Rivet and Shop Cleanup

A slow day (lest we forget…this is all happening after a full-time+ job and helping with the girls…)

Drilled out the few sketchy rivets from the -L spar.  No mars, no elongations…success!  Spent about an hour getting the shop re-organized for actual work, rather than theoretical work.  Things are slowly coming together for smooth operation, I think.  The Avery close-quarter rivet tool will be here tomorrow and I will finish up the first section before the weekend.

Tappin’ that…spar

Home Depot to the rescue!  With a spankin’ new 3/8-16 tap in hand, I tapped the tie downs on the left spar.

And then on to the first rivets!  How exciting.  I successfully riveted on the -T and -V angles on the left spar and moved onto finish-riveting the pre-attached angle.  After several of the latter, I realized that the rivets weren’t pulling the piece tight against the spar webbing.  So I punched out the rivet stems for drilling, which I’ll do in the morning.  Far better to drill a few rivets than to have the spar stiffeners only loosely attached…

See the Hints & Tips page for a picture of my rivet punch.  It’s a trick I picked up at a Zenith Zodiac builders class.  Because the pulled rivets have a steel stem, simply drilling them out can cause the drill bit to skip off the head and mar the surrounding work.  But if you grind down a cheap spring-loaded punch ($5 at HF) to fit the hole in the rivet, drilling out the rivet is easy.  Use the punch to take out the steel stem, then slowly use the drill to take the head off the rivet.  Done.  Guaranteed not to skip.

Primer primer

Started working on priming the first bits of angle and doublers.

First step was a bath in soapy (Dawn) water, to remove grease and oil and crap.

Then, on to the etching stage.  I’m using Stewart Systems EkoEtch in a spray bottle.  I noticed that this appears to be the exact same stuff as Alumiprep, but more expensive.  Too bad I didn’t figure that out before I bought the EkoEtch…  Sprayed on the etch, let it sit, and used ScotchBrite pads until the metal was nice and dull.  I hung up the pieces and let them dry.

Next came the primer.  I used a cheapie detail spray gun that came with my compressor.  It worked okay, but not great.  It was hard keeping a smooth flow through the gun.  I may need to thin the primer a little, but I think I’ll just start using the HVLP gun I picked up the other day.  Finished up all of the 1206-T and -V angles, as well as the 1210B doublers.

Shop Work and Joan Crawford

Did my first bit of destructive construction today by match-drilling the W1210B-L doubler to the spar.  Then I drilled out the tie-down holes and realized that I didn’t have the appropriate tap.  Doh.  I spent months assembling the tools from the list in the plans.  I’m missing two or three items.  Who would’ve guessed that one of those would be needed on the first page.  Hee.

Since I’m priming the angle, doublers, and ribs, I decided that now would be a good time to prep the painting area.  I disassembled the spar crate and made a 3′x5′ frame with chicken wire stretched across it to make a spray box, and then I used some wire to make a boatload of hangers for drying after painting.

And that was about it for the day.  Not alot of progress, but necessary to streamline the priming process.

I also noticed several dull spots on the right spar.  Some checking revealed that this is primer used by the anodizing subcontractor to cover an holes or marrs in the surface of the spar after treatment.

Spar primer

W1210B-L Doubler

Paint Frame

Joan Crawford’s Nightmare

Work Begins

After months…okay, years…of waiting, it was amazing to actually start on a project of this magnitude.  I turned to the first page of the plans and started in.  I spent about an hour and a half prepping the work area, and then cutting and deburring the W1206-V and -T angles.  I finished by cutting and prepping the W1206B-L and -R doublers and called it a night.  The next step involved drilling and tapping, Michael Phelps was about to race, and I was out of beer.  I am a man that can take a hint.

My prep of the sheet and angle involves several steps.  I strip off the blue plastic coating, use the belt sander to take down the connecting tabs, and move to the drill press.  I have a ScotchBrite wheel mounted in the drill press, and I use it to radius all 90′ corners and edges.  I noticed that running the edge along the wheel parallel to the spin is most effective for deburring.  While many people are not deburring the factory-punched rivet holes, I found that most had a very small but noticeable burr around them.  So I took a few minutes and deburred the holes.  I’ll be doing that throughout the build.

I have also decided to primer everything but the spars and the skins.  I’m using the Stewart Systems primer/sealer.  I went back and forth on the primer issue, but ultimately decided that the extra weight would be worth the extra corrosion protection.  Hopefully I won’t pay for this decision down the road…

W1206-V

Finished W1206-V

W1206-T

W1206B-L and -R

ScotchBrite Wheel

Christmas in August

RV Manufactorium

Shop interior

Tool storage

Power alley

Front of the shop

More crates

Delivery!

Spar crate

Spar crate

Wing sub-kits after uncrating

And the crates finally arrived!  In exchange for a mere $250, FedEx kindly gave me a wing kit for a Van’s RV-12.  If only that were the only check…

Fueled by adrenaline and stupidity, I hauled the two crates into the backyard Airplane Manufactory all by my lonesome with the help of my Radio Flyer wagon/moving dolly.  I think I’ve used that thing more than my kids have.

I opened the crates for visual inspection and unpacking and…holy crap these spars are big!  I mean, I knew they were big, but the reality is much…bigger…than the picture in my head.  Looks like I’m going to be scrambling to fabricate some additional storage for this stuff.

It looks like everything is here, but inventory will have to wait for another day.  Between the massive crates and the 105 degree heat, I’ve done all I’m gonna be doing today.