Mantua, New Jersey
Original Site:
September 2004
E-mail: usav8or@yahoo.com
More... The Radical Radial Fuselage.
March 3, 2008 Nipping away
..a little at a time somehow... makin' it all fit together
Feels good to be back out in the workshop... filling the air with the smell of that 1960's metal toy with all those sparks flying from it.
At the moment... I have a plan when I come out here now. Well, not that I didn't have a plan before, but I know what I'm doing. Or, at least I think I know what I'm doing... Or should I say, I've at least convinced my self that I know what I'm doing . Well... since I've done the one side already, I should have learned something by now, shouldn't I ? At least it seems to be going along a lot quicker.
With the first side, remember, I made those two practice cuts on that front tube, the one going from station 0.o to 5.o ... I started looking for those two sample pieces so that I would have a "go by" for the one that I was just starting to cut. Funny how,
the space that you're working in is only large enough to spin around, but when you go to look for something you're never able to locate it. (alluding to an earlier entry) Well, it happened again with the two "sample" pieces that I had made... started looking for those two pieces of tubing, but decided fairly quickly that I wasn't going to
waste my time looking for them. I'd just move forward and notch the new one by hand. Hell, I had plenty of practice on that first one, I should be able to do it with my eyes shut (yeah right.)
So I started doing what I had learned from cutting the first three tubes for station 0.o to 5.o
And doing...
and doing...
and doing...
and doing...
An hour later of "doing" (notching, nipping and fitting,) over and over and over again, and I have a nicely fitted piece. One down, another thirteen to go.
Was able to measure, cut and notch a few additional tubes tonight. Hope to have it all tacked up and ready to stand on it's sides by the weekend. (I think I said this last week, about this time, didn't I ???)
By the way... grinding can be liken to glueing when you were a child in grammer school. The teacher always said, "A little dab will do ya." Well... not a little dab, but a little nip will do ya. Any more than that and you'll be takin' off way more than you'd like.
No matter how hard I try to avoid something, I ended up doing it... a lot of the time.
Take for instance my last botch. Everywhere on my fuselage table jig I write in heavy black Sharpie marker to drill access holes in the tubing before tack welding it together. First side... measure, cut, notch then drill the holes in the tubing... tack weld together.
Hey, not a problem. Going together nicely.
Second fuselage side, measure, cut, notch and drill access holes up to station 49.o6 (did this, this time, as to prevent my moving the 45 degree, front cuts, out of aligement before heat bending the lower longeron. Up until that point, everything was fine. Continue with my measuring, cutting and notching for the
back end of the fuselage side.
Lookin' good.
Came back the next day and let the fustration of waiting for five and a half hours while my internet provider took a look at my computer and their modem set-up to get in the way of my thinking, I'm assuming. (still isn't fixed and they say it's my computer. WRONG) Getting a late start, 2PM on a Sunday. Wanted to just enjoy getting the
second fuselage side tacked up so that I could start putting it all together this week.
Went out to the garge workshop without even giving drilling access holes a second thought. Aligned all the pieces of tubing and tacked them together. It wasn't until I started pulling the side out of it's jig that I noticed all that writing saying OIL ACCESS HOLES.
Aaugh !!!
How could this be ???
How could I have possibly missed all those red flags I put up ? What was I thinking... or better yet, what wasn't I thinking ??? Not that it mattered much now.... what I was thinking, er wasn't thinking, that is.
Now what ????
Should I leave it as is ? Some builders feel that you don't need to coat the inside with oil. I feel, hey, why not. It doesn't take that much more effort and for "insurance" why not do it ?
Was I going to make this an experiment ? Half oiled. Half un-oiled ? See if the one side begins to rot before the other ? I think not.
Through some reasoning... I decided that the best thing to do was to drilled a hole on the opposite side of where I needed a hole on the inside (follow that ?) I'd then drill through the opposite wall. All I'd need to do was go back and weld over those holes
when I go to weld up the fuselage. I've always read that the weld joint is stronger than the tube itself. Why wouldn't that apply to this situation ?
What did I take away from this "lesson?" Take a few minutes when you're finished for the night, to write down your plans for the next session, and all that it entails. Grant it, I'll probably still put on my set of blinders, but at
least I'm doing all I can to see all those little red flags I have
sticking up all over the place. 'cause I need all the help I can get.
Anyways... it's all corrected now and here is a picture of the second side. Now if I could only find those blinders...
