Rudder – Part 2

Brian 0 Comment Rudder

Another productive day in the Garage.  With great weather outside, I was able to spend time working while my girls were out playing in the yard.

With most of the rudder components fabricated, it was time to start assembling the rudder so I could final drill everything. Got the skeleton assembled, then added the skins and it started to look like a rudder!

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Because this is a control surface, you need to take a little longer to ensure you are not adding a twist into the part.  This requires a more measured approach to match drilling and adding clecos for EVERY hole along the spare (and trailing edge).  This is a lot of clecos and it towards the end of the day my arms and hands were quite sore.

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With the drilling done, it’s time to take everything apart and start to deburr everything.  By the end of the day, I had completed all of the deburring except for the skins.  Tomorrow I’m planning to put the bend on the trailing edge using the edge forming tool (hopefully without messing it up).  Not sure when I’ll have enough time to clean and prime the parts.  This may not happen until Saturday, so I’ll have to figure out if I’ll start the first few steps of the next section, or if I’ll just put my toys away for a few days.

Rudder – Part 1

Brian 0 Comment Rudder

The first few steps for the Rudder are cutting a bunch of parts and cleaning them up.  Once again I’m probably overthinking it, but I’m spending a lot of time cleaning up each part and removing any sharp edges.

My bandsaw wasn’t large enough for me to cut some of the parts, so I ended up using the left and right aviation snips.  Honestly they work fine and after using the belt sander to clean off the edges (and square them up), all the parts look great.  To deburr the edges, I finally broke out the 6″ scotchbright wheel on my bench grinder.  After mixed success using it for my practice project, I finally decided to remove the “safety cage” to give me better access to the wheel with those long parts.  I’m sure this isn’t the best way to use the bench grinder, but it works for me.

After getting the kids to bed, another 1.5 hours working on page 7-4, Steps 1-3.  Didn’t have enough time to start deburring and cleaning up the rudder spar, so I’ll have to work on that tomorrow.  All in all good progress today!

Vertical Stabilizer – Part 3

Brian 0 Comment Vertical Stab

Today I got as far as I could with the Vertical Stabilizer.  Started off with some help from my daughter riveting the first few pieces of the rear spar.  Below is a timelapse of me incorrectly attaching the rudder stops to both hinge brackets.  In my joy and excitement, I once again though I knew what was being asked, but I didn’t think it through.  I ended up drilling it all out and fixing it later.  I was happy to have my daughter helping me out so wanted to share.  (For those that are curious, the rudder stops should only be attached to ONE hinge bracket, not riveted between both of them.  I knew the rivets didn’t look long enough)

One of the changes I was looking to do was to add a conduit to the top of my Vertical Stabilizer so I can add in a camera.  (Details to come as I start to bench test some ideas).  Based on posts by both Mouser and Damazio, I don’t feel like what I’m trying to do is really “off the wall”.

I fabricated and installed my doubler plate, and went ahead and drilled a hole for a single conduit to the top of the VS.  At first I was thinking of getting fancy connectors and buying more stuff, but decided that simple (and lighter) was the way to go.  Funny enough my order of conduit from VANS arrived just as I was starting to do my final assembly so I was able to verify that I did everything right.  Only thing that I’m currently waiting for is the Panduit Lightening hole mounts so I can start putting the skin on.

At this point I have my skeleton clecoed together and rivets installed where indicated in the directions.  Next weekend I’ll be able to install the Panduit mounts and start putting the skin on.  Until then, it’s on to the Rudder.

Timelapse:

 

Vertical Stabilizer – Part 2 (Primer)

Brian 0 Comment Vertical Stab

So I made a decision that I wanted to prime all of my interior parts with AKZO.  I understand that primer is one of those “holy war” things, so I’m not looking to convince anyone that my way is the best, or that primer is even necessary.  With that said, I did today I spend the day getting all everything done that I could in short of dimpling or riveting.  (in some cases, this required me to “skip” some steps until I did my primer.)

I spent most of Thursday  finishing all of the match drilling, counter sinking, and deburring.  This set me up to start the process of putting primer on all the parts on Friday.  I used a Harbor Freight HPLV gun with the 3M PPS system.  This (in theory) should make life a little easier and clean-up a snap.  I also have a Primer Pistol that I slightly modified for smaller jobs.

I first went over all the parts with my ScotchBright pads to remove the Oxide layer and to “scuff” up the surfaces.  This was really a light scuff .  Next, I then mixed up my paint in the 3M cup (1:1 ratio and used the #2 line).  Once measured and mixed, I let it stand for 30 mins per the AKZO recommendations.

I then put on my gloves and got out the Acetone to clean off all the dust / dirt / oil.  By the time I was done, the pait was just about ready.

I just laid down some cardboard and used it to spray on.  All in all, it worked well, however I did run out of paint.  Doh!  Instead of using another 3M cup, I just pulled out my Primer Pistol and used a small film canister to mix a small batch.  This was perfect and allowed me to finish up my primer.

Overall I was pretty happy with the results.  I think I was slightly uneven and need to work on a better way to “hang” my parts up when I paint them to avoid things sticking to the cardboard or missing areas.  Due to the natural light / shade, I was a bit light on some areas, but not terrible.  Finished the day off with dimpling all of the parts and getting ready to rivet the rear spar together.

Getting started – Vertical Stabilizer – Part 1

Brian 0 Comment Vertical Stab

Today I started the build.  The first few steps consist of cutting the Spar Caps and getting the Vertical Stabilizer Rear spar set assembled.  Match drilling all the holes, deburring, and some countersinks.

Lots of putting pieces together and taking them apart to debur.  I’m probably spending too much time trying to clean up edges and remove all the sharps, but for now I’m ok with taking a bit more time to figure out what works best for me.

 

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