Tweaking of front/back door jam design - the supports.
Jun 21
.2hrs
More decisions about the door supports.
Jun 22
1.7hrs
More - working out the support for the door and skin around the door jam.
Jun 23
1.7hrs
Made one support bracket for vertical tube.
Jun 23
1.2hrs
Final decision on where to put the vertical support. Practiced some welding of thin wall tubing and thin wall 4130 flat stock.
2.2hrs
Tacked the bracket to the vertical tube. Then aligned and welded bracket/tube to upper longeron. Cut and notched horizontal tube (to support door frame tube - horizontal tube connects to one of the forward tube formers)
Jun 25
2.6hrs
Un-tack and re-align door support. Re-cut and notch a new horizontal tube. Welded on vertical door support(needed to flip the fuselage for a better line on welding the bracket).
Jun 26
.4hrs
Flipped fuselage back upright. Attached cockpit skin to figure out plate for attaching hinge of door and skin to vertical door support.
June 27
2.5hrs
Adjusted drawings for door brackets on CAD. Printed out... then rough cut, filed, drilled, sanded both pieces to completion.
Jun
28
N/A
Out looking at the fuselage... still thinking about this door.
Jun 29
2.1hrs
Needed to set up the fuselage in a "real world" setting to really know about climbing in and out of it. Spent the day positioning the fuselage as if it were sitting on its wheels, at the correct angle. Decided that I need to open up the hole on the pilot's cockpit to get in and out.
Jun 30
2.3hrs
Re-shaped the opening in the pilot's cockpit upper skin.
Jul 1
2.4hrs
Figuring out the support for the sides of the rear cockpit for when I climb out and hold onto the sides for support. Also took this time to cut off and file down the one bracket I had welded on for the door support.
Jul 2
3hrs
Notched and fitted both the starboard and port side supports.
Jul 3
4.2hrs
Final fit and tack-weld of starboard and port side supports.
Jul 4
4.5hrs
Finish welds of both supports. Then filed and sanded smooth the upper welds (they aren't structural) so that they won't chaff the inside of the aluminum skin.
Jul 5
2.9hrs
Work on the wood transition between turtledeck and vertical tail.
Jul 6
2.7hrs
Finished first wood transition. SNAP! Began making replacement wood transition.
Jul 7
1.1hrs
Finished second wood transition. Started researching metal skins (.5hrs)
Jul 8
1hr
Research more on metal skins.
Jul 9
1.8hrs
Sealed transition and cleaned up and sealed turtledeck with clear coat.
Jul 10, 12, 17, 25
6hrs
Figuring out hardware for upper wing center section. Double, triple, quadruple checking.
Jul 28
.8hrs
Back to the engine mount. Figuring it out.
Jul 29
1.6hrs
More confirming of hardware for upper wing center section.
Aug 1
.5hrs
More head scratching about the engine mount.
Aug 9
1hr
Confirm engine mount tubing. Inventory.
Aug 10
1hr
Still sorting through all this engine mount thinking.
Aug 12
1.7hrs
Level fuselage. Cut (8) wood (psuedo rubber) bushings for the engine motor mount jig.
Aug 13
.8hrs
Cut and squared up the first two engine mount tubes for the bushings.
Aug 15
2.1hrs
Cut the second two engine mount tubes for the bushings. Couldn't get the last one squared up... took forever.
Aug 16
1.3hrs
Confirm and drill holes in wood bushings (pseudo rubber mounts).
Aug 18
All day long
ROAD TRIP: Picked up the cowl spinning! Yes!
Aug 19
1.7hrs
Tried drilling/reaming out mounting bracket holes from 1/4inch to 3/8inch. NO JOY!
Aug 22
1hr
Again... Tried drilling/reaming out mounting bracket holes from 1/4inch to 3/8inch. NO JOY!
Aug 29
1.7hrs
Made the first part of the new mounting brackets; one mounting plate.
Aug 30
2.2hrs
Completed three mounting plates.
Sept 1
2.2hrs
Read past blog posts about making these before. Drilled holes.
Sept 2
1hr
Rough cut one additional piece. Drilled holes.
Sept 3
.8hrs
More holes, more rough cutting.
Sept 5
2.4hrs
Two pieces drilled and rough cut.
Sept 7
2.1hrs
Two more pieces drilled and rough cut.
Sept 8
1.9hrs
Two more pieces are drilled and rough cut.
Sept 10
.7hrs
Drilled holes - rough cut one blank - issue with bandsaw
Sept 12
1.7hrs
Filed curves on blanks
Sept 19
1hr
Adjusted CAD drawings
Sept 20
1hr
Ditto same as above
Nov 2
1hr
CAD for engine mount
Nov 22
1.2hrs
Begin making motor mount bracket jig.
Nov 23
.8hr
Route 1/8inch radius on jig.
Nov 29
1.6hrs
More jig making
Dec 11
.5hrs
Re-size pins for jig. Needed to cut them down to allow them to be inserted into the jig and 4130 metal and still be able to close vice.
Dec 19
1hr
Testing bending block jig. It works well... it's just too wide.
Dec 22
1.3hrs
Made several templates to cut down bending block. It was too wide.
Dec 23
1.2hrs
Cutting down the bending jig, and made a test piece to make sure that it is bending the correct width. Success!
Dec 31
1.8hrs
Glued on the four center piece patterns and drilled the holes.