Fuselage Moved

The first thing I did tonight after taking a few photos and posting some stuff on VAF to share some of my "wisdom" was to move the fuselage out of the shop. With Section 21 almost done and the structure getting bigger and bigger there just was not enough room in the shop anymore to work comfortably.
The fact that my coaster workbench turned out to be probably too tall was actually helpful in this task today as I was able to just pull the blanket the fuselage was sitting on and pull it onto the coaster workbench and roll it out of the shop.


Now it's sitting in its new spot and is out of the way and yet easily accessible when needed, although outside.


Then I wanted to finish Section 21 and get those 6 screws in the belly skin and I had the fuse already turned on its side, acquired help from my wife and everything - when I realized that we couldn't complete the task due to insufficient tools. The 7/32" nut I have has a center hole that is too small to let the screw pass while the nut would have been on its way towards the skin. I searched everywhere to find a 7/32 wrench but no luck. I even checked the metric wrenches I had, to see if one was coming close but the smallest I had was a 6mm and that was a tad too big to get a grip on the nut. I swear, if I had found a 5mm one, I had filed it wider to get this job done but no such luck again.
I'll have to go to the store tomorrow and get a wrench of that size.

I was so frustrated I just had to continue on Section 22 to work it off ;-). And so I ended up installing 16 nutplates in the tunnel ribs...


... and I riveted the steel angles onto them that support the firewall.


I just realized that this wasn't a very revealing shot as you can't see the steel angle, can you? Hm, I have to fix that issue tomorrow, it's too late to get out to the job again.

Oh, I almost forgot! The cushions arrived today. Antelope and red. Very nice!

Section 21 Almost Finished

Another very long day at the factory. In the morning I did the prep and prime of the parts for Section 22 and got to use my new HF HVLP spray gun. All the time before I had used the HVLP Automotive Spray Gun Kit that comes with a big gun and a detail gun. I had fairly good results with the detailer but never got really happy with the big gun and so I gave it another try when the #66222 was on sale. Boy, what a difference! This gun is very nicely manufactured and shows a lot of attention to detail, can you believe it? This thing is great and produces a wonderfully fine mist at a record low pressure where the other gun would just spatter.


It comes with a 1.4mm jet and the only problem I see with that is that there's no other size available if need ever be. With the Stewart primer this works like a charm so far and so I won't complain. It just retired the Automotive HVLP kit for good.

This is what I got done by a little after noon.


Then I got back to Section 21 and the forward bulkhead. I riveted the bulkhead onto the angles, the ribs and the side skins and put the snap bushings in.


The next step was to close up that step floor and that always gets me a bit excited as it would be hard to get back inside, so I vacuumed the last shavings out and took a few photos to remember how it looks in there if need be.


The floors were clecoed on and rivets were seated on both sides.


Riveting started and it went pretty well until ....
... Super Bowl XLV was calling and I had to take a break.


Great game so far and my Packers are leading comfortably at the end of the second quarter. As those Green Eyed Lemons took over to mess up the halftime show, I got another session in the shop, just as well.


And just when I thought this is almost too easy I ran into one of Van's practical jokes. That was when they have you install the last two nutplates by "reaching through the lightening hole and holding the nutplate in position" or something like that. The practical joke here is that probably only an 8 year old might have hands small enough to actually reach through that hole. In lack of an 8 year old at hand, I used a little magnet taped to my finger tip holding the nutplate so I could reach through that hole with a finger (and almost no sensitivity, very funny!).


That worked well enough to catch one of the attach holes with a cleco and allowed me to fiddle with it while the cleco held it in place. 10 minutes for two nutplates, not too bad given the circumstances.

That ended the work on the front and the next step made me work on the tail section of the fuselage.
Installing another (short) bulkhead along with the brackets for the second autopilot servo was the task. Here's the result.


Then the fuel pump support got match-drilled and riveted to the rear tunnel. The rivets have to get pulled from the belly which is a bit awkward when you have a fuselage sitting on a table instead of sawhorses. I was able to pull the fuse back enough to get to the belly and pull those 4 rivets though.


The last step in section 21 is to install 6 screws in the forward tunnel that go in from the belly again and they are held with those tight metal lock nuts on the inside of the skin. I remember reading about these screws in Dave's blog and that means there was something mean about them. That's definitely not task for one person alone and certainly not something for this late hour, so I'm holding off on that until I can recruit a helper.
Instead I pulled some more parts for section 23 (the dreaded Longeron Section) that need preparation for priming and interior paint. I'm a helpless optimist to even think about this before bending the longerons, I know.


On another note: I am now only a single digit number away from reaching the 500-hours-worked mark in my log.

Step Support Angles Riveted

It was a very long day today. Not so much with building on the RV but because of working on supplemental things. For instance, as I need to get the fuselage out of the shop soon because it is just getting too big to move around it, I wanted to build another lower workbench on casters to put the fuselage on. The idea was to use the rectangular crate the fuselage arrived in and add 4x4s in the corners as legs. That's just what I did today. I cut the 4x4s 2 feet long and added casters as well as cross struts under the plywood sheet to strengthen the structure. It all worked out well, although I expected it to be done much sooner compared to when I actually finished. Anyway, it is done and I think this will be helpful - I just wish I had cut the 4x4s a bit shorter. Overall the workbench is now 28.5" tall and that is just half an inch lower than my folding table I am working on right now. That means I might have to use a step for a few things on top of the fuselage. We'll see how it plays out.


Then I upgraded the shop's air supply lines or at least I wanted to. After a few hours of work this still isn't working as I wanted it to be and I think I'll have to redo it. So still no improvements but also no work done on the plane.

Finally, I got to work on the steps and the support angles. Clecoing and match-drilling was quickly done, so quickly that I forgot to take a photo of that step. So all I have is when I removed the bulkhead after the tricky stuff was done.


Next was to do some more match drilling with the stiffener that holds the nutplate. That took a while as all that could hold it in place was that nutplate and a screw in it.
Then finally everything was taken apart, deburred and re-primed as the angles were a bit scratched up. And then the angles were ready to get riveted to the floor ribs.


Unfortunately, the room to rivet these LP3-4s was so limited that I had to use the CQR (Close Quarter Riveter) to get these pulled. Not too bad, but time consuming.


I also touched up some scratches and some light primer spray on the bulkhead. That's why I stopped here and let the stuff dry over night before riveting it in place tomorrow.
There's also another prep & prime session coming up tomorrow and I have a new spray gun from HF that will get tested.

Step Support Angles Arrived

They actually had already arrived yesterday but when I got home I missed to look in the hidden spot the UPS guy loves to drop off stuff in like this. So I found it this morning sitting in the cold.
I finished preparing a few things in section 22 so, I wouldn't have to worry about this later. Among them was some more counter sinking, match-drilling and trimming. Mainly on the tunnel ribs that attach to the firewall. Here you see the markings to trim away some aluminum that blocks the fuel supply fitting hole in the firewall.


I used a #40 drill to put some holes in it around the marked half circle and then I used a small hacksaw to cut out the majority of the piece. And then the fine trimming was done with Dave's favorite toy - uhh - tool, I mean: The Dremel!


Then there was some match-drilling to do on these parts where the steel angle get mounted to. Including deburring and some more counter sinking on the forward flange to the firewall. I don't have photos from this but you'll see that later when I prep and prime the stuff on the weekend. Speaking of priming ... I did some quick priming with the Napa 7220 stuff, which I like more and more.


You see, the inboard support angles are ready to get put in place. This is something for tomorrow, I guess. I have to see how I can do that as I also have to get out to the airstrip and do some maintenance work on the RANS S-12S.

More Parts Prepared for 22

While I am waiting for those foot step support angles I am still in parts preparation mode. It' s a bit slow as we currently have ridiculously low temperatures. Dave would probably take his sweater off at these temps but for me this feels bitter cold and it kills my drive to spend time in the shop for more than an hour.
I did some more dimpling and also built a part from angle stock that will support the firewall.


This one will need further match-drilling but at that point I was thinking about either wearing gloves or going inside. I chose the latter ...
The weekend is going to be quite busy and hopefully I get these angles tomorrow and then I have to make some time for the Superbowl as well. Ahhh, so little time, so much to do :-)

Interior Scheduled for Delivery

I got note from Flightline Interiors about the shipment of my interior, which is part of the Finish Kit but is not shipped by Van's in the crate.
Instead they have it processed and shipped by the actual manufacturer themselves. Now, because of the blizzard and related winter weather up there, FI is located in Wisconsin, UPS couldn't ship it right away. It sat in their storage for 2 days and I received a Shipment Exception due to 'adverse weather conditions'.
Now it appears to be on its way and is scheduled for delivery on Monday, 2/7

Section 22 Started

I finished all possible prep work on section 21 and I couldn't keep myself busy without the missing angles I am waiting for and so I started pulling parts for section 22, the lower forward fuselage. I also checked with the Interior company to see when my cushions will make it here, so I can decide on the interior paint which will be needed for section 21 and 22 very soon.

Here are the last parts for section 21 that got prepared and also some parts for 22.


And the larger parts are stacking up here and are ready for prep and prime this weekend. It will be way too cold this week to do this in the evenings. So I might have to start preparing other sections as well or do some support work, like building a movable low workbench for placing the fuselage canoe on for the upcoming sections...