Finished up the Wing Brackets

I finished up the wing brackets (name?) today.  I still have to round some corners and drill some holes, but the heavy cutting and shaping is done.  I'm not going to have much time to work on it the next ten days or so, but I will have next Wednesday off to start fabricating the spars all day.

The "finished" parts.



The "finished" hands!

1/8" Wing Attachment Pieces

I cut the eight 1/8" think 4130 parts tonight.  I started to shape one, but I think it's time to stop before the neighbors get mad at the noise.  This time I could cut the 7" pieces using the HF chop saw (around $40) since it was thinner.  It did the job.  I cut the notch with an angle grinder, and will shape it later.

Here is a picture (basically the same as the last pieces, just a little thinner).

Once these 8 pieces are done, I get to start working with aluminum and rivets.  I'm looking forward to it.

Materials Arrive!

Two big boxes came from Aircraft Spruce today!  I mostly purchased what I would need to build the wings first to help spread out the cost.  It consists mostly of clecos, rivets, aluminum angle, sheets of aluminum, and nuts a bolts.  Nuts and bolts are easy to store, so I bought more than I needed for the wings since I was paying for shipping anyhow.

I was planning on building the remaining 4130 parts for the spars, but I think I'll grab a beer and take inventory tonight.  Plus I need some more saw blades for the reciprocating saw.

Here are some shots of what came today.

Wing Attachment Fittings Continued...Again

Tonight I finished the 1/4" 4130 steel work (except drilling).  I did all of the shaping on the bench grinder, and used a hand file and 320 grit sandpaper to smooth things out.  Seemed to work well.

Two of these go on the right side of the center spar (in the fuselage) and two on the left side to attach the wings to the fuselage.  If you're not familiar with the plans, I think it will make more sense when I start building the actual spar.



Now I have to make all parts again, but this time it is made of 1/8" steel.  I'm hoping the thinner metal is a little easier to cut.

Wing Attachment Fittings Continued

Well, it's Easter, but I managed to sneak out and cut a few parts.  Here's where we stand now.  I recommend the reciprocating saw very much.  Plenty of opportunities to use it around the house too when you're done building airplanes.

Lots of finishing to do, but the rough carts are made on three of them, and #4 is about ready to drill.



This is the saw blade I used to cut them.  In my opinion, way better than the jigsaw.



Friends of ours invited us out on their boat.  Not aviation themed, but a good reminder to stop and enjoy the journey... thanks Ryan and Kristin!



P.S. - All of those cranes mean more people and not enough pelicans!

First Airplane Parts

I started making the wing attachment points out of 4130.  All I can say is, I can't wait to work with aluminum!  This stuff is tough to cut.  After some trial and error and a lot of reading online, I settled on my reciprocating saw with a metal blade.  Not quite like butter, but it worked.  Here are some shots of the process.




I cut a little larger than the specified dimensions, then used the sanding disc to square everything up.  I also used this and my bench grinder to round the edges.



Here I'm making sure things are square.



Here are the first four airplane parts hand filed and sanded for smooth corners.  I'll have to round the edges more where the 1/2" bolts attach the wing and fuselage, but I want to match the radius on those corners to the 1/4" 4130 parts I'm making next so everything looks nice if I decide to add the folding wing bracket.



Four more pieces cut from the bar stock.  These will have to be shaped with a 1/4" cutout.



Here is one of the pieces cut and roughly ground on the bench grinder.  I cut the 1/4" cut out by drilling a hole, then cutting the tangent with the jigsaw.  Did I mention I'm excited to get to the aluminum?

Time to go out to dinner, but here is where I left off.



Happy Easter tomorrow!

Arbor Press Modification

I'm using the arbor press method for setting my spar rivets.  I bought the Harbor Freight arbor press.  The general idea is that you add a rivet set in the base of the arbor press and set the rivet upside down in the spar.  A few taps with a hand sledge sets the rivet.

Tony Bingelis (of EAA fame) explains the process here:
http://www.eaa.org/en/eaa/aviation-communities-and-interests/homebuilt-aircraft-and-homebuilt-aircraft-kits/resources-for-while-youre-building/building-articles/metal/metal-spar-assembly-tips

Here are the mods I made:

• Polish the ram that makes contact with the rivet
• Mount a rivet cupped rivet set in the base

I don't have pictures of the polishing, but I removed the ram from the press and sanded it up to 400 grit sandpaper.  You'd be surprised how nice you can get it.  Then I used various polishing/buffing bits on my Dremel tool to get it mirror smooth.  The idea is that you do not want to add any irregularities to the rivet with a rough ram surface because that could become a stress point that might cause the rivet to fail.  Worth the work

Here are some pics of me mounting a .187 universal cupped rivet set (1/8th) in my arbor press base.  The method seemed to work well.

Lowered arbor press on base (sections of base are different sizes.  I chose the biggest one)

Marked the ram outline on the base and found the center.

Drill the hole.  I drilled with a 1/8" bit first to create a pilot hole.  Then drilled out with the 3/16" bit.  I also measured the length of the shank on the rivet set to determine my hole depth.  Not sure how important that is, but seemed like a good idea. (PS this is an old and super cheap drill press I bought over a decade ago.  Still going strong!)

The result...

UPDATE:  After riveting the spars, I realized that the center is not necessarily where you want to mount your rivet set.  the problem is when you go to rivet on the aluminum angle, the arbor doesn't clear the angle.  To fix it, drill the hole for your rivet set closer to halfway between the center and the back of the square you draw.  The good thing is, you can turn the table on the arbor to drill another hole.  If I did it again, I would drill the holes in your spar caps, take some measurements, then drill the hole for your rivet set.  My two cents...

I bought these drill bits at the big hardware store.  Went through it like butter!

Practice Piece

I haven't done a lot of work with metal, so I decided to get some aluminum from the hardware store and try to cut it, sand/file it, drill it, cleco it, and test out the HF rivet gun.  The metal was $8 for 3ft, and I have an idea on how to use the rest of it in the house.  So it is not  a total waste.

Here are a couple of quick shots.  I'm really glad I did this because it gave me some confidence with the bandsaw and drill press.  I'll definitely need to work to drill my holes in a straight line!  I'm also looking forward to getting my scotch-brite wheel this week.

Setting Up Shop

Well, it's official.  I am the proud owner of plans number 568!  Time to set up shop!

First thing was to clear out the garage and start building the workbench.  I'll be building in our one car garage for now, so organization is going to be key.

I'll get more detailed later, but here is where we are right now.  My bench is 14 feet long.  16ft didn't leave much room on the ends of the table and it's more than the minimum recommendation of 12ft, so it seemed like a good compromise.

I also used 1-1/2" bolts on the bottom of the legs to allow me to level the table.  That method is described here, and worked really well:  http://eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=4283417659001











...and the official FAA-recommended test.  Yep, it officially holds a big dog.  Done!



Update 4/6/16:  The table is solid (especially when the two are attached), but I would recommend using 2x6 instead of 2x4 around the upper frame that the legs attach to.  I think that would really make it rock solid.  No issues, but I wonder what will happen when/if I separate the two tables.