| 1ST QTR 2002 |
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| 01/01/02 - 2.2 Made a jig from 1/2" square tubing to hold the 510-39 channels for tack welding to the elevator pushrods. Flattened ends of pushrods carefully with visegrips until they fit between the channels held by the jig. If you just squeeze them in a vise, you get cracking in the pinched sections as the tube crushes too much. Next I screwed blocks down on the table to keep them aligned, then I tack welded them.
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| 01/02/02 - 0.9 Finish welded the 510-39 channels on pushrod 510-37B. | |
| 01/03/02 - 0.6 Finish welded the 510-39 channels on pushrod 510-36B. Kinda sick so not too motivated to work much in the garage the last couple days.
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| 01/06/02 - 1.0 Cut the 510-34B pushrod tube. Assembled the elev system (except for front stick) to check clearances and idler length. Trimmed the idler tubes to proper length. Had to take some material off one corner of the 320-22 elevator spacer block to allow 25° up elevator travel. Updated the drawing of the part on the planschange page. | |
| 01/07/02 - 1.5 Welded the AN490HT-11P rod ends in the idlers. Tack welded the rest of the rod ends in tubes -34B, -36B & -37B. Assembled system for building of rear seat. Note, I'll be sure to install aircraft hardware before flight, no sense ruining, welding or losing more expensive hardware now.
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| 01/09/02 - 1.2 Cut tubing and did some layout for rear seat, locating the rear seat crossmember 14 5/8" forward of the 210-31 fuselage crossmember. | |
| 01/13/02 - 2.0 Tack welded the rear seat verts to the seat crossmember. Also did more CAD analysis of elevator control setup, so rear stick will clear front seat back by 1.8" at full down elevator, and clear rear seat crossmember by 3/4" at full up elevator. Adjusted length of tube 510-34B in computer. | |
| 01/14/02 - 1.0 Welded the verts and caps on the rear seat crossmember. | |
| 01/18/02 - 2.0 Sick and on couch this week so no work. Today went to Oakland and picked up my motor from the trucking terminal. It barely fits in the back of the truck, which now barely fits in the garage. I'll have to engineer a hoist system to get it unloaded.
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| 01/19/02 - 1.3 Went over to Ken's. Cut inner spacers on the lathe and fit them to the bearing cages for the wing bellcranks and idlers. | |
| 01/20/02 - 2.8 Tackwelded the rear seat crossmember 210-69 and verts into position. Note that it is 13.0 back from FS 48 and now 7.00 high instead of 14.75 back and 6.50 high as called for in the plans, see the Seat Changes. Also worked on a Removable Front Stick. Cut the socket and welded it to the bearing cage. Cut the stick (17.5" long) and welded a cap on the bottom of it. Located and drilled pilot holes for bolt holes in socket and stick.
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| 01/23/02 - 3.5 Put together my barn hoist system. I welded some 5/8" rod bent in a big "U" onto some 5/8"plate with holes drilled to match the ones in my 3.5x14" barn header, which has a Simpson CC046 steel column cap with nuts welded on the blind side. The CC046 is sitting on the header behind the siding, I had put it there when my dad & I built the barn. We then used a chain hoist to get the engine crate out of my truck. While it was suspended, I installed some steel casters on the bottom so I could roll it around as needed. After that we pulled the 4 pins holding the lid on and lifted it off. We then stored it all away in the corner of the barn and have yet to unwrap anything. It all looks in order so far though.
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| 01/30/02 Just got back home after 5 days in the hospital with pneumonia, due to previous doc's mis-diagnosis of a chest cold. Turns out I've had it since the 12th! Doc in the hospital was great and got me fixed up enough to go home. Obviously I don't feel like working in a cold garage yet......
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| 02/04/02 - 1.0 Back in action sort of. Unwrapped the motor to see what was inside. It was wrapped in approx 40' of parafin paper, and covered with a heavy plastic bag with about 40 lbs. of small cloth dessicant bags numbering about 25 of them inside the bag all around the base of the stand. Everything looks new and in great shape, the serial numbers on the data plate and case match the crate and logbook.
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| 02/08/02 - 3.2 Tacked the forward stick socket and bearing cage together, then used oxy-acetylene torch & small hammer to form the 510-14 plates to the stick socket tube. Welded it up. Then went over to Kens and cleaned up the socket so the stick would fit in again, using a 7/8 drill bit followed by some work on a Sunnen Power Hone. Now the stick fits nice and tight in the socket with no play. Another way to clean it up would be with a die grinder with extra long burrs. We didn't have one so we used the hone.
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| 02/09/02 - 1.8 Cut the 3/8 hole in the front stick for the bushing. Fit the bearings in the cage of the front stick socket assembly. It took some work with the adjustable reamer and dremel to remove the penetration after welding so the bearings press in by HAND. | |
| 02/10/02 - 1.0 Cut, fit and welded the 3/8 - .058 bushing in the front stick. Cut and fishmouthed the 510-33B pushrod tube that goes from stick to stick.
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| 02/11/02 - 2.2 Welded up the 510-33B pushrod tube that goes from stick to stick. I used the cutoff wheel to cut the fishmouths in the rest of the pushrods. I just clamped the tubes to my belt sander table. Afterwards, I welded them up.
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| 02/13/02 - 0.7 Discovered that the elevator control stop bolts will not hit the lower stick 510-14 plates very well. I must have had the plates up just a little too high on the bearing cage when I welded them. No problemo, using the ever handy cutoff wheel, I cut the AN315-5 nuts off the torque tube, so I can weld on new ones higher up.
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| 02/14/02 - 1.7 Welded on the AN315-5 nuts on the torque tube, then assembled the entire sticks-torquetube-elevator system. | |
| 02/20/02 - 3.2 Located position of the front seat 210-69 front crossmember. I put it 6.75 back from FS 24.9 instead of the 7.11 called for by the plans. Also, the -69 tube is 5.625 above the longeron instead of 5.00. These changes were done to match Kevins front seat design which also reclines the seat back tubes 2.375. Cut, fit and tackwelded the uprights to the seat front tube. Checked alignment and fit with fuselage diagonals 210-28. They angle in slightly as they are 12.0 on center at the seat tube and 11.25 OC down at the diagonals. Welded on the caps and uprights onto the seat tube, then welded the assembly onto the diagonals. Also welded the rear seat uprights to the lower longerons, they were only tacked before. Click here to see the Seat Changes.
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| 02/20/02 - 2.5 Cut and fit all four seat bottom tubes.
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| 02/22/02 - 0.8 Tack welded the seat bottom tubes in place. Also tried to tap threads the rest of the way down the two 5/16-24 SS bolts for the torque tube elevator stops, but my die broke. I must have not been using enough oil or my technique was wrong, or maybe SS is just harder to thread. Hindsight: I just found out that my dies are carbon steel, and high-speed steel dies are better, so that might be the problem. | |
| 02/27/02 - 1.9 Added a Javascript menu system to my website, which took approx 15 hrs of programming time, besides the time spent modifying the web pages to work with it. Got it loaded and tested late last night. Today I cut, fit and tack welded the front seatback vertical tubes in place in a slightly more reclined position see the Seat Changes.
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| 03/01/02 - 1.8 Cut, fit and tack welded the 3/8" - .035 seat forward braces in.
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| 03/04/02 - 1.3 Got some 5/16-24 SS threaded rod, and cut it to length for the elevator stops. Welded nuts on top. It was faster & easier than messing around with the die again. Set up elevator control system with sticks at potentially final position with seats. Set stops at ± 25º travel. I want to remove the tail so I can flip the fuse for welding, but still have the sticks set up at proper travel if I need to check anything. Also cut some plywood seats out and swiped some cushions off the patio so the kids could fly some missions......
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| 03/05/02 - 1.5 Worked on battery tray structure. Did layout for the horizontal tubes 210-72 and fit one of them. Also got my 4th or 5th (can't remember) big bottle of argon.
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| 03/09/02 - 2.2 Finished fitting tubes for battery tray. Discovered that if using Kevin's laser cut metal, that you need 7.5 inches between the tubes that hold the -111 trays. Welded up the tray tube structure.
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| 03/13/02 - 4.5 Cut the 210-110 bushings to 1.75 inches instead of 1.00 as plans. Welded the bushings on the -111 angles. Located, tacked then welded the angles in the tube assembly, but with 8.25" between the vertical flanges. This is closer together than plans, but exactly as Kevin builds it. I then figured out how to locate the tray on the rear seat back tubes, and put it in place and leveled it. I had leveled the fuselage earlier too. I tacked it in, and then cut fit and tacked in the 210-73 supports that go up to the top of the seat back tubes. So I could rotate the fuselage for welding, I ended up taking the tail all apart and hanging up the various pieces in the garage so the fuselage was bare again. After that I welded up the 210-73 supports, which was somewhat difficult with the -111 angle welded in at the end. I recommend putting the right side angle in afterwards to make welding easier. Note the -114 tray is omitted also.
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| 03/15/02 - 3.0 Welding up the seat tubes which were only tacked in up to now.
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| 03/16/02 - 2.3 More welding on the seat tubes. It takes awhile to set up for each weld, there's a lot of tubes in the way now. | |
| 03/20/02 - 2.1 Finished welding up all the various seat tubes. Next time I build a structure with so many short tubes, I'll make sure I drill small pressure relief holes inside the joints so I don't have to deal with pressure build up as I weld. The key is to get enough volume so that pressure builds up slow. Short closed off tubes build up quick. I had to weld over a few blowouts, which are tricky to do as they want to blow out again as you weld them up.
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| 03/25/02 - 3.0 Cut the heads off two 1/2 bolts for the front cabane jig to act as locating pins into the engine mount bushing. Checked the fit of all pieces into the jigs. Tacked them together where they are double thick. Re-checked fit in jigs. Did some edge welding of the double thick areas. Installed the fittings into the jigs with the bolts loose, then put the jigs on the fuselage and tightened the bolts. The jigs won't go on the fuse with fittings in tight. Ready for attachment to fuselage.
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| 03/26/02 - 2.6 For each fitting I did the following procedure: Clamp tail to vertical tube. Tacked tail to vertical tube, then heated and formed the tail of the fitting to the tube with a hammer. Did some welding on the front left fitting.
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| 03/30/02 - 0.3 Did a little welding on the right aft fitting tail. Since the tails don't align exactly, I have to add a good bit of rod to get them fused up good. At some point this quarter I made a new tailpost holder for the fuselage stand.
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| Quarter Total 63.6 hrs / TTD 444.7 hrs | |
| 1ST QTR 2002 |
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