Apr 12, 2023     Reconfigure for Wings - (3.0 hours)       Category: Workshop

Had a nice weather day so I re-arranged the garage/shop to get ready for wing construction and finish off the elevators. Moved the small work bench to the wall and brought out the 8' bench. I still need to re-arrange where some of the big tools will go. The DRDT-2 will probably get a new mobile platform to live on. Ready to finish the elevators and move on.

  Jan 30, 2023     Wing kit inventory finished shop clean up - (2 hours)       Category: Workshop

Just a couple hours spent this afternoon putting all of the parts of the wing kit back into the various crates. I decided to cut the wing spar crate in half so that I could place it on top of the other bigger crate and get some more room back in the garage. I had to move a few of the parts indoors to the basement for storage as there just wasn't enough room for them, and a few other parts will need to be hung from the ceiling as they are very long. Vans sends you the fuselage longerons as part of the wing kit since it's easier to ship those in the wing spar crate than it is to ship them separately with the fuselage kit. So I need to find a spot on the ceiling to hang those from to keep them up and out-of-the-way because they're far too long to take down to my basement.

As for the wing kit, there were only a couple bags of hardware missing and a few odds and ends, and one piece, a gap filler for the ailerons, they sent two right side versions instead of one left and one right side version. So I emailed my findings back to Vans and will wait to receive those missing parts in the mail at some point as well as the other items which are on back order.

  Sep 30, 2020     Moved everything back to the garage - (10 hours)       Category: Workshop

Well, three + months since the last entry, basically no progress on anything. The good news is that we are new parents of a 7 year old boy who we are in the process of adopting. All of that meant that the build was on the back burner. After a lot of consideration, I decided that even though the shop I was renting was only a 7 minute drive away, that I just wasn't getting anything done and always had an excuse not to go over there. Not to mention it wasn't heated or cooled, had no restroom, and sat right next to a creek that liked to flood from time to time. So the big decision was made, I moved everything back home!

I SWORE I would never take over the garage to build this thing. Never say never and as we all know life works in mysterious ways that we never expect. Long story short, after a bunch of trips to haul gear and tools back home in my car, one rented UHaul on a Saturday afternoon, a little rewiring in the garage, moving things around, mounting a lot of stuff on the walls and pretty much maximizing the space available, the project is now in one half of the garage and there's still room for one car! I had to downsize the paint booth but that was about it. While I don't have the elbow room I used to have, I now have a bathroom 10 feet away, internet access and the ability to control the temperature! Plus no more flooding concerns and worries about not having insurance.

So build on! Time to wrap my head around where I was when I left off in June with the rudder. I need to finish riveting the skeleton together and then get it inspected by my chapters tech counselors.

  Mar 30, 2020     Paint Booth - (20 hours)       Category: Workshop

Paint Booth setup and first test paint: A lot has changed in our world since my last entry, COVID-19 has changed life for everyone and I now find myself with more time than ever to work in the shop. Winter has come and gone, my shop is unheated and at best, gets to about ten degrees above the ambient outside air temperature. That makes working inside the shop during many winter days, impractical. Even with 2 electric space heaters going full blast, the overall size of the shop is too large to make comfortable during the coldest days. That being said, finally some progress to share! Having messed around off and on all winter, I finally managed to cobble together a paint booth that will fit my needs. Ultimately it is portable and I designed it to be easy to take down, transport and set up in another location if need be. It's an 8'x8'x8' cube made out of 1" PVC tubing, plastic sheeting, velcro and Gorilla tape. It has two filtered 20" openings for air intake and a 20" box fan driven exhaust for removal of paint fumes. There is a small opening on the front to allow entry and exit and once inside there is plenty of room to pain the largest of parts associated with the empennage kit. So with everything all set (finally) it was time to spray a few test pieces from the second practice kit. Everything works well, I'm able to raise the temperature inside the booth fairly quickly before painting with one of the space heaters and the ventilation provided by the box fan and HVAC filters does the job adequately. It's a bit overkill but since I rent this shop space, I do not want any overspray escaping. I also built a small table to paint parts on using PVC tubing and some metal mesh that I bought at the local home improvement store.

So finally after a year of getting things set up, practicing, life getting in the way, practicing some more, more life getting in the way, winter setting in and COVID-19, I'm finally ready to start working on the actual tail kit!

My next entry should actually be of something tangible.

  Nov 01, 2019     Shop Setup - (20 hours)       Category: Workshop

Setting up a proper shop took a bit of time and lumber but I'm happy with my setup now. Took a few tips from other builders here and there and made the best of my situation. I decided against building at home in the garage because I didn't want to give up that valuable space, especially during the winter time. So I'm renting one-half of a workshop that is a short drive away and was originally built to restore cars. It was never quite finished as a workshop but it will do and has more than enough space (for now). The only drawback is that it is not heated and I will undoubtedly have to suspend my build during the coldest parts of the winter time. For me this is an acceptable compromise between building at home and building somewhere else. When the build moves to a hangar at the airport I will miss the days of a short drive to work on the project.

I built several benches and tables for the shop and bought some cheap carpet to lay down on the floor. I also built a scale RC model of an RV-8 to hang from the ceiling for inspiration.

I ended up buying an oil-less electric 26g vertical compressor from Lowe's. So far it has been more than adequate. The rest of my build tools came with the tail kit I purchased second-hand. I'm the third owner of this tail kit and I am determined to get it finished. I have been pleasantly surprised with the tools I purchased, who ever used them before me knew what they were doing and I have already found a few very valuable small items that I didn't even know I had.