After a couple days of getting to see this thing take shape, and a day or so of match drilling, I am back to a pile of aluminum that is now a long task of deburring and dimpling. Most of the work today was the drilling. Nothing really special, but a nice relaxing task of […]
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Today I got to work on the somewhat lengthy task of match drilling the holes holes in the skins. This task is not particularly complex, but a bit tedious. It’s easy to lose your place. A few holes definitely got reamed twice. One exciting surprised was when I read in the instructions to “use an […]
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After a nice easy couple weeks of working on the vertical stabilizer, it was finally time to get back to work on the horizontal stabilizer. I was a bit nervous to start this task because I don’t have a very large table to work on. It’s only about 6’ long and the stabilizer is of […]
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After a long day of driving rivets, the vertical stabilizer is finally done! I was loathing having to “reach inside” to buck rivets into the stabilizer, but like many things, it was not so bad once I finally got started. The first challenge was riveting the skin to the middle in-spar rib. I called a […]
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Today I got to start putting together the pieces I worked so hard on to make a skeleton of the vertical stab. I was able to use the squeezer for every single rivet. I can see that the party is over for that tool though as I move on next time to put the skin […]
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Tonight was a nice easy night where I got to use one of my favourite toys… the rivet squeezer! After a quick bit of dimpling and machine countersinking, I got the lower doubler attached to the forward spar. As I run my fingers over the smooth flush rivets, I can’t help bunt wonder what OTHER […]
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On day 31, I learned a couple lessons… at least I hope I did THIS time! The first lesson (for the 2nd time), was to READ CAREFULLY! Reading a few steps ahead is a good plan, and helps clarify steps that you are one in the context of the part you are building. Things were […]
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There are a few things that are always satisfying when building. One of those things is the first time you cleco the parts together and make a skeleton that is the shape of the part you are working on. Today, I accomplished that great feeling! I almost achieved that SECOND great feeling (even better) where […]
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Today I got a bit more work done on my vertical stabilizer. The day was entirely filled with drilling and countersinking. The first step was to drill the holes for the lower rudder hinge bracket. Nothing really challenging. Next up was a step that slightly confused me. It was section 6, step 6. It said […]
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