Latest Work Completed Mantua, New Jersey
Original Site:
September 2004
E-mail: usav8or@yahoo.com
Tips for installing a BIG OL' Radial.
It's
going to be some time before I can add anything to this page.
If you have any suggestions, by all means, please email them
to me. I'll post it here..
November 3, 2008 It's time...
to get 'er done !
I've had the Jacob for close to two months now; just a few weeks since it's finally been off loaded and uncrated at Whitey's. Never thought that this day would come. It's been a long wait but a wait that's actually gone by pretty quickly.
Before I can install the Jake on the Skybolt it needs to be overhaul. I've created a section for my learning the in's and out's of overhauling a 60 year old radial engine. Should be fun. Click here to read a little about it.
January 14, 2009 It's all...
coming together now.
Before I tear this big piece of machinery down I wanted to hang it on the front of the fuselage so that I coudlan begin to get some measurements for the stringers, a few of the lines to operate it, etc. In order to do that I'd either need to make
an engine mount or build one. Spoke to Whitey about it and he said it'd be a hole lot easier if I found me at least the ring mount so that we could build it out from there. It took a little time and a lot more money to
get me a ring... but a ring I did get.
Sent off the check earlier this week to Oregon for that ring. Here's a picture of it from the guy that I bought it from. Still needs to have the stamped lugs welded onto it. With the lugs still off of it, it's a pretty good indication that it's never been used. Should be here sometime next week. I'll probably need to first get the gear onto the fuselage, then I'll truck it on over to Whitey's place to get 'er done; you know... hang the engine.
Did a little research on the guy I bought it from... looks like he's one of those Waco builder/restorers... a good ol' boy.
February 3, 2009 Setting things...
...into motion.
As of today's date, I have the dual-fork Homebuilt Special tailwheel from Aircraft Spruce. Wasn't exactly what I wanted, I wanted to put the Bob Tailwheel ($650.00.) Saw the Homebuilt Special tailwheel on ebay and got it for a great price... couldn't pass it up. Heard a lot of good things about it on the biplane forum. Figure, if I end up not liking it I could always sell it. So... the tailwheel is ready to be mounted.
Before being able to mount the tailwheel, I'll first need to measure, cut and notch the tubing and cut and grind the fittings for the main landing gear. I've been reading up on it in the hopes that I don't make a wrong cut or do the wrong thing. Stream-line tubing is pretty expensive and I don't want to be learning on it. Might just make a few practice pieces before I go and cut the actual tubing for the gear (would make sense, eh ?.)
I moved the fuselage on SuperBowl Sunday to a building behind the apartment buildings that Denise manages and lives at. Now it's just a matter of get crakin' on it. We'll see... I'm giving myself two months to build it and another week to have the tail wheel mounted. From there it over to Whitey's to size up the engine and hang it on the front of the Skybolt. (just thinking of being this close to hanging an engine on the front of the 'bolt... is dream-like... how long have I been waiting for this moment ?)
The engine ring should be arriving shortly, with the lugs. From this we will need to build the rest of the engine mount. I have photos of other installations that we can go by. And my multitude of questions to my good friend, Dale, in VA, is helping out tremendously.
Once the Jake is hung, and all the measurements have been taken, I can then begin the tear down to do the overhaul.
February 4, 2009 Lord of...
the rings
Just like the story by J.R.R. Tolkien's... it's the ring of power; The Lord Of The Rings ! I've been waiting all my life for this ring... (insert evil laugh.)
Uh... yeah, more to come. I'm not even close to finishing this yet.
August 2, 2014
A trip to Bob's;
Jacobs and a whole lot more...
Turns out that the guy sold me a ring for some other engine. It ain't near big enough for the Jake. That guy I bought it from... not so much a good ol' boy ???
A while back I had spoken to Whitey about the engine... he said he knew of a guy that knew quite a bit about the Jake. It was a friend of his up from around where he use to live. The guys name is Bob Boyer. Gave me his number and I remember callilng and speaking to him briefly at the time but wasn't really in the "moving on with the Jake" frame of mind.
That was back in 2009. Fast forward to 2014. I'm now in that Jake frame of mind and I give Bob another call. Nice guy. We started talking and I'm asking questions. Asked if there was a shop around here that he knew of that overhauls Jakes. He didn't know of any. He mentioned AirRepair, down in MS. He said that they owned the rights to the Jacobs radial now... (I had heard that somewhere else too). Another question I had was if he knew of a source for the engine mount. I have been having trouble locating one. (the one mentioned above is actually too small and it looks nothing like the Jake ring... I later found out). He said that they weren't really hard to come by and that he had a few around his place. He said he'd take a look and give me a call back about it. Asked him how much... and he said about 30 or 40 dollars.
We talked a little bit more and he said... I have a few Jakes laying around that I'm thinking of selling. Two of them are military overhauls; one with zero hours and the other with about 100 hours. The guy he got them off of said that they had paperwork with them. When he got there to pick them up he couldn't find the paperwork. It was someone he knew. Bob bought them as spares. I said I'd be interested in them and that they'd be good for an overhaul. He said he thought that they'd just need a visual inspection and maybe just a little work. Said he'd sell them for $3000.00 each. Talked a bit more and we ended with Bob saying he'd check and get back to me on the mount.
Two days later I get a call... from Bob. He left a message... He has a mount and mentioned the engines again saying that there were a few others... one that had been laying on a dirt floor, in a shed, that would be good for the bafflings and other misc. parts and piece.
I give him a call back and I said I'd see if I could make it up this weekend to pick up the mount and take a look at the engines. That was Friday. Saturday morning I called Bob back and asked if he'd be around in the afternoon. He checked with his wife and we agreeded that I'd show up around 1ish or 2ish.
It's Saturday morning and Andrea and I leave for Alexandria Airport (it's a little ways up from Frenchtown, NJ). Nice drive once we get on the Jersey side and start heading up Route 29. We pull onto airport road (which dead-ends into the end of one of the two runways at Alexandria Airport) and see a mailbox with Boyer on it... right off the end of the runway. It has a small road which leads up to a HUGE hangar and a house off to the side. We pull up the drive... I ring the door bell and Bob opens the door. It was the beginning of an amazing two hour talk and tour.
Walking throught his hangar there were all sorts of airplanes and airplane parts; his UC-78, PT-26, straight-tailed Cessna 172, Cessna 182, a few Jacobs radials, a few Ranger engines, ect ect ect... I asked him about the jet he once owned... it was an F-84. An ex-Thunderbird plane. That was a story all unto itself.
Bob could go on forever with stories... and he was a wealth of information as far as Jakes and their parts go. I didn't have a pad and pencil to take down all the names and numbers... but I'll be giving him a call back.
I brought up the engines again... went over for a little bit closer inspection. He mentioned that he had two constant speed props that he would sell as well. They were a little bit shorter than the standard 2B20's... they were set up for the UC-78. I'll have to take a look at where they are cut down to... but the price is right.
We left after the grand tour and two hours of chatting... I loaded up the Jacob mount and said I'd give him a call in a few days about the engines and the props.
August 5, 2014
Up in the air
with the Jake mount...
Move the motor mounting to another page... called "The Motor Mount".