|
PmWiki /
FusePrepAndRivetingAmount of hours spent on prep and riveting: 64.5 April 22, 2009 - 0.5h Riveted the aft deck to the longerons and the F709 bulkhead to the aft deck.
  
April 16, 2009 - 4h I primed the side gussets and riveted them to the longerons together with the side rails. I've decided the leave the canopy latch bracket open until the forward top skin gets riveted, because these rivets will be impossible to buck after the bracket is riveted in.
  
Also primed and riveted the small bracket that is used to mount the center rib to the 707 bulkhead.
Next where the canopy decks. I drilled them to the longerons and the small tab on the end of the side rails after having bend the tab a little to fit the angle of the canopy deck. After deburring, countersinking and priming these got riveted to the longerons.
Since I didn't drill the rudder brace yet, I did that next. First the brace got clamped in the right location on the firewall angle and then drilled using a #30 bit. Before I marked the hole locations on the angle. After that the 3 rudder bushing locations got match-drilled in the brace using the existing holes in the bushings.
I also riveted the two holes next to the wing openings using LP4-3 blind rivets. This was tricky as these isn't much space between the skin and the sides of the 704 bulkhead.
April 13, 2009 - 2h Besides cleaning up the shop for a while and making space for the engine (estimated arrival date April 15) I drilled the side gussets to the longerons and cleaned and primed them. After that they got riveted; I did make some smilies on the bulkhead with the rivet gun, but it's only small and you won't hardly see it when painted.
And oh, I moved the air distributor piece up on the ceiling beam which will make it much easier to get to both sides of the fuse.
And here is a shot of the side steps, just for fun. These will need some work before they get riveted to the skin!
Also clamped the rudder brace to the firewall angle. Need to drill this at some point.
April 12, 2009 - 3h More small tasks today. Riveted the bagage ribs to the F706 bulkhead.
I riveted the angle to the vertical bellcrank rib and riveted it into the fuse and onto the F706 bulkhead.
 
Primed and riveted the bellcrank together, made the bushings and fitted it into the bellcrank case with a AN4 bolt.
 
Last but not least, clecod the four bulkhead gussets to the 707 and 708 bulkheads and clamped them to the longerons. Will drill them tomorrow.
Make sure to look at the engine page. My E6 has shipped :-)
April 11, 2009 - 4h I got lots of small tasks done today. First I fabricated the spacers that go on top of the F710 and F711 bulkheads to support the aft deck. These got drilled using the aft deck, followed by deburring and priming. Then the spacers and the aft deck got clecod back on.
 
 
Next was riveting the two gussets that connect the top firewall angle with the longerons.
I had to take care of something I forgot to do when I put the tail fuse together: riveting the part on the F712 bulkhead where the tail tie-down ring will go. I made sure that the four holes for the vertical stab stayed open.
  
Also riveted the angle piece to the bars on the F711 bulkhead.
This was followed by drilling the shoulder harness anchors to the longerons in front of the F708 bulkhead. These are not bolted on yet to make riveting the top skins easier.
While I was at it I also riveted the static ports to the skin on both sides of the fuse after spraying some primer on the inside. I damaged one of the port heads slightly on the side with the mushroom rivet set, but I don't think this will be a problem.
April 6, 2009 - 3h I finished riveting the aft deck to the longerons and match-drilled the small top bulkhead to the aft deck flange.
I then laid out the hole pattern on the 625 gussets and drilled them in my drill press. Next step was clamping them to the longerons and firewall angle and match-drilling. This was followed by deburring, cleaning and priming of the gussets.
 
Next was match-drilling the center gusset and the canopy decks to the longerons and 705 bulkhead. I did start to make the square holes in the gusset but need to do some filing later to make it nicer. The canopy decks had to be forced in place a bit as it seemed that the longerons bent a little more on the side skins. I think this will come out okay though as all the clecos go in.
Last but not least I deburred the bellcrank parts and cleco'd them together with the bearing in the middle.
April 5, 2009 - 2h Today I built a sturdy stand for my center fuse to rest on so that the longerons will be level and I can easier work on the inside. It holds the center fuse about 20 inches from the ground while the tail still rests on a sawhorse.
The following pics show some level measurements on several locations on the fuse. First the center fuse on the 705 bulkhead. After putting some pieces of wood under the leg of the new stand, it is perfectly level.
Next the right and left sides of the fuse in the center compartment on the longerons. The left side looks like it is not level, but the camera must have moved :-) Just look at the number on the digital level.
 
Last but not least the tail around the 710 bulkhead which should be level according to the plans. Oops, this is a bit off by about 0.5 a degree.
But after playing around some with the aft deck and twisting the tail somewhat, it shows perfectly level. I did had to widen the slots in the deck a bit more, but most people seem to need to do that so I'm not too concerned.
I still had some air in my compressor so I match-drilled some holes after clamping the deck tightly to the longerons.
April 4, 2009 - 8h Big awe moment today!! After 8 hours of straight riveting, the canoe has been flipped over! My friend Allan and I did the unbelievable and managed to rivet the fuselage completely, except for some rivets on the aft sides and the longerons that are supposed to stay open until the top skins are going on. Following are some pics showing this ordeal in images :-)  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Notice that Argo our Leo is very happy too!
There are a couple of rivets we couldn't reach, because of some bolts that were in the way, but these will get done in a couple of days. Again, big moment!!!
April 3, 2009 - 3h My friend Allan from San Jose came over this weekend and at the moment he arrived I told him 'you are bucking today buddy' :-) So after a little practice on some scratch, Allan took a seat underneath the fuse and I managed the rivet gun on top of the bottom floor. We started with the forward spar row of rivets, followed by the aft firewall row and last the floor stiffeners. All came out well!
 
I also squeezed the keeper rivets on the aft longerons and all the rivets aft of where the top skins go on.
 
April 2, 2009 - 4h My order from cleaveland came in with UPS today including the #40 countersink bit, which means that I could finish the right longeron (finally!). Took me about half hour to countersink all the holes and , scotch-brited, cleaned and primed the longeron after that. Could do this outside as the weather is definitely improving.
Since this was the last part that needed to be finished, I started to cleco together the fuse again. First put the right longeron in place and clecod it and the sides of the bulkheads. After that I turned the aft fuse upside down again for the last time.
Michela came out to help me move the center fuse in place again and after some back and forth we managed to slide the aft bottom skin in between the center floor skin and the bagage ribs.
After that it was time to cleco the 770 side skins on, but wait: I forgot to dimple the sides of the 705 bulkhead. That was easily done with the squeezer (seems that Dan C did the same thing as me and had trouble dimpling these holes, but I thought it was real easy). This was followed by cleco'ing the side skins on starting at the 704 bulkhead and ending at the 706. Man, it was so much easier to get the holes to line up this time :-) Next was cleco'ing on all the stiffeners and longerons on the forward side of the side skins and hanging the firewall. I decided to bolt the lower longerons to the firewall brackets now that I still have easy access. Later with the bottom skin on this will be tough to do.
I also riveted on the two center floor stiffeners to the firewall brackets and the 704 bulkhead brackets as it is much easier to squeeze these now before the bottom skin goes on (sorry, no picture).
After all that I clecod the 902 bulkheads and gear webs on and riveted the bottom of the bulkhead to the longeron. Again it will be almost impossible to do that after the bottom skin is on. That was then followed by cleco'ing the bottom skin on.
 
I did try to fit the landing gear mounts in while everything is still wide open and had some trouble doing that. I'll have to figure out tomorrow if I need to enlarge the holes in the bottom skin. Tomorrow the riveting can begin! My friend Allan is coming by so hopefully he'll has some time to help bucking.
April 1, 2009 - 2h Decided to bolt the seat belt anchors in place on the center fuse as it was easy to access it without the side skins on.
 
I also drilled the safeair static ports to the aft fuse sides. These got then countersunk and the skin dimpled and clecod on.
  
I also started working on some doors for the bagage floors. I've seen other people do this and think it is a good idea to get some more storage space for small stuff. These pieces of alu get hinged on the floors and screwed down in the nutplates in the center.
March 30, 2009 - 2h Finished countersinking the left longeron and started the right one. Unfortunately one of the rivet holes was a bit tight and broke off the pilot of my #40 countersink bit :-( I have ordered some new bits (and some other stuff) from Cleaveland, which will hopefully arrive in 2 days. Until that time I'll be stuck and have to work on other things. I did clean and prime the left longeron and sides of the aft fuse with SEM.
March 29, 2009 - 6h A nice day again to have the shop door open and let the sun in. I dimpled both side skins with #30 and #40 dimple dies and primed the inside of the side skins where the several fuse pieces are going to be riveted. I also primed the underside of the center bottom skin where the forward bottom skin will overlap and at the aft fuse where the side skins and center skin will overlap.
 
The last task of fuse prep was deburring and countersinking the longerons and finally drilling the canopy side rails to the longerons. I didn't do this at the time Van's tells you to (simply forgot), but this did give me a chance to mark the exact location on the longerons.
After drilling I cut the canopy rails for the tip-up as per the plans and deburred/primed the inside of them. I did start countersinking the left longeron as well, but since I'm tired and my back hurts a bit I call it a day.
March 28, 2009 - 1h Drilled the holes in the gear webs for the fuel return lines and dimpled the left side skin.
March 27, 2009 - 4h Today was a sunny and nice day again (it rained yesterday and it will rain again tomorrow) so I got a lot done with the garage door open :-) I riveted and bolted the outer seat ribs to the center fuselage.
The lower gussets were riveted to the firewall side angle.
 
Also riveted the gear webs to the 902 bulkheads. Notice that the holes in the gearweb are larger than an inch to give easy access to the grommet for the fuel supply line. I still need to drill the hole for the fuel return line.
 
All the parts that need nutplates got their nutplates riveted on.
And the brackets and stiffeners that hold the rudder pedal mounts were riveted to the firewall. To make sure I got the right angle of the stiffeners I used the 770 side skins to measure and cleco the stiffeners. In the end I don't really know if that was needed as the stiffener seems to rotate easily at the bracket.
  
Last but not least I drilled the fuel return line hole (for the grommet) in the skin and 0.25 inch holes in the aft fuse skins for the safeair static ports.
 
Pfeww! That was a lot of work!
March 26, 2009 - 5h Lots more deburring and dimpling today. The workshop looks very full these days with all the fuse parts laying around. Primed most of the smaller parts and the forward bottom skin.
 
I dimpled all the holes in the aft fuse (side and bottom) and the holes in the center fuse where it connects to the aft fuse.
 
I also bought a 1 inch holesaw today and drilled the hole in the skin for the fuel supply line from the tank. Tomorrow I'll drill a 3/4 inch hole for the return line as well.
March 24, 2009 - 1h Deburring edges and holes of the left 770 side skin. I need to find a 1 inch holesaw somewhere to cut out that hole in the side!
March 22, 2009 - 3h Today was more taking apart of the forward fuse (and a beautiful sunny day to open the garage door). The firewall came off and I deburred, countersunk and dimpled the flanges and angles. While I was at it I also drilled and dimpled the plate that goes in place of the recess. With the Egg E6 there's no need for the recess and I can use the freed up space for the water heater.
 
While I was at it Michela came by and made some more pics.
 
I managed to make one of her flying the fuse off the ground :-) She will be a fine pilot when this thing is finished and flying.
I noticed that I didn't drill the center attachment of the pedal structure yet, but I think it's no problem to do that later when the forward fuse is riveted.
March 21, 2009 - 2h More deburring and dimpling. Here is a boring pic of what has been done.
I also finally got to drill the side rudder pedal blocks to the aux ribs. For ease I took the whole structure including ribs out of the fuse. I drilled 3 positions as most people have done. Started out with a spring clamp on one side and a small clamp on the other. Drilled first at the small clamp and put a 22 bolt in.
This was followed by putting the small clamp on the other side and removing the spring clamp. Then drill again and repeat two more times. Did the same for the other side.
March 20, 2009 - 2h Deburred and dimpled the bottom forward skin and started to debur bagage side bulkheads and ribs. This is going to take a couple of days...
March 13, 2009 - 3h Today is my birthday! So what better present than working on my plane for most of the day while everyone else is at work :-) I cleco'd and match-drilled the bagage side ribs and panels.
Now that I am done with drilling the forward fuse, I have started to peel the several pieces of the skins again and debur, countersink and dimple them. First thing I did was deburring and countersinking the floor stiffeners and dimpling the 902 bulkheads.
|