Hurricanes, a Left Wing, a Change of Plans, New Tool, 3d Printing, and Beginning the Fuselage

That's quite the title, but it's been a really long time since I've updated this log, and a lot has happened.

Hurricane Irma

We live in the Tampa Bay area, and Irma was originally heading our way.  It's never good when your weather man makes this face...



So, I put a halt to building, stacked anything important on top of my workbench in case we got any flooding, secured the garage door with some 2x4's, and hit the road to Charlotte.  The storm took a last minute turn, and my CX4 project lived to see another day.

Left Wing Progress

The left wing is basically done.  I'm leaving the trailing edge off until I have the ailerons so I can make sure the trailing edge of the aileron lines up with the trailing edge of the wing tip.  Here are a few pictures, but basically the same thing as the first wing but on the left side.  I decided to cut the hole in the left wing for pitot static hardware later as mentioned in the build manual.  I'm wondering if it would have been easier to fit the parts while the wing was open.  I guess I'll find out.

Also, the change of plans part of the title is that I decided to buy the ailerons from Greg Westberry.  I don't think mine are right (they don't fit the aileron ribs from the plans), and to rent a truck and a bending brake is almost the cost of the parts minus shipping.  I'll have a separate section for all of the parts I bought from Greg in case anyone is interested.

New Bending Brake

I needed to make a new left wing tip spar, and decided to pick up the Harbor Freight bending brake.  So far, I'm very happy with it!  Here I taped on some bent 020 to increase the bend radius so I don't work harden the material.



Playing around

3D Printing

I have a small 3D printer, and I hope to find ways to use it on this project.  I was thinking the air vent might be a good fit for 3d printing.  Anyhow, I needed to make a new Scotchbrite wheel fit my drill press for deburring.  So I drew up a part, printed it, and it worked really well.  It took about 20 minutes from drawing the part to final product.









Highly recommend the Scotchbrite wheel for deburring.

Starting the Fuselage

The pictures speak for themselves.  The best part was bolting the wings together.  24' is pretty long in a single car garage!




Louie makes an appearance with the forming block...








The seat...



So cool to see the wings bolted on.



And the wings stacked and stored so I can work on the fuselage now...

A present for my dad

I went to Ohio State (forever ago!), and I wanted to get my dad a block-o for his outside bar.  It turns out that no one really makes a good one.  So I decided to use some 6061 and make him one that will hold up.  I was happy with the results...







More to come, but time for a xmas party with the friends...

Trailing edge ribs mounted

I mounted the leading edge skin and made the trailing edge ribs on the 4th.  Today, I mounted the trailing edge ribs to the spar.

I spent the majority of the day trying to make the garage functional.  It was a mess!  Here is a panoramic shot in case any one is curious what building in a one car garage is like (Sorry for the fisheye look).  On the upper left side, you can barely see where I have the right wing on a shelf while I build the left wing.



Also a shout out to the guys at FliteTest.com for the entertainment while I build.  It's about the RC world, but I recommend checking out the full scale Pietenpol episode and the paramotor series.

Right Wing Shelf - Shop Stuff

One of the "joys" of building in a one-car garage is creative/careful use of space.  Today I extended the shelf above the garage door to store the right wing while I build the the rest of the plane.  It's made out of scrap wood I had laying around. It isn't pretty, but it works!  Now I can start the left wing.  I'm not 100% where the left one will go while I build the fuselage, but we'll figure that out later.


I managed to wrestle this up there by myself!

They say at some point everyone gets overwhelmed with the project.  Starring at the left wing spar is that moment for me.  I have to build another one?!  Oh well, all for the greater good, and hopefully this will be quicker with all of the lessons learned on the first wing!