Sep 06, 2020     Finished varnishing rear stabilizer       Category: Tail Feathers

Finished varnishing up the rear stabilizer. Also, did a little personalization of the hangar

  Aug 01, 2020     Rear stabilizer finishing & wing ribs - (5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Just finishing up some finishing touches on rear stabilizer. Wing ribs starting to accumulate :D The N55 3M mask is now almost a priceless artifact... go figure

  Jul 15, 2020     Making Stuff to Make Airplane Stuff - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Bit of a delay in wing rib capstrip order, so between my last entry and this one, I've just continued to varnish...lots of dry time (minimum 24 hours between coats). Finally got the shipping date for my capstrip, so i wanted to build a wing rib jig on a stable board that will allow me to work indoors during the winter (the 'garage' that I work in is open on one side and is really just a giant flying buttress to keep the hillside up, so it floods with all of the rain here in Washington and the temp gets cold enough that epoxy doesn't work). so, got some 1/2" ply hobby boards and built a super rigid surface to lay out the jig on.

  Jul 14, 2020     Rib Jig - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Wanted a stable/flat board to build wing rib jig on so got some finished plywood/hobby board and glued up a laminated two-layer board base.

  Jun 30, 2020     Rudder Prep & Varnishing - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

While waiting on wood order, I've been continuing to varnish the pieces I've finished so far. Here, I've got the two thinned coats on.

  Jun 29, 2020     Rear Elevator - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Per recommendations of other wood plane builders and further research, began varnishing the rear elevator with 2 coats of marine spar varnish thinned 50/50 with paint thinner, then a final coat of 100% spar varnish. Pictures are after first coats of thinned varnish.

  Jun 23, 2020     Rear Stabilizer Work - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Removing staples from gussets. Began sanding with 320 grit to remove burrs/rough spots left by staples in prep for varnishing.

  Jun 23, 2020     Printing rib template - (.2 hour) Category: Tail Feathers

Just printed two pages of the plan for the wing ribs.

  Jun 21, 2020     Uh - oh! - (5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Realized I cut the hinge slots in the wrong place on for the outboard hinges on the back of the rear stabilizer. After panicking and wondering if I would have to replace the rear spar and doublers, plus all of the gussets, I took a deep breath and contacted an EAA tech counselor. We talked through my proposed repair approach and he agreed--said the rear spar would actually be stronger than the original plans. So, I cut two biscuits and expoxied them into the slots. Then, I cut 1.5mm gussets to extend 2 inches past the ends of each of the hinge slots on both sides of the spar. Disaster averted! Thanks Jerry for the quick call, much appreciated.

  Jun 20, 2020     Rear Stabilizer Assembly - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Finished up rear stabilizer.

  Jun 19, 2020     Rear Stabilizer Assembly - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Continue assembly of rear stabilizer.

  Jun 18, 2020     Rear Stabilizer Assembly - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Beginning to epoxy the real stabilizer gussets.

  Jun 16, 2020     Rear Stabilizer Work - (2.5 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

Laying out the rear stabilizer and epoxying up one of the stabilizers' leading edges.

  Jun 16, 2020     Rear Stabilizer Work - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Laying out the rear stabilizer and epoxying up one of the stabilizers' leading edges.

  Jun 12, 2020     Gluing up Elevator Cross Pieces - Continued - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Continued gluing up remaining cross pieces and gussets on the top side. I left the strips that run the full length of the outboard ribs half free to aid in getting the trailing edge positioned correctly before gluing it on in the next session. Had to re-cut a few cross pieces as I missed factoring the doubler into lengths... fortunately, not too much wastage/scrap. Next session's challenge will be putting on the trailing edge.

  Jun 11, 2020     Gluing up Elevator Cross Pieces - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Glued up center line rib and the two major gussets off of the center rib. As usual, soda 12 packs make great weights to keep everything nice and level while drying.

  Jun 09, 2020     Back to the Elevator - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Well, the replacement wood arrived today (and I future proofed myself by ordering some extra). So back out to the build. I added the 4th strip to the leading edge of the stabilizer laminate. I also re-cut the doubler and sanded the taper in the proper plane this time (you can see the difference from the first one--the tone on top--vs. the correct plane at the bottom. Finally, glued up the doubler to the spar and brought everything in to dry inside as it was a little chilly outside.

  May 31, 2020     Cutting Cross Pieces & Tapering Trailing Edge - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Today I finished cutting and tapering cross pieces for elevator. I also glued up one leading edge of the stabilizer with the three remaining pieces I had that were the proper length. Come to find out that there were 8 pieces of that length, but I unwittingly used a bunch of them to cut my cross pieces. In addition, after I'd already sanded it (of course) I realized I sanded the taper on the wrong edge for the elevator spar doubler (the doubler is on the plans because I was checking them to make sure I'd actually messed it up... I did). DOH! So, there's a bit of a gap before I can get back to building as I have to order some more wood.

  May 30, 2020     Laying out the elevator and cutting cross pieces - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

  May 25, 2020     Building... - (8 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

One of the lessons of building an airplane.... you often spend more time building stuff to allow you to build an airplane...

Added a second 4' x 4' workbench to make an 8' x 4' workbench to start building elevator and rear wing.

I also re-topped my original workbench... the MDF that I used last fall started sagging from moisture as well as the fact I didn't have stiffener stringers. Replaced that top with 1/2" plywood and added 16" on center stringers to workbench to stiffen and support new top. Repurposed MDF for lower shelf to store wood and tools. Amazingly, level all around within 1/8" on first go round.

  May 25, 2020     Building... - (8 hours) Category: Tail Feathers

One of the lessons of building an airplane.... you often spend more time building stuff to allow you to build an airplane...

Added a second 4' x 4' workbench to make an 8' x 4' workbench to start building elevator and rear wing.

I also re-topped my original workbench... the MDF that I used last fall started sagging from moisture as well as the fact I didn't have stiffener stringers. Replaced that top with 1/2" plywood and added 16" on center stringers to workbench to stiffen and support new top. Repurposed MDF for lower shelf to store wood and tools. Amazingly, level all around within 1/8" on first go round.

  May 25, 2020     Building... - (8 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

One of the lessons of building an airplane.... you often spend more time building stuff to allow you to build an airplane...

Added a second 4' x 4' workbench to make an 8' x 4' workbench to start building elevator and rear wing.

I also re-topped my original workbench... the MDF that I used last fall started sagging from moisture as well as the fact I didn't have stiffener stringers. Replaced that top with 1/2" plywood and added 16" on center stringers to workbench to stiffen and support new top. Repurposed MDF for lower shelf to store wood and tools. Amazingly, level all around within 1/8" on first go round.

  May 20, 2020     Removed staples and cut hinge slots - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

After much measuring, measuring again, and stressing, cut the slots for the rudder hinges... Also, removed staples from vertical stab gussets. Beveled gusset edges.

  May 19, 2020     Cut and epoxyed lower left gussets on vertical stab... - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Cut and glued up the gussets for the lower left of the vertical stabilizer. Also, took the vertical stabilizer to the bench sander and sanded down the portion of the upper trailing edge of vertical stabilizer to get the vertical stabilizer ready for a protective coat.

  May 18, 2020     Cutting gussets for vertical stabilizer and expoyxing them on - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

First lower right gusset i cut for vertical stab, my jigsaw mangled the long angle... after looking at it for awhile, decided that better to 'waste' the materials and cut a new one rather than have my a$$ hanging in the wind with a flapping vertical stab at 1000' AGL.

  May 18, 2020     Cutting gussets for vertical stabilizer and expoyxing them on - (1 hour) Category: Tail Feathers

  May 15, 2020     Glued up gussets on rudder - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

  May 14, 2020     Glued up a cross piece - (.2 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

just gluing up a crosspiece today.

  May 12, 2020     Pulling Staples - (.3 hour) Category: Tail Feathers

Pulled staples off of glued gussets. New gusset plywood arriving Friday, so more progress after that... for now, pretty much in a holding pattern.

  May 12, 2020     Pulling Staples - (.3 hour) Category: Tail Feathers

Pulled staples off of glued gussets. New gusset plywood arriving Friday, so more progress after that... for now, pretty much in a holding pattern.

  May 11, 2020     Not much today.... - (.5 hour) Category: Tail Feathers

Just pulled out staples used to hold gussets in place yesterday.

  May 10, 2020     More Gussets - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Today was just doing more gussets. I had to order more 1.5mm Birch plywood today as all of the re-work has left me without much material left. Will probably have to suspend more work until delivery next Friday (or perhaps sooner, depends on Amazon), when I get the new plywood. Was happy to add gussets to the triple joint on the rudder to prevent breakage. I ended up cutting off one rib as it was misaligned which I will probably add back tomorrow on a butt joint glue job to hold in place until gusset material arrives.

  Apr 29, 2020     Gluing up Rudder - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Today was just about gluing up the butt joints on the cross pieces to the front rudder spar.

  Apr 27, 2020     Tool for taper to rudder trailing edge - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Today I used some scrap wood to create a jig tooling to have a consistent trace on trailing edge taper. Rough cut all of the tapers.

  Apr 21, 2020     More gussets on the vertical stabilizer - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Flipped vertical stab over and added small gussets to backside.

  Apr 12, 2020     Rework of Vertical Stabilizer - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Today, made good progress on fixing vertical stabilizer. Glued up all the butt joints and added some gussets back. Will need to order more gusset material as can only do the smaller gussets at this time to add some strength. Also cut cross pieces to fit on rudder.

  Apr 02, 2020     Jig for trailing edge - (1 hour)       Category: Tail Feathers

Tried various ways of setting up a jig for gluing the trailing edge of the rudder onto the ribs. Ended up abandoning this and instead, shifted to attaching after gluing up the straight pieces and sanding down the cross pieces to the curve in the pattern.

  Mar 30, 2020     Redo of rudder - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

More sanding off gussets and cutting out of cross pieces. Was able to salvage the front laminated spar and many cross pieces. Started cutting and laying out the rudder pieces.

  Mar 29, 2020     Redo of rudder - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

After a several year hiatus wherein the beginning of my project, building the tail feathers, was pulled out of storage so I could complete the rudder, I discovered I made a mistake on the original build... the angle at the top was incorrect due to me not having the space to lay out the full tail feathers side by side. Big sigh, but I hit reset and redrew on the craft paper covering my new workbench and stripped down the incorrect pieces in anticipation of the reset. Lots of sanding off of gussets and the like.