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| The Cross tubes meeting in the middle... |
Time this last week: 7 Hours
Total Time: 128 Hours
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Getting back in the groove...
Spent several days before and after Christmas continuing work. Did more shop cleanup and organization. Finished making and fitting the second 1" x 049" thick cross tube between station 3 and station 2. Spent some quality time with the OA welder getting back in the welding groove. I can tell I took several years off - the skills aren't quite back up to snuff yet.
Time this last week: 7 Hours
Total Time: 128 Hours
Time this last week: 7 Hours
Total Time: 128 Hours
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Starting up the build again...
After surgery on my wrist, working on and flying my primary aircraft (Sonex/Waiex) - and working on a friend of mines PA-16, I'm finally getting back to this after almost a two year hiatus. Yes!!!
Today I cleaned the shop including the build table, and put everything that had accumulated on the table away. Then spent the next 6 hours cutting and welding in the pilot seat back and the first of the 1" diameter cross tubes between station 3 and station 2. In the process of this, I found that the two tubes I had cut for them originally - were the wrong size. I had cut 7/8" diameter tubes... Good thing I took some time off and then checked everything over before starting again!
Time Today: 6 Hours
Total Time: 121 Hours
Today I cleaned the shop including the build table, and put everything that had accumulated on the table away. Then spent the next 6 hours cutting and welding in the pilot seat back and the first of the 1" diameter cross tubes between station 3 and station 2. In the process of this, I found that the two tubes I had cut for them originally - were the wrong size. I had cut 7/8" diameter tubes... Good thing I took some time off and then checked everything over before starting again!
Time Today: 6 Hours
Total Time: 121 Hours
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| Pilot Seat Tube |
I decided to go with the SuperCub style instead of a bowed J-3 type. Easier to work with, and since I'm building a quasi-cub, more appropriate... Nice tight fitting!
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| Pilot seat tube |
Again, a picture of the pilot seat tube tack welded in.
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| Cross Brace |
The 1" x .049" cross brace that goes from station 3 to 2. You are looking at station 2 in the above picture. It's a very large tube with a liner in the middle required because I'm using a 125hp engine. It took a 205 welding tip for the Smith torch to get enough heat into it to tack it up.
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| Cross Brace |
Again, the cross brace at station 3. Pretty complex fitting to get it snug. It took about 3.5 hours to fit this one as I didn't want to do it again and slowly snuck up on the fitment. This is looking down at station 3. Big 6 tube cluster to weld here later on!
Monday, February 9, 2015
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
February 4th, 2015
Been unable to work, sick the last week. Ugh.
A tad bit frustrated today. Spent 2.5 hours fabricating a somewhat difficult tube - it crosses from lower longeron on one side to upper longhorn on the other side of the fuselage. My goof - got it done and tacked in place and realized that it was supposed to be lower on the OTHER side and UPPER on the opposite. After much grumbling, I cut it out and in 20 minutes fabricated another tube and had it in correctly. Sigh.... I also spent an hour just checking my jigging on everything and making sure that measurements were correct. I did find one upper longeron tube that I needed to cut loose, push the upper longerons in one direction about 1/8", then re-tack it. I really like the lazer setup.
Time today: 4 hours
Total Time: 112.5 hours
Been unable to work, sick the last week. Ugh.
A tad bit frustrated today. Spent 2.5 hours fabricating a somewhat difficult tube - it crosses from lower longeron on one side to upper longhorn on the other side of the fuselage. My goof - got it done and tacked in place and realized that it was supposed to be lower on the OTHER side and UPPER on the opposite. After much grumbling, I cut it out and in 20 minutes fabricated another tube and had it in correctly. Sigh.... I also spent an hour just checking my jigging on everything and making sure that measurements were correct. I did find one upper longeron tube that I needed to cut loose, push the upper longerons in one direction about 1/8", then re-tack it. I really like the lazer setup.
Time today: 4 hours
Total Time: 112.5 hours
Thursday, January 29, 2015
29, January 2015
Worked 2 more hours tonight just chugging away on crossmembers. Not hard, just tedious. Usually tack welding these in place is easy but tonight I experienced a "senior moment" and blew a hole through the thinner stuff pretty bad. Will have a good amount to fill during final weld....sigh... Cut and fit cross members between upper stations 4&5 and 5&6 as well as tacked them in. I also tacked the rearmost cross piece at station 6. You can get a pretty good idea of how cramped my space is here. The nice part is... I don't have to go far to get anything or do anything! Total time = 108.5 hours
Worked 2 more hours tonight just chugging away on crossmembers. Not hard, just tedious. Usually tack welding these in place is easy but tonight I experienced a "senior moment" and blew a hole through the thinner stuff pretty bad. Will have a good amount to fill during final weld....sigh... Cut and fit cross members between upper stations 4&5 and 5&6 as well as tacked them in. I also tacked the rearmost cross piece at station 6. You can get a pretty good idea of how cramped my space is here. The nice part is... I don't have to go far to get anything or do anything! Total time = 108.5 hours
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Jan 25, 2015
Got a sold evening of fabricating under my belt. 4.5 hours of putting cross braces across the upper longerons. Again, using the laser level tool I bought - it was easy to make sure the upper longerons were centered correctly while tacking the cross braces in place.
Total time 106.5 hours
Got a sold evening of fabricating under my belt. 4.5 hours of putting cross braces across the upper longerons. Again, using the laser level tool I bought - it was easy to make sure the upper longerons were centered correctly while tacking the cross braces in place.
Total time 106.5 hours
Friday, January 23, 2015
January 23rd, 2015
Worked 2 hours tonight on the three cross tubes between lower longerons stations 3 and 4. Tack welded these in as well as re-tacking between stations 4 and 5. I've come to realize that on average it takes me about one hour to cut/fit and tack each tube in, no matter how long it is.
Total time - 102 hours.
Worked 2 hours tonight on the three cross tubes between lower longerons stations 3 and 4. Tack welded these in as well as re-tacking between stations 4 and 5. I've come to realize that on average it takes me about one hour to cut/fit and tack each tube in, no matter how long it is.
Total time - 102 hours.
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