Official Start Day #1 - 7 hours

Found the MD-RA reply to letter of intent in my spam folder of my e-mail! So I guess I'm starting 10 days later than I could have...Sheesh!

Started for on the horizontal stabilizer - rear spar. Worked on HS609PP reinforcement bars. Cut the radius, broke the edges and ensured a good fit to the rear spar. Cleco'd and match drilled #30 the bars to rear spar. Elevator brackets were cleco'd and drilled. I enlarged the holes for the two ribs to #21. Everything went very well. As I was waiting for the primer on the flange bearing to dry, I started to work on the front spar. In trimming the flanges, and trying to enlarge the #30 hole with a uni-bit I totally destroyed the front spar....Crummy! I guess I will have to order new front spars and try again. When the primer was dry I went back to the flange bearing and riveted the brackets to the bearing. I cleaco'd the assembly to the reinforcement bars and match drilled the holes to #12.

Practice project #1 finished

My tight dimpling tool from Cleveland tools arrived so I could get to work on the practice project.  I finished to practice project, but it is clear that I need lots of practice on my double flush riveting as well as my rolling. I'm not pleased with the results. I need to be doing a better job.

Folding Drawings

One way to deal with drawings is to fold them. A 24"x36" print will fold to just over 8 1/2"x11". Here is the best way to do it. (In my opinion)

1. Fold the plans in half so that the printing is folded in on each other (The crease is vertical).

2. Then fold the part back on itself so that the printing is showing. (Again crease is vertical)

3. Then fold in half again (So crease id horizontal).The print will face out so that you can read the print number

Today I work with wood, so tommorow I work with Aluminium

I was busy with work  today so not much happened with the practice projects. I did run over to home depot and picked up materials so I could make a priming table and also made the table for the DRDT-2 dimpler. I modified the design a bit from the original plan. I made the table one piece that sat in the dimpler and is level with the frame holder. My dimple dies measure 3/8" high so I will just place my protective foam on the table and I will have the perfect height.

The priming frame is made up of 2"x3"s measuring 6'x3'. I then used my pneumatic stapler and stretched chicken wire over the frame. The idea is that I can prime most parts sitting on this frame and when I'm done I can put the frame up out of the way.

Just messing around

I ran the stiffeners for the practice project through the 3M wheel . Dimpled the skins and then got to work on back riveting. Everything went very well. I find back riveting very easy. I ran my back rivet set through the 3M wheel on the one side so that it wouldn't interfere with the radius on the stiffener. I tested out different methods of tape on the 470 rivets. I tried hockey shin tape, duct tape, etc. The best method I found was black gorilla tape in the rivet set. Works great and is super tough!! I'm waiting for some more tools to arrive so I can finish off the practice project.

I'm still waiting for a reply to my letter of intent so I can officially start my build.  So I started to read through the plans for the horizontal and vertical stabilizers.

A slow day

The new VS-707 rib arrived in the mail so I can rest easy that I don't have to used the scratched one. (Thanks Van's for sorting that out) I worked on the RV practice projects a bit and cut stiffners.