May 19, 2008
       Riddle me this ...
            What's the difference between....
                A wooden fold-up carpenter's ruler
                   and a Fat Max tape measure ?

A lot more than I thought there was... and it's not just the looks.

On Sunday I went out to the garage workshop to work on the fuselage. Figured I'd square it up and get to measuring, cutting and notching those cross tubes in the back portion of the fuselage. To get it nice and squared I'd do the same thing as I did with the forward portion of the fuselage. The bottom is blocked so I would just need to take the measurement between several stations on the longerons that were attached to the table (which are the upper longerons) and transfer that measurement to the lower longerons (which are currently up in the air.) Simple enough... right ?

OK... taking my nicely crafted wood fold-up ruler, that I've owned for more years than I can remember, I take the measurement of three stations. I'm using this ruler because on the one end there is a metal rule that slides out and makes it easy to measure in between points with greater accuracy.

I take those meausrements and using my Fat Max tape measure, I cut up a few pieces of MDF to make my spacer bars for the lower longerons.

With the spacers in place on the lower longerons, which are actually the upper one right now, I fabricated the X-turnbuckles and begin to dial in a square frame.... and dial... and dial... and (well, you get the point.) No matter what I did I couldn't get the fuselage to square up. It always ended up that the lower longerons (ones in the air) were always further apart than the upper longerons (ones on the table.)

I was so wrapped up into trying to dial in the right numbers that quite a bit of time passed (wasted time) before I begin to question the obvious... "If the lower longerons (yes, the ones in the air) started out further apart than the ones on the table, no matter what I did I wouldn't be able to bring them closer together to make the frame square. At some point I questioned that. Grant it, it was some time before asking it.

I took the measurement again with my "trusty" nicely crafted wood fold-up carpenter ruler and sure enough, my measurements were "correct," the same as what I had originally measured. Not just one, but all three were dead on to what I had measured. Took my Fat Max and measured the spacers and they were dead on too. But, dead on wasn't working. Something got lost, or should I say added, between the time I took the measurement in the garage workshop and cutting it down in the basement workshop.

It was when I placed both tape measures down to begin to pull my hair out, in fustration, that I realized that I had commited one of the most mortal of sins for any builder... I had used two tape measures to measure one cut.

Once discovered I still used both rulers for measuring, BUT I measured the wood rule with the Fat Max after I got the initial reading.

Again I pose the question, "What's the difference between the two rulers?" About three eigths of an inch. yeah... don't ask me how I know, 'cause now ya know. But three eigths ???? who would have thought ?

Moral of the story. Measure twice, cut once. Especially if you're using two rulers.

May 27, 2008
       Looking over....
            your own shoulder...

No, I haven't placed the project on hiatus, again. I'm still putting in my time building the Skybolt. What with the holiday weekend, I found less time to work on her the past three days than I do coming home after work at nights; three hours over the weekend as compared to three point one hours tonight.

Guess I could always wake up and hour earlier and head out to the shop before going to work....
anyhow...

Sometimes, we...i...me... get so wrapped up in the task at hand that we...i...me... deal with what we're handed and just kinda move on. Happens to me every once in a while, but I'm glad that I catch myself each time it happens (at least I hope that I do.)

The other day, for example, I'm measuring, cutting and notching the cross-tubes for the back portion of the fuselage. I'm measuring the angle for the cut with my adjustable square, cutting the tube to size, locking it into the Joint Jigger, notching it, taking the angled measurement for the opposite end of the tube, positioning and then locking the tube back into the Joint Jigger to make the final notch.

The first tube... fine...
the second tube... fine...
the third tube... fine... or so I thought, until I thought... about what I just did or was about to do. Maybe I was so use to having different angles cut each time I made a cut for the fuselage sides that I fell back into that thinking. Not sure who, or why, I thought about what had just taken place, but I was sure it wasn't what should have taken place.

The second angled cut on the third cross-tube was measured to be at a different angle than the first notch I made. If the fuselage was square than this wouldn't be an issue. But an issue it was. After all that time I had put into making it "square" to only find out it wasn't square... ah well...

The guy looking over my shoulder asked me to just step away from the table for awhile... come back tomorrow. Think about it.

If what I did wasn't working, then maybe I should look elsewhere for the answer. And that's just what I did. I went to the homebuilt Guru, Mr. Tony Bingelis. Took out his yellow and blue books and started to thumb through them and found the chapter on "How to square up your slightly outta square fuselage before you go ahead and weld it up outta square." Just like the bible... Tony's books will answer any questions that you may have... about building an aeroplane. All you need to do is ask.

Found it interesting, his method of making sure the bent-in, back portion of the fuselage, is square. When laying down the lines for the fuselage you generally have a center line that you reference. Unlike myself, mark it with a dark colored pen so that it's easy to see. Pencil ain't too easy to see, especially after working with the fuselage on that table for awhile. Anyway... just make sure it's nice and easily readable.

After measuring and making the spacer bars put them into position. Marked the center of spacer bars and drop a plumb bob from them. Using your X-turnbuckles you can now square up the sides with confidence in knowing that the lower longerons are now squared with the rest of the fuselage. They may be a wee bit narrower or a wee bit wider than the upper longerons but they're square and symmetrical.

Whether it's a chapter member, or yourself looking over your shoulder, step back when something doesn't seem just quite right... 'cause probably 100 percent of the time... it ain't.

June 16, 2008
       It's painfully....
            slooooooooooooooow

I've started back up on the fuselage... measuring, cutting and notching the angled pieces that are in the upper-back section of the fuselage.

I was out there for a little over an hour and a half and I still haven't finished notching out the first tube that I started on. What's up with that ? Ok... ok... so some of that time was me running around looking for item's that I placed in the perfect spot so I'd know where they were the next time I needed to use them... ok... ok... so maybe I worked on the actual plane for an hour. STILL... an hour on one tube that isn't even completed yet ????

Not that I don't enjoy going out there, listening to some MGK... Ray Koob.... spin some Stone's music... but an hour on one tube ? What gives ?

I'm sure that I'm not the only one that takes an excessive amount of time notching these complex multiple tube notches. And yes... there is an easier way. Enter Tony Bingelis.

Tony B has a simple little device that he came up with to mark the complex angles of tubes. You take pieces of 1/16th inch welding rod and sew them into a thin material parallel to each other. Wrap that around the tube that you need to notch into the other tubes, with a little over hang, press it into the tubes that you'll be notching it into and waalaaa ! instant shape that you can now draw on the tubing and notch real quick... unlike my method of hand marking the tubing with something close to what you need notched, grind a little, hold up to fuselage, grind, hold up to fuselage, grind, repeat repeat repeat. An hour later, still repeating.

I actually had Denise sew me up one of those "marker-thing-a-majigs" a few months ago. Asked her to use denim so that it would take a little punishment from me. Don't use it.... much too thick to get the welding rod close enough together to make a useable pattern to mark. I'm acutally thinking nylon stockings as the material... would allow the weld rod to move freely and it's ultra thin.

Hint. Don't even think of notching without this "marker-thing-a-majig." You'll only make your life go by painfully slow.

Thank you Mr Homebuilt Guru, Tony B.

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