Michael – Page 98 – RV8-Hangar

And the Wings Start!

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 2 Hours

My good friend Glen Vokac stopped by to go over several steps in the wing building process. Mainly to help me set up my countersink cages that I will be using right off the start. I wanted some extra eyes and help with this step as it is work on the main wing spars. These are big and expensive so making a mistake here would be costly. We did a lot of talking and setting up of the tools. So the time has come to start making some progress! First task is to prep for the many nut plates that go on the spars. These nut plates will hold the fuel tank skin to the spar and the inspection plates on the bottom of the wing. Each nut plat will get two AN426 rivets to hold it to the spar. Those rivets need to be flush so the skin lays flat, so they need to be countersunk. First thing I did was run a strip of painters tape over the valley created by the pieces that make up the spar. This is so aluminum shavings don’t get caught there while drilling.

So I then started with my #40 reamer and brought all the holes up to final size then countersunk them. These are fairly easy as all I wanted to do was make them deep enough to have the head be flush. I just slowly increased the depth with the micro stop cage until I achieved that goal.

Next up are the center holes, the nut plates for the fuel tanks will be a #8 screw and the inspection plates will be a #6 screw. I started with the #8 holes and did about 10 of them before calling it a night. I’m taking my time with these! These holes become fairly large in this process. When they do the pilot will tend to move around as the hole gets bigger and cause “chattering”. This is not good and makes a bad looking countersink. To avoid this I’m using a piece of aluminum that Glen brought. It has three holes drilled into it. Two line up with the rivet holes and the middle is for the pilot of the countersink bit. This keeps the pilot centered as you drill and prevents the chattering.

I have read several blogs about the proper dimensions of the size of a #8 countersink. They all say that it should be between .365 and .375 inches. When I used my dimpled gauge sheet to judge the depth I ended up with .370 inch exactly in the middle! >

So this is what the #8 nut plates look like when all drilled, there are 60 in each spar for the top and bottom.

So now I have all weekend to work and the weather is supposed to be in the middle 70’s and sunny! It’s gonna be a great weekend now that I’m back in the Hangar!

Wings Arrived

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Well today at 10:30am my wings arrived in grand style on a FedEx truck.

I found a little bit of damage to the larger crate on the bottom. Looks like something hit the box side and pushed it in a little as shown by the bottom plywood staples now being exposed.

Well I decided to un-crate the long one first and then ill hit the bigger one to see if there is any damage.

I have read about the mountain of packing paper that accompanies these crates, and this is just from the smaller crate.

I unpacked all the pieces and set in piles so that I could properly inventory them and place on my new shelves. When I got to the bottom I found three of the skins damaged from where the crate had pushed in. It was just enough to bend the skins and cause creases.

So a quick call to Anne at Van’s and a longer call to FedEx and the ball is rolling to get those parts replaced. Glad I don’t have to pay for the shipping as they are pretty big! Next up was to inventory all the parts and organize them. I have hooks above my garage door for the long pieces, a 20″ deep shelf long a beam for the skins and a set of six foot shelves that are 16″ deep for the ribs and spars.

I will leave the spars on the workbench for now cause they are things of beauty!

Tomorrow I will inventory the parts bags for all the nuts, bolts, rivets and other small parts to make sure everything is there. For now I just have a smile on my face to have another pile of aluminum to keep me busy this winter! 🙂

Hangar Add’s

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Michael — No Comments ↓

In prep for the wing delivery I decided to work on two projects I have been thinking about for the last month. The first was to add a 12′ shelf along a beam in the ceiling of the Hangar. I used wire shelving from Home Depot that is 20″ deep. This should be a great place to keep the skins and the longerons.

The second was an add on to my current rolling work bench. The 5’6″ current length is a little short in my opinion for working on the wings. So I decided to add another 2′ to one end to give me a total of 7’6″. My plan was to add a 2′ x 36″ x 3/4″ MDF board to one end, supported by a 2″x4″. Then I would add angled 2″x4″ back to the bottom of the work bench. This way I could remove the addition to slide the bench in its spot under the counter. Turned out as I planned and is plenty sturdy for that end. If I need more length I will add another addition to the opposite end.

I then added all new carpet so that the addition was the same height and looked uniform.

I think a clean up of the hangar is in order this weekend and ill be ready for the delivery!

Wings on their Way!

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Michael — No Comments ↓

While I was editing my last post I received a call from Barbara at Van’s Aircraft. She had great news that my wings and all their glory are crated and in a FedEx truck due for arrival at my home on Monday Sept. 16th!!! I can’t wait to start! Now for a little planning and organizing the Hangar for that arrival!

New Toy (While Waiting for the Wings)

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Michael — No Comments ↓

I had several ideas of vinyl sticker that I wanted to put on my truck to show that I’m an RV-8 guy. I couldn’t find one online that I liked so I researched how to make one. What I came up with was buying a Silhoutte Cameo cutter. This device looks like a regular computer printer but has a blade instead if ink.

This cutter will cut anything from vinyl to fabric and paper. So I found a online store that had a RV-8 sticker that I wanted to start with (I bought a set from them at $15 so I could use the design just for me rather than just copying them, I think that’s the right thing to do!). The software that comes with the cutter is pretty awesome and allows for a lot to be done. So I bout some good outdoor vinyl from H&H Sign online store in silver to match my truck. After playing around this is the final product, a little bigger than the ones I bought and has my reserved tail number cut out too!

So what else could I do, well I have made templates of possible avionics that I want and cut them from black card stock so that I can mix and match them on a full size layout of the instrument panel.

Then I learned that they also do print and cut. What you do is design within their software and print on a regular printer. Then you bring it back to their cutter and based on some registration marks it printed it cuts it out perfectly!

I made a life size cutout of the panel out of foam board and painted it a satin gray that I’m contemplating for a final color. Now I have a board and avionics outlines to try different ideas.

I have to tell you I’m a geek at heart and toys like this make me happy! I have created a few stickers and I’m working on designs for my RV-8 paint scheme. Here is the second that I made for my daughter Ellie as she is 8 and now in competitive gymnastics!

Here is one that I made for the girlfriend as her youngest is in his first year in the NAVY.

So now I’m playing around with making labels for my instrument panel and switches. I have found a few settings that make a nice label especially in such a small font. I will work on these and perfect it I hope. The vinyl I’m using is Oracal 651, and has a 5-8 year outdoor life span. This stuff sticks real well!

The one on the left is gloss and the right satin. More to come!