Whoops
By · CommentsWell, in moving my server around it looks like I missed a few things… like all the photos. And the theme. And the custom pages I’d done 
I’ll be re-uploading them over time, hopefully they should be back shortly.
In other news, I’m in a bit of a buildus interruptus state at the moment while we get resettled (we moved 2/3rds of the way across the country and still haven’t quite gotten everything back to normal
Deburr. Dimple. Scrub. Rinse. Repeat.
By · CommentsAllrite, the next few sessions are going to be the definition of tedium. Ian came again today and we started working on the pile of parts that need corrosion protection, deburring, dimpling, etc. Ian worked on getting the vinyl stripped from the skins and some of the other parts as well as deburring. You can see most of the parts left to do here:
Antenna doubler
By · CommentsMost people seem to be using a comant bent whip antenna down under the elevator (on the bottom of the tailcone) so I figured it would be better to get the doubler plate in there for that before I close up the tail cone. Here’s my doubler plate
Now begins the tedium…
By · CommentsTrimmed the right side skin, disassembled the entire tailcone, drilled out the hole in the bottom skin for the eyebolt and started deburring, dimpling and countersinking the various parts. Also did the corrosion protection and riveted together the elevator bell crank.
There’s a lot of holes in this thing….
By · Commentsmatch drilled the top skins, seat belt attach points, and static ports.
Top skins and more….
By · CommentsIan came today to help. Putting the two top skins and match drilling them is a lot easier with two people. Also fabricated the attachment bar support angle and elevator stop. Once the top skin was on Ian spent some quality time with the grinding wheel deburring various parts while I match drilled the aft deck parts and started on the skins. Also replaced the stiffeners that I had messed up.
More tailcone
By · CommentsContinued to fabricate the different braces and machine the rest of the small parts. Drilled and counter sunk the bellcrank rib angles and got the bell crank parts situated. Also put in the aft deck, then matched drilled the side and bottom skins.
Continued building on tailcone
By · CommentsBent the longerons. I worked them slowly and they actually wound up coming out pretty perfect. Put together bulkheads, bottom skins, and side skins. The F-1079 bottom skin is pretty tough to get lined up, but I managed. I managed to measure some of the J-stiffeners wrong (too short of course), so I ordered some more.
Getting started on the tailcone
By · CommentsStarted to match drill and cleco together the bulkheads as well as get the bottom skin ready for the work ahead. Also started making the j-stiffeners. Lastly, I made the tied down block and tapped the hole for the tie down eye bolt.
What to do with the finished parts
By · CommentsWell, I’ve been tripping over the various assembled pieces of the empennage for four years now and finally decided to do something about it. I have numerous small dents and scratches on the horizontal stab, rudder, elevators, vertical stab, etc from moving the parts around, tripping over them, dropping them, knocking them over, etc (nothing major, just minor scratches and dings) as well as more than a few nicks in my legs from bumping into the edges. I saw Tim’s wing cart and thought, well why not for the empennage parts? So I ran down to Lowe’s Aviation Supply, and got myself a bunch of 10′ 2×4′s, a circular saw, and a couple boxes of nails (see how I snuck a tool in there too? I also grabbed an 8′x10′ under carpet grippy material to use as a liner since it was cheaper than carpet. If you have access to carpet remnants, I would suggest thats a better solution but this stuff worked ok. Lastly, you will probably want some casters so that you can roll it around as a cart. I got 3″ casters with brakes, and one at each corner of the cart seems to work pretty well.
For anyone who wants to play along, the long dimension is 10′, the width is ~21″ and the height is approximatly 36″. I made the center bay wider than the outside bay, but I wish I hadn’t because the stuff that I put there moves around a lot when it is being moved. The bay’s should be between 4 3/4 and 5 inches wide and all the parts will fit just fine. I made two 4 3/4 and one 6 1/2 to accomodate the width of the vertical stab at the base, but it turned out that part isn’t between the uprights anyway.
Well it turned out quite functional, and it’s very easy to move… I can just wheel it outside when I’m working and have it out of the way entirely. I also made the wing cart as well as documented on Larry Rosen’s build log.
If you want specific dimensions, just send me an email (or post a comment) and I’ll send them to you. Oh, and one other note, the cheap 2×4′s at Lowes are cheap for a reason. I left them on the floor of the garage overnight, and when I came back in the morning there was a pool of liquid underneath them… that’s how wet this wood is, so the nails don’t grab well and the wood splits easily. You may not want to be as cheap as I am and grab fir or higher grade 2x4s than I did!
Materials List (this includes enough for both carts):
15 2x4x10′ boards
2 boxes of number 8 nails (You may not need as many, I think I over engineered it)
8 3″ rubber casters
carpet remnants (at least enough for 8 6″ wide by 4′ long strips)
32 1/4″ washers
32 1/4″ x 1″ lag bolts
