Mar 23, 2024     Riveting tank platenuts - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

Dropped in to start riveting the platenuts onto the left wing spar. When I initially countersunk the rivet holes, I checked that the rivets sat flush. I found that when I actually add the platenut, the rivets are just a skosh proud, so I'll refine the countersink with the remaining holes.

  Dec 10, 2023     Starting work on Left Spar - (3 hours)       Category: Wings

Today we started work on the left spar by drilling up the nutplate mount holes and applying primer to them in order to protect the areas of anodizing that were removed. The #40 cutter worked out well and the resulting countersinks look good. It did take a while to match drill and countersink the tank attach nutplates on both sides, the 3 groups of 4 nutplates on the bottom for the access covers and the 2 on the root of the spar for the center piece join point. All were countersunk and spot-primed.

Next weekend we'll repeat the process on the right spar and rivet the nutplates onto the left since the primer will be dry.

  Dec 09, 2023     Tools prep and setup - (3 hours)       Category: Tools

Today we worked on resolving issues with our countersink cutters. I ordered 2 new #40 pilot cutters, a 3-flute and a single flute variant. At first I was frustrated to find the new 3-flute cutter was acting just as the last had...leaving unusable countersinks with excessive chatter. It was clear it wasn't the cutter. Upon closer examination, I found the hand drill I had been using had a LOT of slop in the main drive shaft. That had to be it, although I do recall a similar issue with the pneumatic drill...but maybe that was a different problem.

So I tried the new cutter in the pneumatic drill and it worked okay. Then I tried the single-flute cutter and it made a very agreable countersink. I did a number more tests and feel confident that it'll work okay on the spar. I mocked up a test piece using stock with the same exact measurements as the spar web and tank skin. The only difference was that the 1/16" aluminum angle stock I bought from Home Depot was probably much softer than the aircraft aluminum.

I'm satisfied that everything is in order to start work on the first spar tomorrow.

  Dec 03, 2023     Wings holding pattern - (2 hours)       Category: Wings

We're been waiting for a new batch of primer before we get started on the spars. The primer I have is over 3 years old and it's getting a bit...strange. To my chagrin, the price of AkzoNobel primer has DOUBLED in the years since I last bought it...now $439 for a gallon of paint and activator. Crazy. Oh well, not going to switch now. In the interim I picked up a few tools to help with fabricating the tiedown gear. I spent some time setting the microstop countersink to carve out the requisite nutplate holes, but when I tried adjusting my #30, it produced very bad chatter on my test pieces...consistantly. I started with a #8 pilot cutter and the #40 and they both produced great countersinks, but the #30, which is the one I need, is toast. Can't explain it other than maybe the cutter is out of balance. I did notice the drill shaking quite a bit while trying to cut with it. Anyhow, not going to chance it. Ordered a new tri-flute cutter PLUS a single-hole cutter, as I'd like to try one out.

While waiting for that, measure the stock for the tiedown spacers. I decided to cut out the 1" holes first, before separating them into 2" pieces. I had a hell of a time trying to clamp the work piece down (I have lots of the wrong type of clamps). After trying several things, I gave up on doing those cuts as well. Instead I headed over to ACE hardware and picked up 4 brass screw inserts, 4 25mm bolts and some fender washers. I plan to use a stock piece of wood that will have the screw inserts so that I can bolt it down to the drill press table. That way I'll be able to securely clamp down the metal and get good cuts.

With nothing else to do, I completed making a flange straightener jig I found on Jason Hess' great web page (rv7-factory.com). The wife and I plan to bring all the ribs home to have a flange-straightening movie party.

  Nov 20, 2023     Wing inventory - (3 hours)       Category: Workshop

With the empennage section complete, we can finally open the wing crates, which have been sitting in the hangar for more than a year. Today was primarily for doing the kit inventory. There were some items on backorder at the time of the order, but they have all been fulfilled in the ensuing year, so we're starting with a complete kit.

  Nov 12, 2023     Elevators finished. Empennage kit DONE! - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Today we completed the final steps in the Empennage kit! We mounted each elevator in turn, clamped it to the hstab and drilled through the center bearing through each elevator horn. I made the bushing from an aluminum tube I bought at the local ACE Hardware. It was not thick enough to sit snugly in the bearing, so I rolled on some blue painter's tape to increase the circumference until it fit snugly. Same for the inside diameter of the tube. It was too large for a #40 bit, but fit a #30 perfectly, so I started a small lead-in with the #30, then used the #40 to drill through.

As we didn't have a smaller mutlibit, I had to change through 5 bits to enlarge the hole to 1/4" for the bolt. This left quite a lot of burrs on the inside. I used a Shaviv-type deburrer to remove them, and a standard deburring bit for the outside. We opted for the maximum of 3 washers between the horns and center bearing. I'll need to get a small ratcheting box wrench to install the bolts in the elevator hinges as there isn't a lot of room there.

We have a couple leftover items: further work on increasing the trim tab end tab distance to the minimum, then riveting them, and replacing a couple proud rivets in the hstab skin. It was our first attempt at riveting and there were a couple bad ones. Now that I have invested in the close-quarter yoke for the pneumatic squeezer, setting these will be much easier.

  Nov 11, 2023     Trim Hstab for elevator swing - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I've been stressing out about this part of the project. Any major mistakes means a large amount of work could be in peril. I asked my Facebook group for input, and they provided some great ideas. As it turns out, the work wasn't hard, and I think it came out good. I spent some money for a new, sharp bastard and round file. I was able to use a small Dremel tool with a cutting wheel to cut through the skin with no problem. We found that Allen wrenches made great temporary "bolts" to secure the elevators to the hstab. Tomorrow we drill the horns and bolt the elevators together, and then DONE!

  Nov 04, 2023     Rolled leading edges right elevator - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

After reviewing some ideas online, I crafted a "rolling stick" to help bend the leading edges by gluing a tee connector to a pvc pipe and adding 2 arms for leverage. This worked GREAT! I wish I had thought about this whilst working on the rudder and left elevator. I was able to bend the edge much closer, resulting in less preload force, especially in the middle part. There is still some preload there, and I added 2 additional rivets near the inboard edge to help with that.

Next up is trimming the HS-601PP to allow the elevator counterbalance arms to swing through. We're almost done! Excited!

  Oct 29, 2023     Rolling left elevator leading edge - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Of all the things we've had to do to build this plane, bending leading edges is the WORST! I absolutely hate it. I just don't have the strength to bend the skins sufficiently using the PVC pipe and vice grip method. You can see that the middle bends are very wavy...they're under a lot of stress because I just couldn't bend them close enough. The 2 sections near the top look great, and the one section near the bottom..meh. I ended up installing 2 more rivets near the bottom of the middle section to help deal with the stress.

I did go out and do some research and asked the Facebook group how everyone else managed to do this, and got some really good ideas. One guy glued sockets into the ends of the PVC and used his ratchet handles to bend. Another guy used a tee connector on one end of the PVC and added about 18" extensions so he could generate more torque (I like this idea). I though of something similar. I bought a couple 24" heavy 1/4" metal bars to use to tension the garage door springs. I figure I could drill a couple 1/4" holes in the PVC and slide the bars in and use them for leverage. I like the PVC tee idea best tho, so I'll try that for the next elevator this weekend.

Once those leading edges are done...WE ARE DONE WITH THE EMPENNAGE!!

  Oct 28, 2023     Attach trim tab to elevator - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Time to attach the trim tab to the elevator. I am not particularly happy with the way the tabs went, as far as bending them went. I can see why some people chose to fabricate small endcaps instead of messing around with bending. When I initially fitted everything, the trailing edge was not perfectly straight. I tend to obssess over the small stuff, so I sent pics to Van's for an opinion. They thought it was fine. I also brought another local Van's builder in to have a look and they agreed. I'm still not happy with it, but he reminded me that it's better to fly an imperfect (and safe) plane than keep trying to make a perfect one and never fly it.

I'm waiting on riveting the tabs on the elvator and inboard trim tab until I can find really skinny rivets since the gap is below the 3/32" minimum. I think I may have to pound the tabs on the elevator a little to flatten them. I won't use any rivets near the trailing edge because there just isn't room.

  Oct 21, 2023     Attaching Elev trim tab - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Working on attaching the trim tab to the elevator. I did not dimple the skin for the top attachment point of the trim tab. According to Vans I can either use flush rivets, or else dimple through BOTH the skin and trim tab spar, in which case I'd have to countersink larger holes into the hinge. I really don't like either of those options. Flush rivets are going to be very visible on the elevator, and enlarging ALL the holes on the hinge seems to me it'd possibly make for a weaker join. So, the last option is removing all the rivets attaching the bottom skin to the trim tab spar, remving the spar, and then dimpling properly. There aren't that many rivets on the spar, so I think I'll go that route. I still have to decide whether I'm going to dimple the 4 inboard holes on the spar/skin that anchor the spar further to the structure. I can't get any of my normal dimpling devices deep enough to reach all four, but I can use my pop rivet dimpler and flush pop rivets.

I received the -3 pop rivets I ordered, so I finally was able rivet the ONE hole on the elevator that I couldn't get a buck on.

  Oct 14, 2023     Trim tab take 2 - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Second attempt to create the trim tab. The first resulted in some nasty dings in the aluminum, and since the cost was reasonable, I just did it again.

  Sep 29, 2023     Rivet left elevator - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Riveting the elevator.

  Sep 18, 2023     Right elevator assembly - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Not a great night. Really blew it on riveting. Had to drill out 4 or 5 rivets, and had a couple not-so-great countersinks. I need to practice before I try driving rivets again with the gun. I think it was a combination of the gun being set wrong and me overpowering the gun and bucking bar. The one hole which I wandered on with the countersink should be fine. It's 1 of 4 -3 rivets between the spar and end rib. Since the elevator horn will cover this joint, and it's heavy steel, I'm not going to worry about it.

  Sep 10, 2023     Starting left elevator assembly - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Started preparing the left elevator. Match-drilled, dimpled and cleco'ed the understructure, then attached the skin in preparation for riveting. Only took pictures during the first hour. Dropped the E-713/E-714 assembly off the table and dinged the metal of the 713. I was able to bend it back using a screwdriver to profile the radius bend. I'm not going to worry about it since the wingtip will cover it. Doesn't look that bad.

Broke down and purchased a close-quarters yoke for the pneumatic riveter to make accessing the rivets near the trailing edge easier to do.

  Sep 09, 2023     Right elevator riveting done - (4 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Finished everything on the right elevator save bending the leading edge. I am awful at close-quarter riveting, so the skins on the outside and near the trailing edge have some dings from my excessive pressure riveting with the gun. I know a little Bondo will take care of the visual quality during painting, but I'll still always know what it looks like. So, I'll probably re-do the left elevator at some point down the road...when I need a break from whatever I'm working on at the time. I can knock it out in a long weekend, and then I'll have the old one to hang up somewhere as a trophy. May even take a shot at painting it myself (and yes Bondo will be used!).

Drilling and removing part of the counterweight was messy. I drilled a hole for the radius profile and threw lead scraps everywhere. Had to make sure those were all collected and disposed of properly. I still will need to file the radius a but smoother. Then I cut in to the radius on the bandsaw. You have to go very slowly so as not to bind the blade.

  Sep 08, 2023     Right elevator assembly - (3.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Finished preparing the right elevator in advance of riveting the subsctructure to the skin. I was able to rivet down the only stiffener rivet that was sitting a little proud after last week's riveting. The fit looks okay, but I neglected to cut down the E714 counterweight before we started assembly, so tomorrow we'll have to disassemble the parts to get 714 out of the structure so that I can shape it per the plans.

  Sep 04, 2023     Elevator: deburr and dimple ritght elevator - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Completed countersinking the 702 spar. My micro-stop counterink is too wide to work on the outboard holes in the spar, so I took out the cutter and installed it into our deburring tool and did them by hand. After that we started deburring and dimpling all the skeleton parts for the right elevator. Finally, dimpled the E-701R skin. Gathered all parts to bring home and prime.

  Sep 03, 2023     Elevator: refine trailing edge, countersink spar end - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Worked the trailing edge of the right elevator using a homemade squeezer as per instructions. The squeezer did an awesome job at refining the trailing edge. Match drilled the skins and skeleton. Coutersunk the connecting holes that will lay under the elevator horn.

  Sep 02, 2023     Elevator: last stiffeners, bending trailing edge - (2.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Today I built a bdning jig for the elevators. We installed the replacement stiffeners after painting them the day before. The bending seemed to leave a very uneven and pillowed result. I decided to build the smaller squeezer tool tomorrow and try to even out the bend with that. Found that one of the stiffener rivets was a bit too proud. I'll have to drill it out and replace it with a squeezed flush rivet.

  Aug 24, 2023     New stiffeners arrived - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

I ordered 2 each of E-702ABCH and E-702DEFG stiffener stock in order to make proper mates for the 3 oddball ones. When I look at the ABCH and DEFG stock, they're layed out DIFFERENTLY! THere are notches in the stiffener stock to show you exactly where to cut out each part and how to cut the notches out. The notches on each set are opposite... ABCH has the notch to the left of the cut point, but the DEFG has it to the right! This means 3 stiffeners will be "right hand" and the other 4 will be "left hand". In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter, but I wonder why for consistency they didn't make the all one-handed. Actually, in all the other assemblies where we trimmed stiffeners, they always were aligned the same. Just weird.

I made a video explaining this: https://youtu.be/N8uFA9XxDbc

  Aug 18, 2023     Right Elevator skeleton - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Connected skeleton of right elevator and match-drilled 703, 704 and 713. Drilled through counterweight 714. Can't go further until the replacement stiffener stock arrives and we get them attached and the elevator leading edge formed.

  Aug 12, 2023     Elevators, spars - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Due to the fact that I cut the stiffeners incorrectly for the right elevator skin, we're skipping over it and continuing with elevator spars. Replacement parts for the stiffener stock will be ordered this week.

  Aug 11, 2023     Finished rudder, riveting elevators - (3 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

We FINALLY finished the riveting the leading edge! All done! Tried the new hydraulic riveter tonight for the blind rivets and it worked really well. Riveted the stiffeners and PP-615 to the left elevator.

  Jul 30, 2023     Bending leading edge - (1.5 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

Started bending the leading edge of the rudder. It's harder than I figured. The skins are pretty thick.
I started with a 1" diameter wood dowel, but don't feel I got enough of a bend, so I did it 2 or 3 times. When I tried to cleco together the short section, it bent at the spar, which I think means I didn't bend it enough. I went through a third time on the other longer parts using a 1.5" dowel to bend closer to the spar. I managed to get the parts closer, but it's tough. I'll probably have to do some more by hand or dowel next time.

  Jul 29, 2023     Finished the rudder trailing edge - (2 hours)       Category: Tail Feathers

FINALLY got back to the project and finished riveting the trailing edge of the rudder. This one got me really nervous...and was one most likely of the reasons for my hiatus. You have to put in 50 or so rivets along the 4-foot+ section of the rudder, and you MUST keep the edge straight. The tolerance is only 4/10ths of an inch along the whole length. Oh, did I mention they're double-flush rivets?

What worried me the most is I only have an 18" back rivet plate, so the initial plan was to find pieces of wood the same exact width so I can keep the edge straight. This really sounded like a giant pain in the backside. Then I watched Plane Lady's video on this procedure. She was told by a tech advisor to use a 4-ft steel angle iron. Wow! What a great idea! The angle iron with dumbell plates to keep the edge firmly pressed on teh edge would certainly be easier!

So I stopped by Home Depot and sure enough they had a 3/16" x 2" x 4-ft angle iron (SKU 803017, $44.95). Perfect! I put a couple lengths of purple painter's tape on the steel and weighed down the edge. I had to use the end of my work table because the rudder doesn't lay flat due to the mounting brackets. I followed the instructions and half-set every tenth rivet, starting from the middle and working outbound, checked that the edge was still straight, then half-set every 5th, then every other. I only made one smiley, but happily it was on the passenger side!

Using painter's tape just above the rivets kept the mushroom bit from scraping/scratching the skin.

Tomorrow is bending the leading edges using a broomstick and lots of sticky gaffer's tape. Plane Lady made it look easy, so I'm confident we can pull it off!

  Jan 16, 2023     Check in after storms Category: Workshop

The atmospheric river storms have finally subsided Abbas'si was able to go check on the hangar. Everything was fine with no flooding and doors are all still attached.

This will be the Year of the Wings for me. That's the goal…start and finish the wing kit. Still have a bit more work on the empennage first!

  Oct 01, 2022     Days cooling off Category: Empennage

Now that autumn has ushered in cooler weather, I'll be starting back on the project.

  Apr 17, 2022     Rivet elevator cableway on HS - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Riveted the elevator cableway onto the skin

  Mar 14, 2022     Back at it - (.5 hour)       Category: Empennage

Moved the compressor and last batch of primed parts to the hangar. Also brought in some parts a fellow pilot no longer needed...including a nice magneto and 2 nav/comm radio antennas.