Jason builds a plane

what an amazing weekend!

27/1/2019

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Getting close enough to getting the 701 wing completed, it's time to start planning the rest of the tail group on my 750.  That means ordering some aluminum!

I called the supplier (Aircraft Spruce Canada) and ordered all the 016 I need for the entire build, a sheet of 025 to replace what I've used from Ron and some elevator trim tab hinge.  The plan was to go last weekend, but the huge storm that dumped on southern Ontario precluded the trip so instead we loaded up the truck and headed south this weekend.
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On our way south for an overnight at the hotel - with the three biggest supporters of my build - my family Caitlyn, Natalie and Brenda (driving) :)
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From -32 at home to -7 in Brantford - that's a big margin!

​We arrived in Brantford and convenient for the girls, an equestrian riding store is about a kilometer away from ACS.  I dropped them off and headed to ACS to pick up my order and some items for Ron.
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The staff at ACS are fantastic - I had asked them to roll the aluminum as small as possible in order to fit it under the tonneau cover of our truck and keep it out of the winter weather.  They are masters!
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Three rolls of 4x12 foot aluminum sheet, nested inside one another. The inner package is a roll of foil backed insulation for Ron, not a bundle of heroin like a friend commented when seeing this picture (honest!) I also grabbed the bolts, washers and nuts I need for the tail group.

In addition to stopping at ACS, I had been in contact with another 750STOL builder in Burlington - Ghazan Hieder.  Ghazan has been slowly working on his kit for about 10 years and self admits that any upgrade that comes out from Zenair he buys, so when edition 3 cabin changes were announced, he bought the plans and updated parts, making some edition 2 parts available.  He had advertised on the Zenair Builders website he was giving away an edition 2 cabin frame and windshield, so I made arrangements to meet up with him while down south to take possession of these two valuable items.

He was glad I called as he had hoped to find another builder who could use these items - and I was glad to take them off his hands.  All the research I could find shows only minor modifications need to be made to the cabin frame and the windshield is another easy mod.

Ghazan also offered me an early edition nose wheel fork and nose strut - he'd replaced his with Viking steel spring mod, something I'm considering too.  If I can't use the strut he gave me, it will work for one of Ron's 701 builds.

Brenda helped me load everything into the truck as best we could, but we decided to put the windshield in the back seat until we could work in the daylight the next morning.

With better lighting, it was easy to pack everything safe ans secure.  I borrowed some moving blankets from a buddy and laid them out in a way to protect the plastic edges of the windshield and the sharp edges of the cabin frame.
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Getting it home safely worked really well, thanks to Brenda's amazing packing skills!

Unpacking it all at the shop, here is a better look:
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My rolls of aluminum from ACS - all the 016 I need for the entire project!
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6 feet of aluminum "piano hinge" - frustrating thing is that I need just over 4 feet - ACS sells it in 4 and 6 foot sections. Guess I'll find a use for the cut off piece.
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The edition 2 cabin frame. Chromeomoly steel, expertly TIG welded by the factory. To make it into an edition 3? Cut to the top diagonal out and weld in some corner brace/handholds - simple for an expert like Ron!
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The steel nose fork (bungee style) and older version square nose fork and nose fork doubler. Again, if I choose to switch to a different nose gear style, these can be used for a 701 already being assembled.
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Arguably the biggest score of the weekend - a complete and untouched/undrilled 750 windshield. The top edge can be heated and reformed to edition 3 shape, something we can do - what we can't do easily is make one of these ourselves, these are ordered parts - this is a HUGE savings on my build.

Needless to say, I am truly thankful to Ghazan for his generous donation.  He could have just tossed these away (frankly I'm surprised no one else came forward to take them) but he didn't - he just wanted someone else to use them on an airplane.  Estimates are hard to  nail down because I have no idea what this stuff would cost to ship, but conservatively?  I saved about $800+ by picking up these surplus (to another builder) parts!

One of the coolest things I've learned about the homebuilding community is how keenly interested everyone is in other people's builds and more importantly successes.  I have or am learning the skills to make these work for my build and that works for me, whereas Ghazan is happy to build from a factory kit.  Either way we share a common bond - dream, build, fly!

Thanks for reading!
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Holy snappin' cold batman!

20/1/2019

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January is definitely here!  -32C today (that's about -25F for you imperialists) in the sun, without the wind.  Brrrrr..... good day to be in the shop with the woodstove!

I thought we'd be on the road this weekend with the family, picking up supplies at Aircraft Spruce, but a major winter storm threatened to clobber southern Ontario and delivered over 40 centimetres of snow, right where we were headed.  Glad we stayed home - we'll head south next weekend.

While I'm working on the 701 wing repair and making parts for my 750 STOL,  Ron continues work on his Aeronca Scout.  I hope to learn his methods for welding steel tube, he is a master craftsman.  The rear fuse frame has been painted and the new wooden stringers are just about to be installed.  Looking real good!
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​Got the trailing edge complete on the 701 wing.  The plans call for squeeze rivets here - small ones!
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​With the trailing edge aligned, finger clamps are used to maintain the edges of the top and bottom skins.  Spring loaded centre punch marking the location and spacing of the rivets, holes drilled and clecoed
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Trailing edges now complete

With the wing now flipped upright, we need to strip off the last of the oh-so-pretty paint.  The stripped works real well on the white, but the red primer underneath is painfully difficult to remove.
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After 4 hours of applying stripper, scraping and scrubbing, the wing is now clean enough for priming once it is ready.  I was so fed up I didn't take a picture.  What a pain.

So far I've got 17 "standard L" blanks cut, so I used some time to day to bend them.
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I made two test bends and used these as measurement jigs by taping them to the ends of the blanks.  This provides the correct inserted depth in the bending brake.
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Half an hour later, I had them all done and I'm happy how they turned out.  They still need to be deburred, but that will be easier now that they won't flex all over the place.  These are used all over the contstruction of my 750, so I'll score this under "other".
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Spent the balance of the afternoon measuring and planning the installation of the nose skins for the wing.  With the extension, we'll need to use two separate skins, one inboard and one outboard with the joint offset from the spar extension joint.

This will take some planning and some thought which I've started on.  The end of this repair/extension is tantalizingly close.

Next weekend we're headed south to pick up some materials and parts.

Thanks for reading, more to come soon :) 
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Some times it's just production work

6/1/2019

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In my previous post, I spoke of the standard 4 foot long L's that I have to make.  There are apparently a lot of them, ​some sources claim up to 64 required for the plane, some as little as 35.  They are simple to make and I'll need some quantity of them anyway, so today I worked in my downstairs shop to see if I could come up with a way to start producing these as I have some spare time.

I rolled my workbench out from the wall to give myself some room to work at the ends of the bench and locked the casters in place.​
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A piece of 0.025 laid out with the factory 4 foot dimension along the front edge of the bench. The slightly longer angle was used as the straight edge for the cutting tool.

The cutting tool I made previously is perfect for this task (more information here).
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The workbench already has some bolts I use for the drill press mount, but here I decided to use them as a front edge spacer.  The first cut was measured and marked out on the aluminum sheet.  Once I had the sheet in place, I was able to position the straight edge angle in the correct position so that the aluminum is cut to 36mm, the correct width for the "L" before bending.​
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The drill press mounting bolts being used as spacing "dogs"
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A screw at one end of the angle holds it securely to the bench.....
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......and a clamp at the other end, keeps the aluminum secure and the cutting edge straight

Using the cutting tool, score the aluminum from one end to the other.  Important note - if you are planning on using this method be sure you do not put any side loads on the blade - pull across the surface and let the tool do the work.  Side loading the blade may cause it to snap.  (Photo credits showing me doing the work goes to my supportive daughter Natalie!)
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I found it took about 10 passes to create a good score line on the 0.025 aluminum.  It creates quite a bit of "swarf" - the small pieces of metal removed from a workpiece by a cutting tool.
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Rather than brush the swarf onto the floor, I hung a bucket at the end - most of the swarf follows the tool to the end and off the table anyhow, might as well catch it!

​Once scored enough, I un-clamped the sheet and shuffled it forward - being sure to remove the front dog bolts - and placed the score line directly over edge of the bench and re-clamped it down.
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To prevent the sheet from buckling upwards as I bent it at the scored line, I clamped down the edges and also held a piece of 1/3 on top
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Gently bend a little at a time along the length of the bench edge
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Keep working it down.....
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.... and up....
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.... and back down until the aluminum breaks along the score line
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It took about 30 minutes or so to complete the first one and more like 10 minutes for the second one as everything was already set up.
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I continued to produce these for a couple of hours and managed to make 12 in total.  They still need to be bent and deburred, but I think this is good use of time and certainly cheaper than having the cut and bent in a machine shop.  For now, I'll make up to 30 of them until I can confirm with Zenair the total count that would come in an ordered kit.

Here is a pic of the collected swarf (including some dust bunnies from the shop floor)..... more to come!
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Elevator trim tab and spar tips

4/1/2019

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Ducked over to the shop tonight to work on making some 0.025 aluminum parts.

My original intention was to to start making the numerous (64? Are you kidding me!) 4 foot standard "L"s needed for my build, but I decided I wanted to accomplish something more tangible.

I cut out the 0.025 skin for the elevator trim tab.  I'm going to leave it flat for now until I have more time to concentrate on bending it.  It's a fairly complex bend over a narrow piece of aluminum, so it will pay to think it out well before committing to the bender.

Next I started and completed the wing spar tips.  By laying them out opposite to each other on the aluminum sheet, I saved a some cutting and and prevented waste.

Once I had them cut out the next challenge was to bend opposite flanges with the correct web space between.  Thankfully I had done this before on the 701 wing extension, so it was fairly simple.
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Two perfectly matched wing spar tips, one left one right. I guess I could have taken a picture before bending them to show how one angled tip is the exact oppostite of the other

After making the correct bends (I had to think about which side was which) I laid out the measurements for the lightening holes.  Once satisfied, it was back to the fly-cutter.
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All secure on the drill press, ready to "fly"
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As dangerous a tool as the fly-cutter can be, it does a quick job of making a clean dimensional hole in sheet aluminum. The last time I used this tool, I cut the hole a tad small, making the flange die difficult to use, so this time I widened the hole slightly

Depsite my efforts to size the hole correctly, I had a bit of a rough time flanging the holes evenly.  They will need a bit more work from the flanging die.  Other than that they turned out real nice.
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That's it for tonight, thanks for following along!
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Happy New year!

2/1/2019

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A quick glance at my countdown timer to the right of this column tells a scary tale of how little time I have to get this plane done.

Originally designed as a motivator, I haven't really been paying attention to it.  Now with just over 400 days to go I really have to get moving.

After battling with a broken snow-blower belt on New Years Day, I managed to get over to the shop for a it of building therapy.

A couple of quick photos of what I got done on the 701 wing repair - getting so close to moving it into storage and starting assembly on parts that I've made for my plane.
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All 5 slat support complete and riveted in place. The alignment jig did an excellent job of making these perfectly straight
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I used the rivet space template to layout the rivet holes for the inboard trailing edge - followed by centre punching them prior to drilling
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Finger clamps spaced between every couple of rivetsdo an excellent job of holding the kins temporarily together for drilling - I backed the edge with wood beneath to prevent creasing the skin with the downward pressure of the drill
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Holes drilled and clecoed, awaiting deburring - outboard wing tip trailing edge will be done the same way
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The trailing edge of the wing is where the top and bottom 0.016 skins meet. On the 701, squeeze rivets are used to draw them closed. The rivets are very small!
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I was going to practice with the rivet squeezer to find the perfect settings. These scrap pieces would be my practice template for proofing the right settings

Unfortunately, Ron was gone for the night and I couldn't find the right squeezer anvil head for these rivets, so it will have to wait until I can ask them.  It's probably right under my nose, but rather than rush when I was tired tired it can wait until next time.

Going to order some more aluminum this week.  I'll post more to my blog about that next time.

Happy New Year everyone, thanks for reading!
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    Author

    Husband, father and 911 dispatcher.  Long time pilot with a licence that burns a hole in my pocket where my student loan money used to be.  First time aircraft builder. Looking to fly my own airplane.

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    Item Hours
    Engine 31
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