April 1, 2012
       Holding back...
                        on the hammering.

Sunday was another banner day... got a lot of work done; albeit... a lot of little work, but work none the less.

I'm still working on cutting out the multitude of stand-offs. Cut out the patterns for the 2 inch stand-offs and pretty much did what I did yesterday with the 3 inch stand-offs; they're all finished to 150 grit sandpaper.

That was earlier in the day... took a break from it and then headed back down tonight. I wanted to see how these puppies were going to look bent over and in their final shape. Instead of cutting out more stand-offs, I hammered away on the ones that had been finished to the 150 grit sanding. The shorter ones are a piece of cake. The longer ones (6 inch and longer) tend to cup when you pound on them too many times. The fewer the blows the straighter they stay.

Here's a thought, if I don't hit directly on the metal maybe it won't cup; aka, lay a length of aluminum bar against the leg that needs bending and tap that over thus not concentrating the hit. yeah yeah... I'll try this out tomorrow...

Here's a photo of the ones that I've taken the hammer to...

April 2, 2012
       Keeping my word...
                        is good enough.

In the beginning of my build, I needed to lay down a few core principles to help guide me... to keep me straight. Good enough... isn't good enough... were some of the first words I spoke when building this biplane... a set of words that helped keep the project the best that it can be.

Wasn't happy with the slight cupping on the 6 inch and 5 inch stand-offs I made the other day. Tonight I spent the time in remaking (2) of each; from a sheet of .o32 4130 through to the bend. Here's photos of the old one, on the left, and the new one, on the right. thankyouverymuch...

picture doesn't do the cupping justice

April 3, 2012
       Breaking through...
                                 Barriers.

A few more stand-offs were made tonight. I'm back to where I was two days ago... but with better looking stand-offs. (heh, that's me... always working towards excellence) I discovered that I can produce better, straighter bends on the stand-offs if I use a longer aluminum bar so that when I hit the bar I'm bending the entire length of the stand-off instead of sections of it. Not sure if you followed that...

Got to thinking when I was mindlessly wacking over the bends in the stand-offs, well I wasn't mindlessly wacking them, but not much thought was needed to do it. Anyways... I got to thinking as to why I've created this journal of my work on here, other than a document for the DAR, what's its purpose ? It's not to give a step-by-step manual to building the biplane... there are plenty of sources out there for seeing how you make each and every part. nooooo... it's not about that...

hmmm...
Building isn't always making a part and being happy with it after the first one you make. Heck, sometimes it's two, three or more tries at it before you get that "excellence." You find out a lot about yourself through your build.

I've discovered that for me to succeed I need to embrace both the highs and lows in the project. I haven't seen a builder's blog out there that shows you a guy that takes 12 hours to make two brake backing plates and is happy to have gone through that experience. or... over a year battling what to do with the main landing gear and finally pushing through and not only learning from the experience but finally completing what I started out to do.

In my thinking, and I've known this all along... I write not only to think through what I did that night, and through my thinking learn from the experience, I write for others going through the same things as I have/am, sharing a common bond... and in that sharing, maybe, just maybe, help someone break through their barriers.

four more stand-offs

April 4, 2012
       Discovery...
                        working like a charm.

I crafted eight more stand-offs tonight. Using the long bar and deadblow hammer to bend them over is continuing to work like a charm.

One issue I had with them was keeping the stand-off blank positioned right on the bending block. Tried a piece of packing tape and that's working like a charm too. I'm not sure if it's the learning from the past, discovery of a better way of doing it... or just the fact that most times... to make something right it's usually the easiest way of doing it. hmmmm... ??? not making any sense am I ??? anywho...

Here's a photo of the 8 (centered) with one that is taped to the bending block. Also pictured are a pile of ones I finished in the past few days and a stack of blanks ready for filing, sanding and bending.

April 7, 2012
       The pure mathematics...
                                      of building.

I haven't thought of the biplane as a complete biplane in some time... not that I haven't thought of the day it will be completed, but I haven't worked on the biplane thinking that I'm building a biplane. Make any sense ?

I've been building these stand-offs. And that's it... when I'm cutting the shapes out of the .o32 4130 sheet, grinding them down, sanding to the line and bending them, I'm thinking of building a stand-off. I'm not thinking that I'm building a biplane. Kinda breaks up the build into little projects without having to think of breaking it up into little projects.

Tonight I stumbled upon the Wikipedia "article" on the essay "A Mathamatician's Apology" by British mathematician G. H. Hardy. I won't get into what it had to say other than, and I quote from Wikipedia, Hardy "wanted to justify his belief that mathematics should be pursued for its own sake rather than for the sake of its applications." In other words... "pure mathmatics." (quoting Wikipedia again).... "This term originates back to Plato and his distinction between pure and applied mathmatics; ""arithmetic", now called number theory, and "logistic", now called arithmetic. Plato regarded logistic (arithmetic) as appropriate for businessmen and men of war who "must learn the art of numbers or [they] will not know how to array [their] troops" and arithmetic (number theory) as appropriate for philosophers "because [they have] to arise out of the sea of change and lay hold of true being."

That got me to thinking about other pures... and finally bringing me back to the original intent of all of this... "pure building." Building the biplane should be pursued for its own sake rather than for the sake of its application; aka the finished product, which is the biplane. My thought is that if you think of it in any other way you won't complete the build, plain and simple. For a first timer... it will be overwhelming.

So do yourself a favor, if you haven't started doing it already... enjoy building each and every part of the biplane; build the stand-off tonight, or whatever it is that you are building. And those obstacles that you are bound to run into can be easily figured out like a math problem, one step at a time.

April 8, 2012
       Banging out the project...
                                                          and the hours.

Put some additional hours in on the build today, even though it was Easter Sunday; an hour before dinner and an hour and a half after dinner with the family.

Banged out (16) more four inch stand-offs. That leaves about eight more to cut, file, sand and bend.

Feels good to be moving full steam ahead with the project... not slowing down at the moment. It seems like when I'm going with the build, I'm really going with it and when.... ahhhh, I don't want to even think of that now. I'll just keep the happy thought of moving along at a good clip, like I am right at this moment.

a few more stand-offs

April 11, 2012
       working towards...
                        some head scratching

The other night I cut the tubes for the fairway lead grommets (at least that's what I'm calling them.) Twern't a fast process of cutting those pieces. Took near an hour or more to cut four 3/4 inch lengths of tube. uh... yeah

Tonight it was a visit to the Vets for the pup. He got A's on his report card. (good pup!) Got home from there, grabbed a bite to eat and it was appoaching 9:30PM. Wanted to do something and have been thinking of converting one of the upstairs bedrooms into a upper wing center section workshop. Had to do some rearranging before dragging the jig, I made about a year ago, up the steps.

I have some head scratching to do on how I'll be jigging the pieces in positon on the jig, but other than that... I'm all set for making that center section... wooo hooo !!!

April 12, 2012
       Spending quality time...
                        with the plans

It's not about the amount of time but the quality of time that counts... right ???

Looked over the upper wing center section prints tonight. (it's been awhile) Kind of got a feel for what I need to do, the steps I need to take... in the order I need to take them.

Still need to have those THICK metal parts welded up that I cut out so long ago. Need to cut a few lengths of tube and also lathe out a few caps from solid pieces of 4130. After all that is completed I can take all that wood work I've done and create that center section.

At the same time I'm doing all this I still plan on working on the fuselage; attaching all those parts and pieces and figuring out what else needs to be done with it.

April 19, 2012
       Thinking through...
                        the upper wing center section

I've been away for work for a few days but that hasn't stopped me from "working" on the biplane. I've been thinking about things for a week...

I'm back to working with wood again and I've been thinking about what I need to do to get things going on this next part; the upper wing center section, if you haven't already figured it out.

I need to rig a few lengths of wood for jigging and the other night (before I left for a few days) I plugged in the DeWalt portable table saw and it kept tripping the fuse (which is odd because 1. It never did that before, and 2. I have new fuse box that can handle all that required power.) Went down to try it out tonight and... (drum roll please) it works like nothing was wrong with it. hmmmmm... ???

Okay.. (shrug shoulders) table saw is ready, now I need to clamp a few pieces of pipe to the bottom side of the jig to make sure it stays straight the entire time I'm building this part of the wings; as we all know wings need to be straight and true.

In thinking this all through, I need to make a few short, temporary spars for the ribs to make sure that the placement of the two spars in the center section match up to them. Reason being... there are wing attachment fittings on the center section spars. I'll need to rip these tonight on the table saw that is now working. They don't have to be angled and pretty looking. I'm just looking to make sure that the spacing on the ribs line up with the spacing on the center section.

Okay... what do I have so far:
1. Rip temporary spars
2. Rip a few lengths of wood for jigging up the spars
3. Weld up two of the fittings that I have made the pieces for
4. Need to buy aluminum for wing tank
4. START building it !!!

I'm sure I'll be doing a lot more thinking through before finishing this piece.

April 22, 2012
       Tip toe...
                        and it ain't through the tulips

I'm at that part of the build again, when I slow things down... Not that I want to, it's just a part of my process for some reason.

And it's not for some reason, it's because I'm forging into new territory; the building of the upper wing center section. I'm tip toeing... as I've done many times in the past. Rather tip toe instead of rush into it and then have to re-make whatever piece I'm working on at the time.

I'm thinking ahead here... trying to see 20/20 before instead of after the fact. Spent today taking off the excess epoxy that had squeezed out when making the spars. Cleaning them up so that the box ribs I made awhile ago will sit flush with the spars. Then... spent the rest of the work session making a few short temporary spars for the upper wing ribs; wanted to fit them on the ribs and then mate them up to the upper wing center section jig to make sure that they matched up right. They did !!!

Need to measure and cut quite a few corner blocks for the ribs... work for tomorrow.

April 23, 2012
       Spending time...
                        on the project and other schtuff

More pieces to the puzzle... cutting more pieces.

Measured and cut the 3/4" x 3/4" x 45 degree corner blocks that I needed. These support the ribs on the upper wing center section. Other than messing with the bandsaw (aka "other schtuff") not much thought went into tonight's work. Figured I needed to tilt either the table or the "T" square to cut straight cuts. Turned out to be the table that needed to be realigned.

Spent a little extra time makin' them look purty. Sanded the fray off of the edges and the rough face on each of them. Lookin' might fine now.

April 24, 2012
       In the foot steps...
                                   of JimW

Spent tonight looking for "gotchas."

Back in 2009, when JimW was working fast and furious on his Skybolt, he documented a few corrections that needed to be made to the plans and the path that he took in making the upper wing center section. Jim, and his other half, were doing it all the right way; a trophy winner to be sure. If he already had been there... I'm sure as hell gonna see how he did it and plan my route from his experience.

Saw a post on the fourm that JimW made that I hadn't seen before. It was how he jigged up the spars for the center section. Looks kinda like what I'm planning on doing. nice...

One last thing I did before stopping for the night was checking on the wing's spar spacing and the upper wing center section spar spacing; close to dead on !!!

oh... and one other thing... just reached 2000 hours on the build. saaaaa... weet !!!

April 25, 2012
       It's now...
                            Flopped

Worked on the upper wing center section tonight. More scratching the head actually...

There is a build up on the front spar. It pretty much spans the top and bottom of the front of the front spar. Needed to trim up one of the layers so that it would nest nicely between the 1/4" spar blocks.

With both build ups trimmed to fit I started placing all the parts and pieces together for a trial fit of all the pieces to make sure they all fit correctly. The first parts I match up, the span build ups, started the head scratching. like... what the hell is going on here ???

Not that you'll follow me on this, but... there was an 1/8 inch gap from the build up and the spar itself. Wondering what happened. Found the prints for the piece and all the layers were there. Scratched my head a few times and still couldn't figure it out. Flipped and flopped the build up on the spar... then it dawned on me. I had the 1/4 inch piece where the 1/8 inch piece should have been. I made the spans before I made the spars and apparently didn't think it through all the way; I flipped it when it should have been flopped!

I have material slated for another part that I'll borrow so that I can continue working on the center section. I'll get started on that tomorrow.

I reinforced something tonight; need to think things through until you fully understand them and you should build the parts that other parts mate to before making those mating parts. But, that's not the important thing that happened tonight... I actually started to put this center section together; got past just the thinking stage of building. Didn't get far in doing it, but I did cross that span of hesitation...

April 26, 2012
       Resistance...
                            is futile !!!       ???

Got home tonight from work around 6:45pm. Yeah... initially I didn't really feel like working on the biplane after a long day... yeah... got over that quick enough.

Continued work on the spar build up on the upper wing center section. Looked over the plans, made a few measurements, looked at the marks... and it looks like the top 1/8 inch piece of spruce, per the plans, will be 1/2 inch too long. On both ends of the spar is an "L" shapped bracket and then a 1/4 inch thick nose rib. With the spar build up the length per the plans it won't allow space for both of those ribs. And... of course this is all speculative. Once I have everything together I'll confirm either way.

Nice to have resisted the resistance (so does that make it futile and un-futile at the same time???)... put another hour behind me on the build... another hour closer to flying her.

Here's an image of the front spar with the cut pieces for the build up ready for glueing up.

April 28, 2012
       Phils VS the Cubs...
                            starting in the 4th inning

A busy Saturday for me... on everything BUT the project. 7PM rolls around and I need to make a decision... do I work on the project now and miss the frist part of the Phillies game or watch the entire game and then work on it at like 10 tonight???

My better judgement came in to play and I decided that I'd miss about an hour of the game and get some work done on the project instead of watching the game and possibly falling asleep on the couch and missing the last part of the game and not working on the biplane. yeah... that's what I'll do.

The plan was to mix up a big ol' batch of glue and glue up the spar build up for the upper wing center section.

A few small brass brads, some glue and about an hour's worth of time and they're ready for the weights to be placed on them for setting up. By the way, I used the brads to keep the pieces from moving on me (glue has that tendency to slide when setting up, even when they are on a level surface.)

Tomorrow... I'll do a dry run of all the pieces I have made for the center section, find out what I still need to do and proceed from there.

By the way... the Phillies won tonight 5 - 2 against the Cubs (lost last night to the Cubs). Still two more games in the series. Utley and Howard to be making their comebacks soon.

April 29, 2012
       Starting and...
                            Stopping

Had a little bit of time this afternoon to work on the biplane. Managed to file and sand off the excess glue on the spar build ups that I glue together last night. nuff said about that...

Tonight I started to fit all the pieces together that I had made for the upper wing center section. Started with the front spar and didn't get far.

Laid the front spar so that the forward side of it was laying up on the table. Fit both of the spar build ups in place and then got the five nose ribs I had routed and trimmed, oh so long ago... and that is where it stopped going together so well. It looks like the notches shown on the CAD plans for the nose ribs are a little off... ohhh by about 3/16 inch for each notch. I needed to cut out additional material from the height of the notches too. That used bandsaw that I bought a few years back made quick work of re-adjusting the size of those notches. (note: the 45 degree supports are temporary in the photo... they need to be cut down a bit more and fitted between the spar build ups)

More work on fitting up tomorrow... wondering how far I'll get before hitting another "stop." Embracing those stops for their learning...

April 30, 2012
       The game was on...
                            not much was accomplished

Planned doing a lot more than the little that I did. Guess having the Phillies/Cubs game on the TV didn't help much.

Continued working on dry fitting the pieces together for the upper wing center section. Needed to trim the 45 degree support blocks. Liked doing it so much that I did it twice (not enough taken off the first time). That's it !!! That's all that I accomplished tonight. Not much for close to an hour's worth of work. I'll put down .3 hours... but I'm not marking down a full hour.

Next on the list... cutting the angles on the spar build ups, to match the angles on the front spar, then glue them onto the spar so I can get moving on with the rest of the fitting up

oh yeah... My man Vance pitched tonight... Phillies win 6 - 4 over the Cubs. Nice game...

got to thinking...
This deal about an hours worth of messing around and actually working on it for .3 hours... not quite. There's a kazillion things I'm thinking about the entire time I'm working on the biplane; little adjustments and notes that I'm making. Hell, there are times I'm staring at the TV, watching the game, and I'm thinking through what I'm working on... or the next step from there.

soooooooo..... I'm going to have to retract my statement about not much getting accomplished tonight. A helluva lot got accomplished... as usual.

May 2, 2012
       Moving forward...
                            is the risk of making mistakes

There's one thing that I need to overcome... hesitation. If you're going to move forward you'll need to go through whatever it is that is ahead of you... no matter how long you wait to start.

And so it is with this upper wing center section. My hesitation is due to me not wanting to mess up a good piece of wood, or a good piece of whatever I'm about to work on. Maybe I shouldn't think of overcoming my hesitation by moving on quickly... but overcoming it by moving ahead at a steady pace. Plan it out, think it all the way through and then proceed with the task.

These days/weeks of dragging out getting a start on the upper wing center section. (I've been working on it, but nothing that would be a "keep it" or "throw it away" decision.) All that changed tonight.

The build up for the spars should have been glued on before I made the 10 degree cuts on the front spar. Instead, I made the cuts on the spar and then made the build ups... which necessitated me making the 10 degree cuts on the spar build ups and then glue them on to the front spar.

I used the angle on the spar to set the angle on the table saw's blade. Made a test cut with the scrap piece of wood then set about taking my time cutting both spar build ups. saaaaa-weet ! Spent the rest of my session glueing them on and weighting them down.

moving right ahead...

May 3, 2012
       Little time, but no excuses...
                turns out I wanted to watch this movie tonight

Got home from work and headed straight down to the workshop. I wanted to see how the glue up went. Looooooks.... purty nice.

Needed to clean the excess squeeze out off the sides of the spar. A little under 1/2 hour and I'm ready to glue on the nose ribs.

Wanted to catch a bite to eat before doing the ribs and got sucked into watch "AVATAR" on TV (it was on one of the channels when I started eating my salad for dinner... always heard about it, but never saw it... great flick !). and... That's all she wrote. It's 11:49pm right now and the nose ribs will have to wait until tomorrow.

'nuff said

On to the next page...

Above "X-15" image is from Flickr and has no known copyrights. It is from the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives. Tulip image is United States Government Work, no copyrights.