Fuselage – Page 51

Seat Substructure

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 8 Hours

While I’m waiting for the center section painted parts to cure for a few days I moved ahead in the plans to the next section, the seat rib assembly. This is the section that will eventually support both the pilots and passengers seat structure. This step just continues the progress from the firewall to the tail build process. First up was to create 2 spacers out of stock that will evenly space the rear spar attach points for the rear spar of the wings.

There are 2 seat rib angles that have 10 nutplates that needed countersinking for flush rivets.

2 brackets needed to be fabricated from some 3/4″x3/4″ angle. Luckily I remember reading during some research that these pieces need to be cut from the 12′ sections that came with my wing kit a year ago. They came with them since they are so long and could fit in the wing spar boxes. I triple checked the fuselage plans to make sure I had the right pars for the longerons, the angle pieces that will run uninterrupted from the firewall to the tail. They are not expensive but shipping would be due to their lengths. Once I was sure I cut 2 1/8″ pieces, one from each piece of 12′, to minimize the effects of a bad decision here. Then I fabricated them per the plans.

With one hole drilled in the bracket you can match drill the second using the rib as a guide.

I then match drilled all the 1/8″ holes on each of the inner rib structures with the seat belt attach points.

The 2 outboard aft seat structure ribs needed to have a little modification done to the forward part of its flange to make room for the flange of the next rib inward due to the angles the 2 ribs sit at.

Now you can clecko all 10 ribs to the rear spar attach bulkhead to match drill all the common holes.

I grabbed my 2 sawhorses and placed the seat rib assembly upside down on them. This allowed the curve of the bottom to show as the top of the ribs are laying flat on the sawhorses.

This allows you to lay the bottom skin down on the substructure to get the curve right by fluting the flange of the skin. This way the skin matches the curve of the rib.

I then clecko’d both skins to the substructure to match drill all the 3/32″ holes.

I edge rolled the right bottom skin where it overlaps the left skin so that it will sit tight after riveting. I also edge rolled the outside edges of the aft ends of both sides where they will over lap the curved side skins later in the build.

I disassembled all the parts and now the fun deburring begins on all the edges, lightening holes and rivet holes.

I did a little deburring on a few parts and decided to call it a day.

Center Section Work

Posted on September 14, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 5 Hours

The center section has a forward half and an aft half that will eventually be joined to make a pocket for the wing spars. On each side there are 2 bulkheads one forward and aft. I deburred the edges and all the holes in each of them. On the left side there are several nutplates that needed countersinking as well. I got that work done yesterday after a pretty good day of house hunting. My girl, which works for the same company, got the approval to transfer to Chicago! So we are pretty excited to get a new and larger home to share together. A lot if nice houses out there, my wish list….a large garage for the aircraft build. Hers….nice kitchen and master bath. We found a few and hope to make an offer soon. So today I got back at the center section. First was to prime and paint the 4 side bulkheads.

I then riveted the 4 nutplates to the forward center section, these will eventually hold 4 adel clamps for the fuel line.

Several other parts get riveted to the center section including the forward seat supports and seat ramp supports. I match drilled all the holes and enlarged the ones that will have a AN3 bolt in them.

There are 2 vertical support filler pieces that are anodized as well. I reamed them to the final size of 1/4″.

There will be one rivet that holds the side bulkheads in place that will interfere with these vertical supports. So you need to countersink it so that you can put a flush rivet there so the support will sit flush on top of it.

I then scuffed to supports and deburred all the edges/holes for priming.

Since I’m going to have to wait several days before riveting these parts as the paint drys I looked aged in the plans for the next steps. The next phase will be the seat rib assembly section. So I spent some time looking for and locating every part for this substructure in between primer coats on the other parts.

After the primer was dry I riveted the nutplates to the seat support angles and ramps. I also painted them so if any part does show after assembled they will look good.

That’s where I called it a night, I have a light flight schedule this wee so I’m hoping to get some good building in.

Center Section Starts

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 4 Hours

I was able to get some time in the Hangar tonight starting on the center section. This part of the fuselage is the mating section to the wing main spars. It comes from the factory precision matched to the spars I have and most if it is assembled and anodized. But there is some building and assembly that remains. You start with drilling the rudder cable pass thru holes in the web. You have to double check the plans as there are 2 different spots where to drill dependent on if you are going tail dragged or tricycle gear. Once I was happy with the read on the plans I marked the correct holes and drilled with my unibit.

Working with this section is like working with the main spars, you don’t want to screw up as these would be very expensive to replace and they are matched to each other already. I just read and read and read the plans before doing any work. Next steps were to create some seat belt spacers out if 5/16″ tubing.

I then debured the edges of the seat belt attach lugs.

The forward flight control has a mounting bracket that gets attached to the forward side of the center section. You have to fabricate this out of some angle stock using the dimensions from the plans.

With the one attach hole drilled in the bracket you can bolt it to the center section and match drill the other using the second hole already in the center section after squaring everything up.

On both ends of the center section there are a forward and aft bulkhead. I needed to flute the flanges to get them to lay flat, just be sure to read the plans as there are certain spots that can’t be fluted and the flange must be flat.

You can then bolt and clecko the forward bulkheads to match drill the 1/8″ holes.

I did several other small tasks like match drill for several nutplates and countersunk for their rivets. That’s where I called it a night. I did look over the painted parts from this weekend and I’m still happy with their look. They should be ready for riveting this weekend.

Bulkhead/Baggage Floor Painting

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 4 Hours

Today started off with sanding down the Super-Fill to make the holes I accidentally drilled disappear. I then reprimed all the spots where I sanded.

Once the primer was dry I assembled all the parts for the baggage floor support and got them all riveted together.

I then put some masking tape in the Cam-Loc holes to keep them from getting primer/paint on them and then primed all the rivets I just did. A light sanding on all the surfaces followed up by cleaning the dust and using a tack cloth to remove any fibers from the rags I used to clean. I hung all the parts and got to painting. I have found that there are very subtle differences in the final color from can to can of the Rustoleum. So I have made some timing changes to my paint plans so that the 3rd and final coat on matching pieces will be from the same can. This will insure that parts that mate up together have the same coat from the same can reducing a noticeable difference in color. When parts are separated by even a couple of inches you can’t tell but right next to each other you can, sometimes!

All in all I’m happy with my painting progress, there are some imperfections but I can live with those and think they look great. I’m really happy with the color! I will let these parts cure for 5 days or so and get to riveting them next weekend.

Bulkhead and Baggage Prep

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Michael — No Comments ↓

Time: 6 Hours

I made some good progress today in prep for painting and assembly of the bulkheads and baggage area. I riveted the 2 support angles to the baggage floor, all the nutplates to the angles and lower bulkhead.

In this process I realized that I made a big error on my baggage floor prior to making the center cut for my modification. On the left side of the baggage floor, the farthest away from the baggage door, there are 4 screws that hold that end of the floor in place. These screws will go through the baggage floor and into nutplates on the floor support. I accidentally drilled the 2 wing holes for the nutplates, all 8 of them, through the nutplate wings and through the baggage floor! Oops those are for the rivets to hold the nutplates in place and if I riveted them through all the holes the screws would be useless and the floor would now be permanently installed. So now I have 8 holes that I don’t know what to do with. At breakfast today with the builders I was given and idea and told to come over to his shop. Super-Fil to the rescue! This is a epoxy filler, like bondo for cars. It will dry hard and will be easily sandable.

So now that the day was saved with the Super-Fil I moved on to adding a 2″ pass thru flange for my cool air supply to the cockpit. There is a NACA vent on left side of the forward fuselage that will scoop air for the cockpit. This vent connects to a 2″ duct hose that goes to a eyeball vent on the dash. Van’s has you just hang the duct which doesn’t look that great. So I’m using a aluminum pass thru and eventually an elbow so that the duct hose won’t be seen and it will be hidden. I measured where I thought it should go and looked at my buddies as well. I cut the hole with a step bit and finished the rest with the dremel.

Since the primer was dry on the upper bulkhead I started that riveting so I could paint tomorrow. First was the doubler followed by the single nutplate for the hinge pin and the 3 Cam-Loc’s.

I need to rivet all the baggage floor supports before I can paint but need to wait for the Super-Fil to dry and will get to it tomorrow. That’s all I can do today and will get back at it tomorrow.

Total Time – 1938 Hours

Empennage Total – 218 Hours
Horizontal Stabilizer – 83 Hours
Elevators – 53 Hours
Vertical Stabilizer – 22 Hours
Rudder – 37 Hours
Fiberglass – 23 Hours

Wings Total – 536 Hours
Wing Structure – 216 Hours
Fuel Tanks – 135 Hours
Ailerons – 53 Hours
Flaps – 42 Hours
Wiring – 11 Hours
Fiberglass – 56 Hours
General – 23 Hours

Fuselage Total – 1184 Hours
Canopy – 124 Hours
Engine: 115 Hours
Cowl – 64 Hours
Firewall – 62 Hours
Firewall Forward – 16 Hours
Forward Section – 285 Hours
Center Section – 57 Hours
Seat Substructure – 27 Hours
Mid Fuselage – 131 Hours
Aft Fuselage – 190 Hours
Wiring – 113 Hours