Mar 08, 2024     Various Tools       Category: Tools

Here are some of the various tools I have used so far. Many are just homemade or items that have been repurposed into a different use than they were intended for. I have been surprised (pleased) with the ability to get things done without a huge investment in specialty tools. I did purchase a quality aviation flaring tool for the fuel lines, that a past Velocity builder was selling but the majority of tools I have been able to use so far are ones I had lying around the house. Things like a hack saw handle I have had for 25 years with some quality hack saw blades has seen a lot of use so far in trimming cured fiberglass cloth. A dull 3/8" bit run through some scrap flooring and wood set to 2" deep made routing out the inboard tips a 20 minute process. A J hook battery holder from a 65 Mustang I had laying around made the perfect size channel for the rudder tubes in just a few minutes (the manual called for using a soldering iron to melt the foam but I didn't have the right size tip and I id not want to smell the melted foam). A few dozen dollar store clamps have been very handy. A half dozen wood yard sticks from Lowe's wrapped in duct tape were clamped to the trailing edge of the wings during curing and helped make super straight smooth edges.
The most expensive tool I have is the metered epoxy pump. It came with the project I bought. Unfortunately the previous owner never cleaned out all the resin or hardener. The resin seemed fine, but I drained it out and the hardener only has about a two year shelf life and it had been sitting for 20+ years. The pump piston was completed frozen and no amount of work was going to fix it. Fortunately the company that makes it is still in business and still makes that pump, so an email and a $100 got the new piston unit and some new o-rings and it works like a champ now!
I have a couple of t-squares that I use depending on the task.
I have 3 levels that I am using: a single bubble 12", a three bubble 24", and a four bubble 48". I put them all on a flat surface and found them to be close enough level with the naked eye that I am OK with it. Per Danny Maher in one of the old construction videos, I marked each with a TOP and forward end. That way I will use them in the same orientation every time. As he put its it "they maybe a little off, but at least it will be consistent through out the build".

  Mar 08, 2024     Various Category: Tools

  Mar 07, 2024     Starting on the fuselage       Category: Fuselage

Since
I got this project in July of 2020, I have been focused on the wings, canard, winglets, and everything else related to the foam core items that are assembled and skinned in fiberglass by the builder. The fuselage is a little different, in that it is a tub that gets more factory made pieces installed. I made a base for the lower fuse half some time back. Now that it is in the small shop (and the wings are now in the garage) I got it set in place and the tub leveled fore/aft and side/side. I will bondo it to the base for the next few steps to hold it in place. I 5 minute epoxied a couple of small line levels to insure that it level when I go to work on it. One runs side to side and the other runs fore/aft. the bulkheads were skinned by the original owner but never trimmed. I have rough trimmed them close to final shape but not completely. I also held a level up to the outside and drew a level line with a pencil for future reference. There is a bolt hole in the mold flange that is put there by the factory that I put a small bolt in to use as the starting point for the bulkhead location measurements. This is all done per the manual. I put strips of masking tape in the areas along the tub where you mark for the bulkheads. This allows the pencil marks to show instead of on the dark fiberglass. I made the marks per the manual. I also put a string down the center line. I will use a laser level to connect the lines side to side and make sure they are exactly vertical. Then I will trim the bulkheads to final shape and install.
I used the bulkheads set roughly into place to determine where the two wire channels are located, marked, and temporally installed them with cleco's. I can now take them out, sand and trim, then reinstall permanently.
The manual has you start with the speed brake install on the bottom of the tub, but I have seen several builder logs start by installing the ducts, and the bulkheads to give some rigidity to the tub to make sure the speed brake isn't twisted.

  Feb 24, 2024     EAA 1475 group visit to the shop/project day       Category: Workshop

Three years ago I did a presentation for my EAA chapter at the airport on my Velocity project I had just rescued. I did a a sample layup, showed off some of the factory made parts, and talked about the plane in general. Last year I had made some progress (canard, winglets, elevators etc) that were too big to transport easily so I invited the chapter to my house to show everything. It was well received, so I did it again this year. I had the wings skinned and moved to the garage and the fuselage moved to the shop to start on it. A few came that had been at the past presentations so they could see the progress. It is a great incentive to get things done so I am not showing the same thing over and over. Maybe by next year I can have a group sanding party!!

  Feb 24, 2024     Trimmed inboard ends ready for rib lay ups       Category: Wings

Got the inboard ends of the pilot wing trimmed and routed out in preparation for 3 layers of coarse Bid layups to close out the ends. Milestone day as I moved the wings to the garage and the fuselage to the shop. This way, I can jig the wings up and begin to install the winglets. I am going to do both wings at the same time. And I can start on the speed brake on the belly of the fuse, then move on to the bulkheads, and start installing the windows in the fuselage top. Unfortunately, the shop is two inches too narrow to allow installation of the center spar so I will have to swap things back when the time comes. Sidenote: the locker you see in shop is a Cessna employee locker with a tag dated 1948.
the whole thing only weighs about 20 lbs and appears to be made from surplus airplane materials as the cross bar inside to hang a coat from is aluminum strut material.

  Feb 18, 2024     Skinning the top of the left (pilot) side wing - (4.25 hours)       Category: Wings

Skinned the top of the pilot side wing. Everything went pretty straight forward. This is the forth and final wing surface so I had a good idea of how much slurry (roughly 32oz of mixed ez poxy and roughly 32oz by volume of micro balloons), and how much straight epoxy (roughly 64oz of ez poxy) to mix. I will let this cure for a day or two, trim the ends and route out for the inboard end ribs, and make the mounting bolt hole. Then this wing will be at the same stage as the right wing. Then on to mounting the winglets!!

  Jan 29, 2024     Left wing continued - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

Skinned the bottom of the left wing. It went a lot faster than the right because I had a better idea of how much epoxy/micro balloon slurry to mix and how much straight epoxy to mix. And I had a better idea of working time, so I didn't feel like i had to rush, and I knew what tools I would need and had them ready to go. I tarted putting the slurry on the foam about 4 pm on a Sunday and had everything up through the trailing edge straight edges clamped by 7:30ish. I checked on it a couple of times over the next few hours before shutting it down for the evening. This morning I went out and removed the clamps and straight edges, and knife trimmed the TE to the aluminum I beam fastened to the bottom and trimmed the inboard and out board ends roughly. I will go ahead and cutout and skin the wing bolt access hole while the wing is upside down and easy reach, and then let this all cure another 24 hours at least, before flipping it upright to prep the topside for skinning.

  Jan 09, 2024     Left side wing prep for skinning comtinued.       Category: Wings

I was able to glue on the I-beam to the trailing edge and trim the foam core in preparation for skinning. The TRIAX fiberglass skin will carry out on to the I beam. I took careful measurements from the right wing that the previous kit owner started and I am doing my best to match those numbers so the wings are as identical as possible. One pic is a shot right down the I beam as I was waiting on the 5 minute epoxy to cure. That is pretty flat/straight down a 14" ish run!!. The I beam isn't quite long enough for the entire trailing edge, so I glued a small piece of scrap wood to the end of the outboard end to give the cloth a smooth transition like the rest of the TE. some of this will get cut off when I start to install the winglets.
I find I have a much higher level of confidence as I progress. I had the I beam taped, marked and glued up and weighted down in just over an hour this time. On the other wing I bet I spent 5 hours over thinking it and then doing it! I will start filling in seams and gaps and sanding everything today and hope to skin it this weekend.
Also, added a second VHF antennae so there is one in both wings for redundancy. I think that is the first time I had t use geometry since high school in 1988!

  Jan 04, 2024     Milestone moment!       Category: Wings

Got the right wing to the point I could move it to the side and start setting up the left wing for skinning! Cleaned the shop up, and moved all the left over foam core billets to storage. I won't throw them away because I can use the scrap foam pieces to make other items as needed. Now i have more room to work. I already started making necessary markings on this wing from measurements I took off the first wing.

  Jan 04, 2024     Top Bolt Access Hole and reinforcement lay up - (4 hours)       Category: Wings

In the previous post I cut and glassed the lower mounting bolt hole while the wing was upside down. Here I flipped the wing upright, measured, cut, trimmed, and glassed the upper mount hole. Then did the reinforcing lay up from the top to the bottom. I made one goof here in that the strips of UNI were supposed to be 3" wide and I accidentally did 4" wide. No major issue, but it was a mistake I could have avoided by re-reading the manual. Glad it was not a major component. One pic shows the BID wet out on an old transparency from my screen printing business. It is a good way to recycle the old films. I drew the avocado shape of the bottom of the mount hole for that piece, and then wet out a strip for the sides. The stiff film allows easy cutting to rough shape off the wet glass.
The pic with the blue tape is the small piece of Triax you have to add the leading edge where the top and bottom don't meet during skinning. In this case I wet out a scrap piece of triax on a small piece of transparency film, wet the area I was applying it to, and wrapped it around and tapped it. The next morning the tape and film peeled right off and the patch perfectly matched the curve of the leading edge.
The pic with the small squeeze bottle is my attempt and fixing a small mistake when skinning the top of the wing. The book says to wrap plastic over the top and down the front of the spar to hold the triax down while the epoxy cures. It doesn't like to bend that tight and will spring back. Well, I forgot the plastic and the top edge of the triax popped away from the spar in a few places along the leading edge of the spar. The top is fully secure so I don't see a safety issue but there is a small air gap in those spots. So slowly I drilled some small holes into the glass BUT NOT THE SPAR. You could feel the bit go through the glass into the air gap before hitting the spar. I had some small squeeze bottles with a syringe tip that I filled with epoxy and put in these holes one at a time. The clamps kept pressure on the bottle to slowly squeeze the epoxy into the air gaps and fill them. Now when I sand that area smooth and level I won't sand into air gaps. You can see the lighter areas of glass where the air gap is and the dark epoxy creeping into the void.
I reached a milestone here, because this wing is now ready to be set aside, and the other wing moved into place for skinning. I believe it will go faster. My goal is to have it to this stage before the end of January.