Before clear out.
How the negotiations over build space panned out. There's a stream running right under that ramp - dampness could be an
issue.
And no, I have not graffitied our garage doors.
Aeroware inform me there'll be a 10-day wait on the tubing; and still awaiting freight costs from StarBee. In the meantime - tooling up: Have acquired a long steel rule, and a square. Verified the continued existence of various files, a centre punch, countersinking bit and the drill press. Not sure about the run-out on the drill press, will proceed very cautiously.
More tubes.
Installed two additional fluorescent tubes in my side of the garage to get a viable light level. An exhausting pest of an exercise working overhead, and around the boat. Attempted to export the Laser out of the garage, but the trailer it's sitting on has a flat tyre. Being Sunday, all the tyre repair outfits were shut. (Said trailer is going to be the A/C trailer after some modification.)
Fixed the flat tyre. Still clearing out the garage.
Finished clearing out the garage. Measurements indicate 102 inches to the absolute ceiling, and about 94 to the lower edges of the rafters. It's going to be close, but I think I can *just* fit a Gyrobee in here.
94 inches to the lower edge of the rafters. Don't ask about the door.
Phone calls: have lined up organisations to do the bending of the struts, and the anodising.
Ordered the aluminium tubing for the vertical shock struts, the steel for the drag struts, and the aluminium angle for the seat braces. The rest of the airframe tubing will be ordered from StarBee; the square tubing is so expensive locally that StarBee's pre-drilled components are cheaper.
More tools: acquired a torque wrench.
Visited the anodising plant before work this morning and obtained some colour samples. Probably going to go for black landing gear struts, the rest of the airframe gunmetal grey, and a day-glo orange tail.
Today I collected the first of the raw material - the tubing for the axle and vertical shock struts, and the angle for
the mast braces, fuel tank mount, seat and rudder. The stuff comes in 12-foot stock lengths, which Aeroware cut into
segments I could at least fit in the car.
Achievement for the night: I have cleaned up the ends of the round stock. To be purchased immediately: A deburring tool (unless used very carefully indeed, files will scratch the opposite inside wall); a mitre box; and at least one vise, probably two.
My attempts to buy various tools this evening were thwarted - after making a special trip after work, I discovered the hardware outlet in question was closed for renovations. Another item on the "buy" list: A small vacuum cleaner.
Marked up the axle struts for bending. There's a bit of an issue with this: I have no idea what repeatability or precision I can expect, either in angle or position of the bend. So I've left the tube uncut, with a 1" allowance at either end. This should enable me to "slide" the location of the bend (with respect to the endpoints) to obtain the same vertical offset between the two axles.
New toy. Still need to bolt it down.
Dropped off the axle struts this morning at Tube Bending. Caught them giving the alloy some curious sideways glances.
I'm not telling them unless they ask.
Culture shock: They were expecting dimensions in millimetres, and I've become conditioned to thinking in inches these
last few weeks. Another victim of American imperialism, *sigh*. The really horrifying thing - I'm starting to *like*
working in fractions of an inch.
More tooling this evening: Acquired a heavy duty bench vise second-hand, never used, still in box.
Added to the "buy" list: Bolts to secure the thing to the bench, and a tape measure.
Rethinking the colour scheme; contemplating a two-tone pale bronze / royal blue:
Two dead seat braces, and the first vertical strut after filing.
More buying: Tape measure, scriber, drill bits, cutting fluid and two *very* fine tipped calligraphy felt tips.
Messed up two successive attempts at fabricating the seat braces. First with a misplaced hole which "walked" during drilling by 1/32" (I was holding the piece too tightly, it couldn't adjust to let the drill find the pilot hole). Second with four perfect holes, followed by some over-enthusiastic cutting too close to an end hole. Fortunately these pieces are so long the material in the middle is still salvageable for other components.
More successful with a vertical strut, sawn and then filed to a precise 44.5", at which point I called it a night.
First successful component, and a cure for drilling problems.
14:00 Have just wasted eight feet of the tubing used for the vertical struts. Despite successfully testing various methods of marking and drilling the holes using scrap, in each production piece I have a one pair of holes which aren't a precise 180 degrees apart. Next attempt (after I get more tubing from Aeroware) will involve a jig.
An observation - this process is nerve-wracking. Frequent breaks and a sense of humour are required.
18:30 Successfully fabricated the first seat brace.
21:30 Not happy - fabricated another "first" seat brace... attempt #4. All done bar the filing. Much better.
Matched pair of seat braces.
Finished filing down the left seat brace, attempt #4 complete.
Acquired a coarser hacksaw blade (18 teeth-per-inch) than the one I've been using, and a coarser file. Vast improvement.
Fabricated the right-hand seat brace. This was a drama; the drill bit failed to find the punch dimple, and consequently one of the four pilot holes wound up mis-positioned. I had to create a jig for the final 1/4" hole (scavenged an old steel hinge plate); clamp it to the brace and hope. Fortunately it seems to have worked. Still not 100% convinced, will see how everything lines up during assembly.
Today I drilled and rough-cut the first (RH) horizontal strut for the fuel tank mount, after two false starts. More issues with pilot holes wandering off-centre. Need to acquire a prick-punch.
Have ordered another 8 feet of the 1 x 0.065 tubing needed for the vertical shock struts.
Collected the tubing for a second attempt at the vertical shock struts.
Drilled and rough cut the LH horizontal fuel tank strut.
Confirmed booking for a week's residential flight training in January :)
Someone is not taking this project entirely seriously.
Collected the freshly-bent axle struts from Tube Bending. As I suspected, one of the angles is very very slightly different from the other two... by about 1/10th of a degree.
While in the area, I picked up some more colour samples from Alert Anodising.
Cut, filed and dressed the vertical shock struts.
Marked up the first axle strut and cut one end.
Much filing and steel wool.
Cut and dressed both axle struts.
Filed and dressed the two fuel tank mount horizontal struts.
Fabricated one of the fuel tank mount side beams.
Fabricated the second side beam for the fuel tank mount, after one false start.
Fabricated the two cross beams for the fuel tank mount. The second took two attempts - had almost finished, when a moment's inattention saw the file I was using put a ding in the angle. Grrgh!
One diagonal strut.
Fabricated the RH diagonal support strut for the fuel tank mount.
Marked up and pilot-drilled the LH diagonal strut.
