Tools photos up.

Posted on April 17th, 2007 by Patrick.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I added a section with tool photos to the gallery.  I am still waiting for a number of items to arrive, but there is already lots to see.  Still on the way is the Quincy air compressor which is held up at UPS because when aircompressorsdirect.com had Quincy drop ship it, Quincy decided to sent it freight collect even though shipping is supposed to be free.  They want $600+ in freight fees, so I am waiting for aircompressors direct to correct the situation.  Friday, the 14″ Jet band saw should arrive, next Friday the Wilton floor stand drill press should show up.  And at some point I should receive the DRDT-2 dimpler I ordered from Avery and that should be it for the big tool purchases.

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Day 4 Photos up

Posted on April 17th, 2007 by Patrick.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Today continued fabrication and drilling for the vertical stabilizer.  All edges for ribs, spars, plates, and caps were deburred.  Aft spar caps were positioned and match drilled to the spar.  Holes then deburred.  I also fabricated several skin cradles to assist in holding and protecting the vertical stabilizer skin during assembly.  I traced the outline of the bottom of the vertical stabilizer and photocopied it while enlarging it 20%.  The copy was then cutout along the trace and the cutout used as a template to mark the sheets of MDF I had leftover from the workbench tops.  These were cutout using the benchtop band saw I bought last weekend so that I could proceed with work until my big band saw arrives on Friday.  I then screwed last over 2×4 pieces as the base.  They work great.

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Under Construction Page Up

Posted on April 16th, 2007 by Patrick.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I added a temporary “Under Construction” page to the root of the site. This will make it unnecessary to bookmark the Gallery and Blog sections directly. The main page can now be used to access both. Link: http://noimnotcrazy.com

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Day 3 - VS Fabrication

Posted on April 16th, 2007 by Patrick.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Unfortunately, I did not get as much productive work time as I had hoped. Nonetheless, I did accomplish some things. First, I had to fabricate end caps for the vertical stabilizer’s aft spar. With the right tools, it’s an easy task. However, as the empennage kit arrived a few weeks earlier than I expected, not all of my tools have yet arrived.

For the end cap fabrication, a band saw is the order of the day. Without, the next best options are aircraft snips or horror oh horrors, a hacksaw. For small work, a hacksaw is fine, but these were 16 inch cuts that needed to be made in each of the two end caps. Too slow, and most likely would not be a perfect cut. The snips have a tendency to curl the metal you are cutting if you don’t do it just right. I had many issues with that fabricating airleron stiffeners in the Van’s practice projects. Curled angle aluminum is much harder to straighten than it is to cut it right in the first place. My big band saw does not arrive until Friday.

So, unwilling to postpone all work until next weekend, I picked up a 10″ bench mount band saw from Sears for $150. Not a bad unit. Only problem was that Sears does not stock blades for this saw. So the only blade I had to use, was a 6 tooth per inch wood blade that came with the saw. For thin aluminum, this is not the idea blade. But I took the cuts very slow without much pressure and they cut fine. The only other things I had time to do, was to deburr and finish the edges of the end caps, and start the edge work on the spar doubler plate.

Photos are in the gallery under day 3. Many photos show closeups of the edges of the sheer cut pieces provided in the kits. These are easily identified by the raised notches created by the tool used to cut the sheet. In the closeups you can see the difference between the cut metal edges, and the finished.

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Site RSS Feed.

Posted on April 15th, 2007 by Patrick.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I was asked if the blog can be viewed via an RSS feed. The answer is yes. The URL is: http://noimnotcrazy.com/blog/feed/

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Day 2 - Inventory and prelim VS work. Photos up.

Posted on April 15th, 2007 by Patrick.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Finished the shipment parts inventory today. That took quite a bit of time. Measured all the sub-kit package dimensions and ran to Walmart to pick up some plastic tubs. Now all the smaller parts are inventoried and can be found by reviewing the packing list to find the sub-kit it shipped in. I will build some ceiling racks to hold the skins out of the way during construction. My kit arrived a few weeks (only 7 days from order to delivery!) before I expected and still need to clean out parts of the garage. The longest part of the inventory was the fasteners (bolts, rivets, etc.) I managed to fit all the items into 2 plastic bin racks. After the mundane inventory process, I decided to go ahead and celco up the vertical stab for a quick feel on the size of the craft. Photos of the day are in the gallery.

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Blog is up.

Posted on April 15th, 2007 by Patrick.
Categories: Uncategorized.

With the arrival last Friday of the first shipment of airframe parts, I realized I needed to hurry up with the site. So today, I tool a look at the various Blog packages offered by my hosting provider, Lunar Pages via the Fantastico package the provide. They offered Nucleus, P-Machine, and Word Press. After examining the packages, themes, features, support, and options, I decided upon Word Press which you see now. As mentioned in my “About” note in this blog, I wanted this blog to be a complete history of the building of my airplane, from when I first considered it, to when it first flies. I will be adding some backdated blog entries before today, just to cover the start before I forget. But anything dated before April 15, was not written as it happened. Just for the record.

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