More trimming

Started trimming (cutting and filing) on the right elevator skin. Cut out both tip skins from the sheet of metal.

Drilled right elevator skin

Measured and drilled the skin to the skeleton. The tip rib remains, but 8 will install the elevator to the HS first to get it as straight as possible.

Right elevator skin ready to be drilled

Measured and roughly trimmed the skin. It is now ready to be drilled to the skeleton.

Elevator skinning

Did some more measurements and fitting of the skin.

Right elevator skinning

Finished (pressed) the trailing edge and set up the jig for the right elevator. Cleaned up the shop a bit and put some boat parts and all the new rivets in right.places.

Rivets rivets rivets

Purchased several tons of rivets from a collegue at work who used to be an aircraft mechanic. All kinds of sizes including a big case of cherrymax rivets and a very professional looking original Cherrymax hydraulic puller with 3 different extensions. Some other hardware was includd as well.

Riveted the stiffeners to the skin

Dimpling and riveting of stiffeners to the left elevator skin. I am a bit confused regarding the sequence of the trim and the cutting of the skin and riveting of the skeleton. Have to study the drawings closely as the manual doesn't make 100% sense.

Primed left elevator skin

Primed left elevator skin and trim. The boat is on the water with new antifoul, two new pumps and a fully working engine, so it is time to start building again.

Riveted elevator ribs

Riveted the elevator spars. Reveived a 28 inch sheet of 032 alclad since I already have used some of the first one making it too short for the elevators. Together with the sheet I also received 400 CS4-4 rivets for my neighbour to use on his litle trailer for his motorcycle.

The new raw water cooling pump for my boat also finally showed up after being stranded by volcanic ash I guess. It looks very cool and "boatish" being made of solid brass.

Deburred and primed elevator ribs

Deburred and primed left elevator ribs and left elevator stiffeners. Also had to cut out from the aft spar to make space for the control horn. Definitely should have done that before everything was riveted together, but it worked out OK. Had to prime the HS after cutting, so I primed the whole aft end. Stupid thing with two component primer, there is a minimum amount when mixing, so there will allways be too much, and if it is too litle, I have to mix another batch, so it will be too much no matter what. Will do the same with the VS, it looks so much better when all the pen marking are (almost) gone.

Put some blue anti fouling on the boat as well on one side. Soon it will be on the water.

Elevator tips

finished measuring and drilling elevator tips. Included baffles for led on the right elevator as well. I originally planned to install led plates, but I think melting the led is easier because my plates are to thin by themselves, and to thick when mounted in double.

The skin and stiffeners are ready for deburring and priming as well, so lots of deburring and priming next.

Left elevator

Placed and drilled the brackets in place for the hinge rods on the left elevator. Fluted the tip ribs.

Primed left elevator skeleton

Tungsten bucking bars

Got my tungsten (Wolfram) bucking bar today directly from China. Less than half the price compared with the USA. These bucking bars are made of 95% W, 3% Fe and 2% Ni. They have a density of approximately 18 g/cc (steel/iron has about 7.8, lead about 13 g/cc).

I ordered them at chinatungsten.com in China.

Raw seawater pump corroded

Have to fix the boat as well before the summer starts. The raw seawater pump had a strange sound to it last summer. Took it home today, opened it, and found two bearings totally corroded. The pump housing is made of brass, while the shaft and roller bearings are made of steel. It has been running for 30 something years, and the brass looks as good as new after a slight polish. The shaft is SS and also looks almost new, but the bearings are gone. There is also some gasket things on the shaft that are worn, and probably the main reason for the corrosion.

New pump is ordered.

Trimmed the HS

Trimmed the tips and the trailing edge of the HS to correct dimensions.

HS finished

So, there it is, the new HS. Have to trim the tips to correct span and probably adjust the overhang slightly. The "thread check" on the hinge brackets now shows a straight line, so the elevator will work this time.

I actually have 6 (six!) ruined HS skins in storage now :-) The two first where wrong due to HS-406 ribs is not made by Van's according to the plans, I found that out the hard way, and Van's sent me new skins free of charge. The next two were bent wrong by Van's, I found that out the easy way by measuring them, and again Van's sent me new ones free of charge. But due to the jig bending, the hinge brackets were out of line. The last two I purchased along with new ribs and spars. They were bent correct within my measuring accuracy.

Someone at EAA said something like "It is never skill or workmanship that finishes an airplane, it is the will to do so". He was absolutely correct. I know that at this time both my skills and workmanship are more than good enough to finish this airplane, but all the problems with the HS has degraded my will to finish it for long periods of time. I have to remember this - always, and keep on building.

Riveting HS skin

Allmost finished. I used Cherry max on the 407.

Riveting HS skin

Dimpled the HS skins and started riveting them.

Deburring, deburring and dimpling

Deburred the skin and skeleton. Primed the skin and dimpled the skeleton.

Finished drilling the HS skin

The HS skins are ready for deburring and priming.

More HS skin

Measured and started drilling the other side.

HS skin drilled

One skin drilled on. The other one is ready for drilling.

Right skin ready for drilling

Measured up all the rivet lines. Ready to start drilling on one skin.

Adjusted the skeleton in the jig

Measured up the skeleton in the jig and fastened it with clamps and long bolts. The tip flanges will be riveted into the tip ribs when the skins are on.

HS skeleton riveted together

Riveted together the HS skeleton and placed it in the jig.

HS ribs deburred and primed

Deburred an prmed the HS ribs.

HS ribs ready for priming

Drilled the ribs into yheir positions. Ribs are ready for priming and deburring.

HS skeleton

Started mounting the skeleton.

Fluted HS ribs

Measured rivet lines and rivet positions on the ribs. Fluted the ribs and made the extentions on the tip ribs so they fit with the skin.

Riveted front spar

Riveted the front spar on the HS. Started on the ribs.

Aft spar finished

Primed the spars

Deburred and primed the spars. I have to ventilate the house due to the fumes, but when the outside temp is -20 C it gets rather cold :-)

I also replaced the LCD screen on Olaugs Asus EEE after it had rough landing on the floor. Makes me wonder, that LCD screen is tiny. Hooked up to a NI Compact RIO or some other compact embedded system. Or an industrial touch screen and embedded NI logging system.

Front and aft spar HS ready for deburring

Both spars are ready for deburring and priming. I had one pair of hinge brackets without rivet holes, and installed those because the original ones were a bit off.

Aft spar HS

Drilled the aft spar. Due to using the old HS-409, the hinge brackets need to be positioned at the same time.

Aft HS spar

Dismantled the old HS skeleton and started with the new using the old 409

New parts arrived

New parts arrived less than a week after ordering. I am reusing the HS-409 and possibly the 410 along with the main elevator bearing.

It is incredible how much damage the bucking bar has done to the parts primed with the wash primer. Large scars into the alclad. Probably a good (and only?) reason for using epoxy primer on the internals.

New skeleton

Parts for new HS skeleton is ordered.

HS skins rough trim

Started trimming and fitting the HS skins, third try :-)

Adjusted HS skeleton

Adjusted the HS skeleton in the jig. Started positioning the skin.

Inspected holes in HS

Due to riveting the skin, taking it off, then on and off... some of the holes are now a bit too large, and a fair amount of oops rivets need to be inserted. I would prefer not to, but at this stage it is better to move on. When I'm finished with the plane, and I'm still not satisfied with the HS, I will have lots of time making a new one. Priority now is that the HS is straight and strong.

Skin off HS

Took off the skin from the HS - again.

Quick fix on HS - no luck

Riveted a few of the rivets on the aft spar. Then I took off the HS from the jig too see how things were going. As I suspected, what had happened was that even though the HS was straight in the jig, when it came off, it took the former shape. Each single cleco doesn't really force the HS into shape, but all of them together does. The rivets will also force it more into the former shape, because they naturally will center the holes when they are squized. So when in the jig, the HS was in a lot of tension that increased a tiny bit for every rivet that was squized. When taken out, the tension is released, and the HS gets to its former shape.

So much for easy fixing. There is only one way to fix this: New skins.

Riveting HS

Rivted on two of the ribs. Ordered more rivets from Aircraft Spruce.

Riveting HS skin

Finished riveting the center spar to the skin.

HS and skins

After the jig was straightened, I tried to put the old skins on, to see if how far off they were. For some odd reason they fitted. Some rivets are a bit tight on the aft spar near the tip, but not by much. I guess the flexibility and the diameter of the holes compared to the rivets allows for large variations for pieces of the size of the HS, hence the importance of jigs (straight jigs that is).

Contacted Vans about this, and according to Ken Scott: "I would try riveting the stab back together, with it held in the jig. Variations this small can be taken out just by re-riveting". So the fix is hopefully much easier than first anticipated.

HS in the jig

Reconfigured the jig for the HS again. Added one adjustable support in the middle to keep it straight. Inserted a line through some additional holes in the temporary hinge brackets to see if the jig is straight through the process, and to be able to adjust if necessary.