges on this section.
Jul 6
1.7hrs
Picked up six router bits for the Dremel. Worked great using them with the Pluge Router Dremel adapter.
Jul 8
1.7hrs
Spent .8 of this time creating the engine mock-up so that I can start figuring out the stringers. The rest of the time confirming additional raw material for the Upper Wing Center Section.
Jul 10
.5hrs
Time spent looking to see if I had any of the tubing that I need for the Upper Wing Center Section. Found two of the four sizes I need... in the length that I need.
Jul 12
1.5hrs
Placed the order for the rest of the material for the Upper Wing Center Section; everything except the fuel tank. Tonight I spent a little over an hour locating the radial engine blank on Station 0.o.
Jul 13
N/A
Three hours spent cleaning up/making room in the garage workshop.
Jul 14
2.1hrs
Figuring out what to do with the firewall. A lot of thinking...
Jul 15
.3
Bending the two metal ribs for the main landing gear.
1.2
Worked on aligning and attaching the Main Landing Gear. The right one went on with a little work. The left one... all that heating when welding twisted it 3/8" out of alignment. I'll need to set the fuselage up as I did when I initially made the gear, drop lines and square it up before taking a torch to it to heat it back into place.
Jul 16
1.8hrs
Figuring out what I need for mounting the Idler Arms and Reverser. Reamed the Idler Arms with a 1/2" reamer. Spent more like 2.3 hrs but the additional was looking for stuff. Oh yeah, looked at pictures on line of how others mounted their Idler Arms and Reversers.
Jul 17
2.5hrs
Spent at least 2 1/2 hours on it today. Struck the line where the center of the axles needed to be and dropped plumb bobs from the ends. The right landing gear is 3/16" too far forward. The left landing gear is 1 1/16" too far back. Unbelieveable. Spent a lot of time just pondering what to do. I'll start dropping lines all the way up the front landing gear leg to see where the drift back starts. Didn't think of that until I packed up everything. If it's at the top only, I'll start heating the heck out of the cluster where the axle is. If not... I'll heat the cluster at the bottom front attach point.
Jul 18
,8hr
Took the torch to the lower fitting on the Main Landing Gear. Heated... with hesitation. Didn't move. I think I'll call White. Get his opnion.
Jul 23
1.3hrs
FINALLY located a piece of 5/8" x .o58 tubing. Cut the pieces and deburred. Ready for welding onto the fuselage. These will be used with the two Idler Arms.
Jul 24
.3hrs
Figured out what I am going to do as far as the cross-tube supports for the Idler Arms.
Jul
25
.6hrs
Cut the support tubing for the two Idler Arms.
Jul 28
1.6hrs
Laiminated up 2nd Nail Strip for Upper Wing Center Section.
Aug 1
.4hrs
Filed off the excess glue from the 2nd nail strip.
1.2hrs
Cut and fitted the supports for one of the Idler Arms.
Aug 3
1.1hrs
Tacked the Idler Arm supports on at Station 105.o. Cut and fitted up the ones at Station 137.o.
Aug 5
.7hrs
Partially welded up the Idler Arm support tubes at station 105.o.
Aug 31
.3hrs
Into the worksop to create a punch list. Quite a few things I can do on the fuselage without needing to start any "new" projects.
Oct 3
.3hrs
Cut the front mounting bushing for the tailwheel. woo hoo :P
1.4hrs
Finished notching second Idler Arm Support Bracket - tacked the pieces onto the fuselage.
Oct
9
N/A
Road trip to Whitey's. Talked to him about bringing the fuselage over to take a look at the landing gear and to see how much it's moved. I'll be bringing it over there next weekend.
2011
Jan 2
N/A
Another Road trip to Whitey's to ask about toein and to talk about the "fix" on the landing gear. Also, cleaned up the garage workshop so that I can put the main gear on the biplane and still have the door closed (it's COLD outside.)
1.1hrs
More welding on Idler Arm support brackets. Flipped fuselage so that I can weld the remaining half of the welds. It's all set up for putting the landing gear back on so that I can get started on that.
Jan 4
1.1hrs
More welding on the Idler Arm brackets. Finished with them other than two underside welds. I'll weld these when I flip the fuselage again.
Jun 17
N/A
A little over 3 hours of doing nothing but cleaning up the garage work shop so that I can get back at it again.
Jul 2
.5
reading... bringing my self back up to speed
Jul 3
1.5hr
Reviewing a few notes... went out and attached both gear to see what was what. Looks like it might be the front pivot point on the one Main Gear that needs "adjusting". Tomorrow I'll strike lines and level it and see where it lands.
Jul 4
1hr
Leveled the fuselage. FINALLY determined the measurements for the front axle location. And yeah... that's it for the hour.
Jul 5
1.2hrs
Dropped some plumb-bobs... and snapped some lines... and yeah, the gear did move. Time for some surgery.
Jul 7
.5hrs
Figuring out the 1° degree toe-out for the biplane.
Jul 10
1.3hrs
Dropped several lines checking the out of squareness of the Main Landing Gear. It's a lot more wacked (twisted) than I originally thought. Back to hour one of making the Main Landing Gear.
Aug 13
3hrs
Taking measurements and figuring things out for the Main Landing Gear.
Aug 28
.5hrs
Read over the biplane forum Skybolt Builder's Manual Main Landing Gear chapter again. Looked over the plans again and my CAD drawings making notes as to where points need to be dropped.
Sep 20
.6hrs
Removed Main Landing Gear and leveled fuselage to begin build on new Main Landing Gear.
Sep 27
.6hrs
Moved and RE-leveled the fuselage. Hose-clamped the Main Landing Gear jigs on... located the 1.25" pipe for axles. Yeah... more closer to an hours worth of time...
Oct 1
1.6hrs
Measured and marked jig pipe. Dropped plumbs and measured 2.375" in front of Station 5.o for location of front axle.
Oct 4
.5hrs
Started to level up the front tube for the axle... after thinking about it more... I decided to do it a different way. Need to make two jigs.
Oct 5
N/A
Made the two jigs to hold the tube that will hold the axles in place. Not adding any time to the build on this... but I did work on the biplane.
Oct 20
1hr
Messed around with leveling the tube for holding the axles. Discovered that they were welded into position. The fuselage is level and I took a read on the "jig" tube for the axles and it's level but for some reason my half-ass measurement shows that the one side is about 1/4" higher than the other. Not SURE what's going on there... probably "me". Will take another look at it "tomorrow".
Oct 24
1hr
The axle tube jig is level.
Oct 27
N/A
Spent about 1/2 hour doing this but the only thing I did was center the Main Landing Gear axle tube jig.
Nov 6
1.6hrs
Check level of axle support jig. Dropped lines from the front axles locations and made minor adjustments when talking measurements from the tailpost.
Nov 12
1.2hrs
Cut, filed and fitted the front bushings for the Main Landing Gear.
Nov 13
.9hrs
REconfirmed the correct position of the axle jig. Measured out and placed axles and locked them into place.
Nov 15
.5hrs
Measured and notched the .o95 tubing. Spent about 10 minutes thinking I could take a dead blow hammer to them and flatten them out. Forgot that last time I heated them FIRST !
Nov 18
.7hrs
Heated and "streamlined" one of the .o95 tubes.
Nov 19
.7hrs
Unhappy with yesterday's streamling, I flipped the tube and did the other end after doing a supurb job on the first one I did today. (plenty of length to the tube so that I can notch it in to the axle)
Nov 20
1.7hrs
Notched first tube (on my second set of landing gear.) Raady for the second.
Nov 26
1.2hrs
Second tube notched !
Nov 28
1.8hrs
Began notching the cross tube for the Main Landing Gear.
Dec 3
2.6hrs
Finished nothing the cross tube (.4hr) then started in with the first streamlined tube.
Dec 4
1.1hrs
Finished notching and fitting the first streamline tube for the landing gear.
Dec 6
1.4hrs
Notched top end of second streamline tube. Actually it's upside-down so it's the "bottom" of the tube.
Dec 8
1.9hrs
Continued notching the second streamlined tube. Still a little bit more to notch on it for the right length fit.
Dec 11
.7hrs
Figured out and cut the angled cuts for the back tubes for the main landing gear. Found the templates from the first time I did the gear for the front and back sides of the boxed in back fitting.
Dec 13
.3hrs
Spent several hours tonight doing stuff for the build, but not actually building. Have to put something down for my efforts.
Dec 14
1.8hrs
Traced, cut, filed and sanded the four pieces that make up the "box" fittings on the back tube for the main landing gear.
Dec 16
2.1hrs
More work on notching and fitting the front gear. More notching of the front tube. Started notching the back tube.
Dec 19
1.1hrs
I have the correct shape on the tube I've been working on. Now I just need to put the 1/4" spacer behind it and notch it down to the correct length.
Dec 23
2hrs
Finished 1st back tube. Made pattern and started and finished 2nd back tube in 1.5hours.
Dec 28
2.1hrs
Made patterns for new straps. Traced patterns on .o65 4130 and then cut out and ground down to size.
Dec 31
2.3hrs
Fitted up the .o65 side plates to the back fittings for the main landing gear. Yeah... a lot of time for a little project.
2012
Jan 2
1hr
Made spacers for aligning plates for back landing gear boxes. Some additional filing for one of the plates. Decided that I need to modify the angle of the cuts on the back tubes slightly. Will do that tomorrow.
Jan 4
1.1hrs
Made a jig to mark the tubes to re-cut the angle on the main gear back tubes.
Jan 6
.7hrs
Cut new sides for the back two tubes for the main gear. Only needed to cut the front two. Still need to notch to fit.
Jan 8
.9hrs
Notched and fitted the two remaining sides of the back gear "boxes".
Jan 10
1.2hrs
Squared up fuselage (slight adjustments) and did some finish fitting of streamlined tube. Still some griding to be done.
Jan 11
1.5hrs
Dropping plumb bobs and taking additional measurements to square up the fuselage and making sure the gear is equidistant from all points.
Jan 12
.5hrs
IT'S squared up. All measurements are mirrored. Ready for welding.
Jan 14
N/A
Spent 1.5 hours practicing my welding.
Jan 16
N/A
Another 45 minute of practicing my welding.
.5hrs
Looking at plans to figure what needs to be purchased to make the upper wing center fuel tank.
Jan 23
.5hrs
Spent hours thinking of how to make a jig to "sight" the main gear when I go to weld it up (to see where it moves and where it needs to move back to). Came up with the jig I'll be using and went to measure for the wood I'll need for it.
Jan 24
.5hrs
Started making jig for gear "alignment."
Jan 25
.5hrs
Drilled the holes and screwed the jig together. Tomorrow I'll mount to the fuselage.
Jan 28
1.2hrs
More work on the axle jig.
Jan 29
.8hrs
Finished the axle reference jig.
Jan 30
1.6hrs
Aligned/welded up the sides of the back, right box attachment !
Jan 31
1.6hrs
Finished welding up the first of two box fittings.
Feb 2
2hrs
Tacked and welded on the sides and the strap for the second back box fitting.
Feb 5
.8hrs
Welded the second box fitting.
Feb 6
1.7hrs
Reamed both rear box fittings. Made small adjustment to right box fitting (pushing axle). Tacked and welded up both front attachments.
Feb 7
1.3hrs
Reamed both front fittings for the landing gear. Measured, marked, cut and trimmed the cross tube for the gear.
Feb 8
1.6hrs
Cut the curves to the ends of both cross tubes (inside end).
Feb 10
1.7hrs
Leveled, squared, tacked and welded both cross tubes to vertical tubes.