Category Archives: Rv-10 Build Project

Breaking Bad

03-Mar-2014 19:47 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

This was a power weekend – alodine and priming my first set of plane parts with expert assistance from Rich.

IMGP3864Here we are finishing the air handling system for the shed.

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3866Getting staged for mixing brightener – dilute phosphoric acid with brand name PPG DX533 (one part to three parts distilled water).

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3873The actual mixing process occurred in the shed to keep any fumes or spills out of the house.

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3887Here Rich and I are posing in front of the treated parts, first dunked in the brightener solution and rinsed with water.  The drying racks just hold the pieces before the alodine process, no real need to have them bone dry at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3892One of the VS spars goes into the alodine solution in the dunk tank.  The first pieces in the fresh solution for 2 minutes turned very dark, so the immersion time was adjusted to get a more golden color. Everything was hung overnight with a space heater on for complete drying.  This is necessary before the priming steps.

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3896Suited up and shaking the PPG DF40LF grey-green primer.  I only got a quart, which turned out to be way more than needed for this batch of parts.

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3900Using a graduated measuring cup marked for 2:1 primer to catalyst.

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3908Ready, aim, fire.

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3914Rich took this picture through the shed window showing primer actually being applied to some parts.

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3916Why the grin?

Posted in: RV-10 Build Project, Section 06, Vertical Stabilizer, Section 07, Rudder

VS Metal Prep & Logisitics

22-Feb-2014 18:56 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Spent time this week preparing for the big two week building push expected during Rich’s visit in early March.  I fabricated a pair of drying racks from 1×1″ pine boards using medium eyelets to hold hooks made from 14/3 electrical wire. This combination was cheap and seems to work fine.  Also scuffed the non-skin components of the VS and rudder.

IMGP3853Here all the parts are staged prior to scuffing.

 

 

 

 

IMGP3854Used the spare bathroom and a doggie shower attachment to scuff with maroon Scotchbrite and green Dawn dish washing soap.  This action also took off the major grease and grime from earlier processing steps.  This is a porcelain tub, so a rubber bath mat cushions the parts in this picture.

 

 

 

IMGP3856All the parts are scuffed, cleaned and are hanging on the new drying racks.

 

 

 

 

IMGP3860I manufactured a fake window box for the dual fan setup in a few hours with cheap 2×6 pine boards. The fan is supposed to move 1420 cfm, the whole shed is 800 cubic feet.  If all goes as planned, a complete air turnover will happen twice a minute – not bad for a home paint booth.

Posted in: RV-10 Build Project, Section 06, Vertical Stabilizer

VS Upper Rib Doubler

15-Feb-2014 18:47 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

I spent some time this week going back to major parts of the vertical stabilizer and rudder to smooth the edges much better than my original efforts. Last week my technical advisor had shown me how edges should look. In retrospect a rather poor job had been done on final rounding my parts with the Scotchbrite wheel.  Fortunately, none of these parts have been riveted together.  The results now look much better.

The other activity this week was fabricating a rib doubler for the uppermost rib on the vertical stabilizer.  I want to use 3/4″ plastic conduit obtained from Van’s to feed wire for either a VOR antenna, an anti-collision LED beacon, or both to the top of VS.  The conduit can be held in-place with the appropriate sized hole drilled with a unibit.  However this would weaken the spar web, so a doubler is needed.  In addition, I wanted to use the #10 screw nut plate trick, ala the bonding straps, to allow for later installation of any electrical equipment.

IMGP3837A scrap piece of sheet aluminum is measured out for the rib doubler.  This picture shows the position of the nut plates, the unibit to be used for the 3/4″ hole and a practice piece of plastic conduit.

 

 

 

IMGP3842Here is the doubler rough cut for  insertion into the upper VS rib.

 

 

 

 

IMGP3849On the left is the fabricated doubler with all the holes drilled and deburred.  I countersank the nut plate lobe holes for flush riveting with an ‘oops’ rivet.  I wanted this to be flush for flexibility of later installations.

On the right is a practice piece with the plastic conduit inserted into the 3/4″ hole.  As can be see here, the conduit has alternating bands of 3/4″ and 7/8″ diameter sections.  This will allow the conduit to be threaded through the unibit hole and self-attach to the rib doubler. Nice and neat.

The lower VS ribs do not need this treatment, as special Panduit wire ties will be attached to the already present lightning holes.

Posted in: RV-10 Build Project, Section 06, Vertical Stabilizer ⋅ Tagged: ,

HS Preparation – cont.

09-Feb-2014 09:32 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

This week I finished the deburr and Scotchbrite treatment of most horizontal stabilizer parts. In addition, I ordered a 2hp, 7.2 cfm Sears Professional air compressor, a Bosch JS470E hand jig saw, and the final set of parts/accessories for priming.

IMGP3796With earlier work on smoothing edges, I had tried various combinations of Dremel sanding bits, 400 grit Emory cloth, and Vixen files.  The best results so far are obtained using a fine bastard file on the really rough sections, followed with a very fine needle file, then a deburr tool to round over the sharp corners and finally smoothing on a 6″ Scotchbrite wheel mounted in the drill press. It takes quite some time per piece, but the results are very good.

 

 

IMGP3801This photo shows me using a medium file to shape the end of a HS spar cap rough trimmed with a band saw.

 

 

 

 

IMGP3798The deburr tool run 2-3 times over the edge of the spar cap will take off the sharpest corners (which are the result of Van’s manufacturing process of high-pressure water jet cutting, then bending in special jigs at the factory). Here the spar cap is clamped to the angle iron jig I originally made to hold the rudder trailing edge section.  This jig has been handy for a number of other operations as well.

 

 

 

IMGP3806My EAA technical counselor, Terry Gardner, was kind enough to spend an evening in his shop with me producing the HS attachment brackets from raw angle aluminum stock.  An earlier post showed my rough measurements, Terry was able with his Bridgeport milling machine to achieve 0.0025 or better tolerances on all the holes.  On the left is the final milled piece coated with the blue dye used for accurate scribing, the right bracket has been cleaned and polished.  These are results I could never have achieved by myself with hand tools. Thanks Terry!

Posted in: RV-10 Build Project, Section 08, Horizontal Stabilizer ⋅ Tagged: ,

HS Preparation – cont.

02-Feb-2014 09:24 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Spent about 7 hours this week deburring the ribs on the horizontal stabilizer.  This is tedious, but necessary work.

IMGP3788

 

 

 

 

 

IMGP3792

Posted in: RV-10 Build Project, Section 08, Horizontal Stabilizer

HS Part Mods

30-Jan-2014 19:39 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

In addition to the start of deburring all the horizontal stabilizer parts, I have also begun marking those pieces to be trimmed or created from angle aluminum.

IMGP3775Two of the spar ribs require parts of the tabs to be removed.  Here the particular portions are noted with a Sharpie.

 

 

 

 

IMGP3790Manufacturing two attachment brackets from 2″ x 2.5″ angle aluminum is going to be a real challenge.  I do not have precision equipment to get the holes drilled to the tolerances laid out in the plans.  I will probably ask my technical counselor on some much needed advice before moving forward.

 

 

 

IMGP3781Here is my markup of the angle aluminum used for the attachment brackets.

Posted in: RV-10 Build Project, Section 08, Horizontal Stabilizer ⋅ Tagged: ,

Paint Schemes

26-Jan-2014 17:31 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

The final paint scheme for the plane is a long way in the future. However I did want some vision of how it might look, plus have plenty of time to decide with Rita on colors and layout.  A software package called Model Airplane Color Builder was purchased to help with the visualization. Here is one of the default bitmap files from the application.

RV10-paint01

Posted in: Logistics, RV-10 Build Project

HS Preparation

26-Jan-2014 17:23 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

This weekend I started organizing the pieces for the horizontal stabilizer.  This included laying out most of the metal parts, removing vinyl, and starting the deburr process. This section has the most elements, so metal preparation for all the ribs, doublers, and spars will take some time.

IMGP3762Horizontal stabilizer pieces ready to start preparing.

 

 

 

 

This is the third section I have started without setting a single rivet.  Right now I have all the logistics ready for alodining for corrosion protection, but do not yet have a suitable air compressor for priming.  The shed is almost ready to go now that the paint booth filter has arrived.  I just need to setup the exhaust fan configuration prior to buying the compressor. (a post on the shed configuration will come later).

Posted in: RV-10 Build Project, Section 08, Horizontal Stabilizer

Rudder – Countersinks

26-Jan-2014 17:12 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

The trailing edge of the rudder has a very thin wedge of AEX sandwiched between the left and right skins.  This fragile piece of metal has to be well secured during the countersink operation making ready for the double-sided rivets eventually holding everything together. Using the angle iron jig prepared earlier, I drilled #40 holes through the iron about every 7th hole using the AEX piece as a template.  Clecoes were then used to clamp down the trailing edge for processing with a micro-stop countersink.

IMGP3758The two middle holes indicated with the Sharpie lines in the middle are #30 in size – big enough to allow the guide portion of the countersink bit to protrude through the trailing edge, but small enough to still provide solid backing.  The overall result was very good.  A few finished holes can be seen on the right.

Posted in: RV-10 Build Project, Section 07, Rudder

Rudder – Bonding Strap Background

26-Jan-2014 16:55 ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Earlier I had decided on the bonding strap approach based on forum posts and recommendations from other builders.  After actually drilling the vertical stabilizer and rudder, I came across specific instructions in an FAA document – Advisory Circulat AC43.13 – 1B/2B page 11-77.  Turns out what I did was exactly as required by this publication, once again proving luck will beat skill on most occasions.

ac43-13-11-77ac43-13-11-77 Because I already have tinned copper braid for the strap, the lower material listing is the one to follow. Only “Washer B” made from aluminum alloy is not in my inventory, I have all the rest.  A quick order to Aircraft Spruce can quickly resolve that issue.

 

Posted in: RV-10 Build Project, Section 07, Rudder