Builder's Log | Andrew's RV-7 Build Log

Primed Some Left Flap Parts

November 6, 2011

Well, another week later, and I managed to get out in the garage just once. I guess it’s better than nothing.

I decided to get some of the parts finished up and primed. I always like priming parts, because that’s usually what happens just before final assembly.

I started with the spar, spending quite a bit of time deburring, edge finishing, dimpling the upper flange (remember, the lower flange was countersunk to accomodate the skin, but not intrude into the hinge), and finally, some scuffing.

You only get a picture of the scuffing. Sorry.

Then, I started in on the prep for the ribs, and I noticed that the aft flange of the interior ribs are only drilled to #40. As part of my normal prep work, I reread the plans to make sure I know which type and size of rivet goes in each hole. Apparantly, this one is supposed to be drilled to #30 for an AN470AD4- rivet.

WRONG SIZE HOLE!

So, to make some extra work for myself, I clecoed the ribs and spar back onto the lower skin (which has the “rear spar” built into it), and…

Clecoed back together.

Drilled the holes to final, #30, size.

I haven't deburred yet, so don't mind the burrs.

Finally, I spent another chunk of time prepping the rest of the ribs, and getting them cleaned up to take outside for priming.

It was a beautiful day for airplane building today.

Too bad I couldn’t put in more time….just 1.5 hours today. Blah.

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Blah, countersink, Deburr, dimple, flap, prime, scuff | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Last of the Left Flap Fabrication

October 30, 2011

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Well, I haven’t worked on the airplane in a week. Bummer. I’m never going to finish at this rate, so I need to start getting my butt in gear and start working again.

One notable thing from this week…it got cold.

So, I fished out the space heater, and put my VORNADO up on the shelf.

See you next spring, VORNADO!

Okay, let’s talk about why we’re all here…AIRPLANE BUILDING.

Previously, I had matchdrilled the flap brace, but didn’t drill any of the nutplate holes that are required to hold the rod end in place.

I disassembled the inboard rib and supporting braces from the rest of the spar/skins.

Ready for more drilling!

Per the instructions, I enlarged the aftmost doubler hole to 1/4″ and temporarily bolted in a nutplate.

It was hard to hold for the picture, hence the gap.

After drilling the two #40 nutplate attach holes, deburring, and a little countersinking (only on the left, aftmost hole) you end up with this:

That's an Oops rivet

Next, I needed to trim down one of the angles (you can see it sticking out too far in the picture above). Here it is after trimming.

Sharp edges, time for some deburring!

I fired up the scotchbrite wheel and got to work on those angles. After a few minutes, I ended up with a nice, smooth assembly.

Looks like I did a little dimpling on the rib, too.

With about 10 minutes left until bedtime, I decided to get the lower spar countersunk. The dimpled skin sits in these countersinks, which leaves the flap hinge unaffected underneath (well, above in absolute terms).

Just like a few other places in the kit, Vans suggests using the flap hinge as a countersink guide to make sure the holes are square.

Every other hole, pre countersinking.

I guess this is a closeup pre-countersinking.

Yup. That's a countersunk hole.

And finally, an AN426AD3- rivet sitting a little deeper than flush (intended) in the countersink.

1.0 hour of fairly boring flap work, but now I get to actually start preping stuff for priming and assembly.

STAY MOTIVATED ANDREW!

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Posted by Andrew

Some More Left Flap Work

October 23, 2011

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Yes.

That’s the answer to the question “Hey Andrew, are you building an airplane, or what?

Yes, yes. Of course I am. But, I am taking my time. Not out of “choice”, but out of “holy crap, there are eighteen thousand other things I have to do today”…which was the theme of the day for the last two weeks…

But, I can’t complain too much. Last weekend, I was in Chicago for Zanetoberfest, and just yesterday, the girlfriend and I headed up to Virginia to a winery.

What a hard life I lead!

Anyway, I promised myself (and my girlfriend…no more middle-seat once the airplane’s done, I promise!) that I would get a little bit done today.

So, I headed out to the garage, dusted off two weeks of non-activity, and got to work.

Last thing I had done was to (very successfully) drill the flap hinge to the left flap. It’s still a little long, though, so I need to trim it up a bit.

I know I’m going to use the “secure-in-the-middle” technique, so I used some snips (with a wide berth) to snip the soft hinge, but left the pin intact. Once I can get the wing flipped over, I can figure out which middle eyelet to remove and trim down this pin, but for now, it’s going back on the shelf as a whole until I can get it figured out.

Here's the hinge just after snipping. Notice the intact pin.

Then, We cleco on the top skin and start matchdrilling.

Sweet.

I had to do a little maneuvering to get the spacer lined up (the sandwiched thin spacer below), but I ended up getting it matchdrilled okay, too.

The shadows make these parts all look distorted, but I assure you, they are not.

I also found the AA6x125x1.5x2x10 (whoa, that’s a hell of a part number) and started marking some holes and lines for trimming.

I drew both up before trimming.

I didn't trim the shorter flange down yet. It's 1.5" now, and it needs to come down to 0.75", but I want to wait and see how everything lines up first.

After matchdrilling the three right-most (in the picture) holes from the spar, I flipped it over and drilled the five left-most holes from the angle. I had previously drilled those from markings to #40, so it was easy to drill everything up to #30 all at once.

Aluminum shavings. I've been missing you in my life.

The other portion of this support is delivered from Van’s as a straight piece. Due to the wing-to-fuselage geometry, the spar-to-rib angle is 6.3° or something. Really?

They show you where the bend line should be, so I marked it, then clecoed the only matched hole to the rib, just to make sure the line would be in the right place.

Sanity check complete, let's bend!

Of course, I didn’t take any pictures of my bending, but it worked just like everyone else; one side in a vice, the other side sandwiched between two pieces of wood. Then, some big-a55 pliers…a little finesse…Perfect. 6.3°? On the dot.

OMG, THOSE PARTS NEED DEBURRING!

Then, some more match-drilling…

I haven't been building in a few weeks, but I think this is where I'm supposed to say "TADAAAAAA!"

1.5 hours. I hope this is the start of a string of building days. We’ll see.

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Posted by Andrew

Drilled Left Flap Hinge

October 9, 2011

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Today, I kind of accidentally worked on the airplane. I wasn’t really planning on it, but I was taking out the garbage (see lower left of first picture), and I just happened to drill the first hole.

Then, I kind of drilled half the holes, and had to go back inside to get the camera.

But wait, let’s back up. I spent a lot of time the other day and before starting to drill to really make sure everything was lined up really well.

Halfway done.

Here’s my technique. I had some c-clamps along the whole length of the hinge, and every few holes, I’d cleco the drilled holes, move my three sideclamps down, drill three more, then CHECK THE HINGE FOR FREE MOVEMENT.

I’m not sure what I could have done if it had gotten out of alignment, but I was paranoid about doing this right, and my paranoia turned out to be fore no reason.

Turned out great.

After drilling all the hinge holes, I took the clamps off and was rewarded with baby’s-butt smooth hinge movement.

Done!

There’s still a little on the end I need to trim, but I’ll figure that part out another day.

I'm taking the win while I can.

Time for football!

0.5 hours.

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Posted by Andrew

Started the Left Flap

October 6, 2011

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THE CHANGING OF THE PLANS!!!! [triumphant music]

Wuhoo!

Okay, this time, I’m going to be smart, and start with the left flap (the one that’s depicted on the plans).

First, I found some parts, then pulled the blue vinyl off the spar and ribs.

That longer rib on the left is actually the wrong part. I assumed there was a L and R of the long ribs (forgot the part number), but those ribs actually are L-L for the left flap and R-R for the right flap. (The flanges of both ribs point outboard.) Weird.

Anyway, the directions have you mock the ribs up with the spar, then drill.

One thing that caught me was the #40 prepunched hole for the ribs, where they will be drilled to #30. Van’s doesn’t usually do this, but I confirmed on the plans (below) that LP4-3 blind rivets will go here eventually.

Weird, but okay...drill drill drill.

I love the very beginning of a new part because it goes together quickly.

See!? I'm already clecoing on the bottom skin!.

WHOA. Van’s basically tells you in the instructions that you will need shims between the “rear spar” and the aft end of the ribs. Why don’t I need any?

They must have tightened up the tolerances on the pre-punching.

I guess I don’t need to make those shims…

Anyway, after flipping it over…

It's starting to look like an airplane!

…I got a visit.

Ginger looking at the airplane, Jack sniffing.

Jack looking at the airplane, Ginger sniffing.

They also eat, sleep, and poo… (I can’t believe I used “poo” in my blog. Sorry, mom!)

Back to work!

I do need two spacers per flap, so I made four now.

Here's where they go. I'll drill the other hole later.

Next, they ask you to get the hinge out and start drilling it.

Hmm. I’m not quite ready for this tonight. I got it aligned with where I think it should be, but I want to sleep on it (and more importantly, surf some other build sites to make sure I’m on track.)

Hinge aligned, but not drilled yet.

Maybe tomorrow….

1.0 hour, and I feel like I got a lot done.

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Posted by Andrew

Finished the Left Aileron

October 5, 2011

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Okay. I’m writing this the next day, and you’ve already seen all these steps, so the description that goes along with the pictures is going to be a little sparse. Of course, that’s better than the opposite, where there would be lot’s of description, but no pictures. (Except then, you get puppy pictures, so it’s kind of a win-win all around, right?)

Okay, stop blabbering, Andrew. Let’s get to work!

First up, let’s get those reinforcement plates onto the spar.

3 rivets on each side, plus two for the nutplate...

Then, a couple blind rivets on the nose ribs-to-counterbalance pipe.

The Main Squeeze making a cameo!

Then, They have you rivet the nose ribs to the spar, and cleco on the leading edge skin.

My right skin kind of bent like that too, but when you cleco it to the spar, it all straightens out, I promise. 6 more rivets here.

Then, even though I was sure I’d forget…I remembered to put some RTV at the aft end of each of the stiffeners.

Had to use the flash for effect. Sorry.

Of course, I needed to get both sides of the aileron skin riveted for the rtv to set up at the right angle (probably not that critical), but nevertheless, I was comitted.

I got the assembly up on my previously-built 2×4 stands…

50% clecoed, with rivets and tape in the every-other holes.

In case you didn't believe me, I took another picture. (Really?)

I guess this picture is after I got the 42 top skin rivets done. I did this the exact same was as last time….see the link from above.

No dings, scratches, dents, etc.

Umm, this next picture looks like it’s after I squeezed some nose rib and main rib to skin rivets.

That would be 5 rivets on the nose, times 2, plus 8 rivets for the main skin to main rib, plus two flush rivets on each side...then the whole thing gets flipped over an weighted down.

Next, let’s do the counterbalance pipe to skin rivets.

Nice dimples, nice rivets.

Then, the main ribs rivets (no pictures), and last, nut not least, the 42 blind rivets across the skin on the bottom side of the aileron.

O.M.G. my hand is so tired. 7 more to go...

All done!

(Oh, I also hand tightened the aileron brackets on with the AN3-4A bolts and associated hardware. I still need to buy an in-lb torque wrench…

Pretty left aileron!

I love days like this. I feel like I accomplish a lot.

2.5 hours. 166 rivets… (and my rivet count on the left matched the rivet count on the right. That’s a good thing.)

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1 Comment | Wings | Tagged: aileron, cleco, Finished, Rivet, Squeeze | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Primed Left Aileron Parts

October 2, 2011

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No pictures today, but I spent about an hour cleaning and priming left aileron parts.

As my punishment (and your reward) for not taking any pictures…a puppy picture!

From a long time ago (2009?) but cute nonetheless.

1.0 hour. Assembly next!

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Posted by Andrew

Renaming of “the event”

September 30, 2011

It turns out, that for the last week, I’d been calling last Friday’s events “that time when the puppies mauled a pillow.”

I was wrong.

The official name, as of today, September 30, is “Feathergate 2011.”

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Posted by Andrew

Prepped Left Aileron Parts

September 29, 2011

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Well, the guilt of not working on the airplane very much recently finally got to me and I had to do something.

As it turns out, I got the rest of the left aileron completely deburred, dimpled, edge finished, and scuffed, which means next session will be prep for priming and final assembly after that.

Here’s a shot of the aileron main skin, after deburring, scuffing, and dimpling.

Nice dimples, right?

Not sure why I took this shot, but I had to break into my next pack of maroon scotchbrite. I cut them up into ~3 inch squares to work with.

This is good stuff. I wonder how much I've bought so far.

Then, I repeated the process on the spar, and finally the leading edge skin. In addition to the fingerprints, I also used my edge-forming tool to make a slight bend in the edge.

This helps the skin lay (lie?) flat against the other skin. You’ll see.

Sorry for the bad picture, but it's hard to get a good angle where you can actually see the bend.

Here’s the edge forming tool.

It might be time for new wheels. I think these are worn out.

After the edge was formed, I put the leading edge skin up on my bending brace because it is a good place to hold it, and went down the row with the hand squeezer with some dimple dies.

Action shot!

Halfway through, I noticed my blue-tape-on-the-die was wearing out, so I removed it.

Of course, I tried a few dimples again without replacing the tape, and I got circles.

Duh.

So, I replaced the tape, and got nice dimples again.

Circles on the left, no circles on the right.

Here's a new piece of tape. No more circles.

1.5 hours. Next up: cleaning, priming, and final assembly!

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Leave a Comment » | Wings | Tagged: Deburr, dimple, edge finish, prep, scuff | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Some Left Aileron Deburring

September 25, 2011

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Well, I’ve definitely learned something about myself this weekend. After I pass the initial excitement of a completed assembly, I have a hard time repeating all of those little boring steps to get the second one done.

I’m pretty sure I experienced this on the second elevator, I’ve definitely experienced this on the left/right wings, and right now, I’m having trouble motivating enough to get finished up on this left aileron.

BUT.

The other half of this airplane isn’t going to finish itself, so let’s get to it.

A few weeks ago, I left off on the left aileron after having matchdrilled everything, so today, I got it all disassembled, and started in on the tedious crap.

Here are most of the parts (except the skin) after disassembly. Let's start prepping.

The nice thing on this second aileron is that I’ve already done everything once.

No sweat here countersinking the counterbalance pipe.

A little deeper than flush, as usual, to make plenty of room for the skin.

Oh yeah, I had forgotten to flute the nose rib between the two x’s, so I marked them with…well…x’s, so I wouldn’t forget to flute, then drill them as I was taking everything apart.

I clearly went a little overboard on the flute there. I "unfluted" a little before matchdrilling.

Then ( I guess I was bad at taking pictures today), I clecoed the skin back onto the counterbalance pipe, balanced the assembly on a 2×4 (which was part of my bending brake I had attached to my workbench), and dimpled using the die from my borrowed c-frame.