Latest Work Completed Mantua, New Jersey
Original Site:
September 2004
E-mail: usav8or@yahoo.com
more work on the...Radial Fuselage.
April 18 - 23, 2022
Messing about...
in planes.
A recuring thought I have is an often seen/heard quote from "The Wind In The Willows"... Mole, speaking to Ratty: "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing, - absolutely nothing - half as much worth doing as simply messing about in boats (insert planes).
Funny... not haha, but funny that... "Wind In The Willows" was on the side of my T-craft when I bought it.
Well, this time it's messing around with brakes and tires for the biplane. Spent this week getting things ready to begin crafting the cowling. And... it looks like I'm still taking care of the wheel business. A LOT of learning about these wheels and brakes. Add on top of that, figuring out how to raise the engine high enough to lift it into place. My thoughts... attach a wood structure to the ceiling joist above the area where I'll hang the engine. Box it out at the top using additional 2x4's and 4x4's to strength it up. It's 12 feet in the air (the ceiling)... so the box structure would attach to the ceiling and come down about 4 feet. A set of 4x4's would then come up from the floor and attach to the bottom of the box structure. Support bracing would come off of both the lower and upper structures to keep things in place. A block and tackle would then be attached to the box structure at the 8' height. At least those are my thoughts for right now...
A little bit of wait time for the grease... which showed up early on Friday. The work session that day included putting on a pair of plastic gloves so that I could scoop a dollup of grease into the palm of my hand and then take the wheel bearing and push it into the mass of grease to fill it. Four times that, and I'm done with that messy job.
A little bit of learning the correct sequence for attaching the wheel/brake combination. With the MATCO's... or at least the ones I have. I need to put the disc in place, then secure the second pad (wrench it into place) then slide on the firsst wheel bearing, then the wheel, then the second wheel bearing... then secure with the nut. Finished.
Between the head scratching with figuring out how to lift the engine into place, and attaching the brakes/wheels... I filled up my work sessions on Big Ass Bird this week.