Ever since Katelynn was born, I have been struggling (harder than usual), to get out to the garage and work on the airplane.  The days of coming home and working on the plane all night, without interruption, are over.  So I have been coming to terms with how can I get this plane done and balance that against spending time with my new baby girl.

Today, is really my first day back at trying to work on the plane in a long time.  Therefore, I decided to cut my teeth on some simple fabrication of parts today.

I started with drilling the attach holes for the F-661EF, Flap Bearing Block.  I marked and drill the first hole to dimension as called out in the print.  I then attached the flap bearing block to the F-705D, bulkhead side channel. I didn't drill the second hole while installed.  I just got the second hole started and then put the bearing block back in the vise and drilled the hole with the mill.  I didn't want to drill the bearing block by hand while installed in the bulkhead side channel because I was concerned about getting the hole straight.

After I got the block drilled, I test fit it into the bulkhead side channel.  They fit perfectly.  The holes are nice and tight, the block sits straight.  Good to go.

Just another angle of the bearing block.

The next component I decided to fabricate was the F-711E, Down Elevator Stop / Spacer.  I drew the part up on CAD given the dimensions in the drawing.  I then used the mill to cut out the part from 2024T3 0.125" sheet stock I had laying around. I am not a CAD wizard, but it only took about 10 minutes to draw up in CAD and generated the G-Code to run the mill.

Here, the mill is cutting the part the F-711E out.

The great thing about the CNC mill is that the parts are way more accurate than what you can cut by hand.  The part below is accurate to Van's dimensions to within a couple of thousandths of an inch.

I am finding that the time cut out with the mill does not take that much longer considering that I would have had to cut this out by hand, try to straightened out all the lines with a file, and do significant deburring. The mill cut this out in under 10 minutes.  I took the part to the scotchbrite wheel and within 15 minutes I had a part, cut more accurately than I could do by hand.  I love that little benchtop CNC mill !!!!

Slow day, but I spent majority of the time trying to figure out where I left off on the fuselage.  I have drawn up in CAD several more parts that need fabrication, but there is no need to detail that until I actually get them cutout.

Ever since I got the mill, I have been trying to think of ways to customize the RV so that it is unique to me.  In actuality, I had thought about coming up with custom RV pedals long before I got the mill.  So while I had my standard one day off a week during the outage (day job), I drew up my idea for custom pedals in CAD.

I wanted pedals that assembled using the stock hardware, but had a customization flair to them.

This is my first attempt and I didn't even fully finish it.  You can see where the end mill cut a loop (circle) where I didn't want one.  I believe that this is coming during the conversion from Corel Draw to Autocad DXF file.  It puts a duplicate line in (usually when it is converting an arc somewhere).  Anyway, I found where the CAD software was inserting extra code for cutting this line and deleted it from my CAD file and the G-Code file running the mill.  The other mistake I made on this piece is that the top right rivet hole is too big.  I forgot to change the end mill cutter to the proper size.

It is always good to make a test piece first.....

Once I thought that I got the bugs worked out of the first cut, I cut another pedal blank out of a piece of .130" 2024 aluminum sheet (The same stuff Van's uses).

I use a mist coolant / lubricant, however, it really isn't necessary for the feed speeds and material I am using.  The mist coolant is probably more helpful for removal of chips during the milling process.

The mill is currently cutting out the rivet holes.  I drew them up so that the mill would cut them 0.005"ish smaller than their final size would be.  The nice thing about the mill is that I used a 0.062" end mill and the mill cuts a circle to the exact dimensions I draw up in CAD.  This is nice if you don't have the exact size drill bit that you need (which I did, but hey, I have a CNC mill).

Just another shot of the rivet holes being cut...

Okay, here is what the final version looks like.  These pedals have the same dimensions as the original Van's supplied pedals.  I weighed the custom pedal against the factory original pedal and my pedal come in at 2 grams less than Van's originals.  I plan on having dual brakes, so I actually have 4 of these brake pedals cut out.

Just a close up o the previous picture.

Anyway, this was my first attempt to customize the RV using the mill.  I am pretty happy with how these brake pedals turned out.  After I assemble and drill them to their final locations, I plan on sending these off to get them chrome or nickel plated.

Today, I continued with working on the F-705 bulkhead.  I believe that I mentioned in my previous log entry, that I spent a lot of time looking for where all the pieces and parts to the F-705.  Slowly, but surely, I found all the pieces and parts, but I had a heck of a time figuring out where I put the material called out to make the F-705H spacer.  Sure enough, I found it in a little divider bin marked "misc fuselage parts".

Fabricating this was pretty straight forward, but it was small enough that it made it hard to hold. All I needed to do is run a finger through the band saw.... Tami and I have made our max out of pocket expenses on medical, but I really didn't want to go to the doc.....

I cut the remaining pieces left to fabricate.  The F-705K's need a 4 degree bend....  How am I going to get a nice looking 4 degree bend without a brake?  I have access to a nice brake at work.  I may just haul them in with me.

Once you fabricate the F-605C (bar doubler), the F-705B (center section bar), and the F-705H (spacers), you have to match drill them to the pre-punched F-705A (rear spar attach bulkhead).  Anyway, that is a lot of material to drill through.  Back in my empennage days, I remember trying to drill through a large amount of material and not getting the drill bit straight.  That resulted in oblong holes and nothing sat straight.  In an attempt to not have that problem again, I decided that after I clamped all those pieces together, I would level everything out and drill the holes with the drill press.  This actually took some time, but worked great.

Here I am getting ready to drill the hole through the spacer.

What I ended up doing here for the hole going through the spacer was to first drill through ONLY the F-705A and the F-705B.  This allowed me to center the spacer in the hole.  I marked the center line of the spacer and then centered the line in the previously started hole.  When I was satisfied with alignment, I clamped everything together so the spacer wouldn't move and drilled through the F-705H and the F-605C.  Worked great.  I ran a AN3 bolt through it all to make sure that my hole was straight.  Looked good. 

Here you can see how thick all the pieces are parts are.  A slight angle on the drill bit through this much material would make a crappy hole.

Not as much got done today.  I spent the rest of my evening cleaning up the garage.  All this fabrication makes a lot of aluminum shavings.  I found  some upstairs in the bedroom the other day.  Time to clean up so I don't drag to much of that junk in.  Tami is understanding, but.....

This was the results of my first attempt to fabricate an ELT bracket out of some 0.040" 2024-T3 aluminum I purchased from Airparts Inc.   You may have seen their company in aviation magazines.  Anyway, I ordered a couple of different thicknesses of aluminum sheet 1' x 4' for some different fabrication activities. They were curteous and promptly got my order out.

http://www.airpartsinc.com/

When I bent the bracket flanges in the brake that Kevin has mounted to his shear, I pretty much had to small of a bend radius which cracked the aluminum.  OOOPS...  There appears to be some placement / alignment issues here.

Anyway, I found a low cost solution from Grizzly.com.  It was around $20 and I was pleasantly suprised how well it works.  It is not like me to find something I like that is also low cost.  This is a 5" vise brake.

The vise brake bent the 0.040" aluminum I was using for the ELT bracket with relative ease, accuracy, and without cracking the aluminum. 

Since the bracket is larger than the vise brake, I bent it in several stages moving back and forth so that everything kept a relatively even bend.

Once I got the flanges bent, I mounted the ELT base to the bracket and drilled for the #8 screws / nutplates.

Then I drilled the flanges that will attach this bracket to the baggage ribs.  I spaced the holes out so that I will have 4 screws on each side holding the bracket in place.

Kevin Faris showed up at the house this morning promptly at 9 am as promised.  Today, Kevin was finally able to break into his hangar and retrieve his metal shear and bring it down with him. Kevin said I could borrow it while I am working on the RV.  The thing is an antique, but it works like a million bucks...  (NOTE: Kevin, I started to clean off the shear as you can see the partial dirt left on the foot pedal(?).  I will clean the rest of it later....)

We started the day by locating all the seat pans and baggage compartment top skins.  Clecoed them all together and it started to look like an actual structure.

While I was match drilling all the skins, Kevin worked on fluting the F-715L (R) (Outboard Seat Ribs).  One of the gripes Kevin had with these ribs on his plane was that he was never quite able to get the outboard seat ribs to lay flat up against the F-704 center section.  From the pict below, you can sort of see that is because the rib is actually long enough that it is being prevented from laying flat by the inside radius of the F-704.

In came the metal shear. We trimmed approx 1/16" off the forward edge of the seat rib and re-installed.  You can see now that the rib now lays flat on the F-705 center section.  I thought that I had a better pict of this, but I don't.  When we drilled the match holes with the F-704 and clecoed the two pieces together it laid perfectly flat AND YES, there is still plenty of edge distance on the rib (in excess of 2 hole diameters).  If I would have taken the center section apart again, I would have more pictures to show.....

Kevin called it an early day to get home, so I was left with what to do next.  I fiddled around with my ELT mounting location, but couldn't (am still now sure) if I am going to put it in the baggage compartment bay I had previously reserved for it (More pictures to come).

Once I decided, no decisions could be made on the ELT, I moved on to making a mounting bracket for the strobe power supply.  I had some surplus 0.025" 2024 aluminum sheet leftover from the wing walk doubler in order to make the bracket.

Here is the basic steps I took to fabricate the strobe power supply mount.  You can't really tell from this picture, but the mount in this picture is actually a trapezoid shape.  Anyway, my basic steps were:

• Decided how long the mount was going to be forward to aft.
• Measured the forward and aft points of the baggage compartment bay widths where the mounting bracket would go.
• Added 20/32" for each flange that will secure the mounting bracket to the baggage ribs.
• The opposite flanges used to stiffen the bracket I added 10/32" for each flange to the overall bracket length.
• Before cutting the corners out to allow for bending of the flanges, I drilled a #12 hole in each corner which would serve as a 'relief' between the bends in the two flanges.

Fast forward to cutting out the flange relief's and making the bends....  You see that the bracket is not much larger than the actual power supply.  That is one reason I think I will be able to stick with the 0.025" thick bracket.  The actual power supply mounted to the bracket will add to the mounting brackets rigidity.  0.025" thick 2024 T-3 aluminum sheet is what Van's uses on their ELT / Strobe Brackets they sell.

Here is just the other side of the bracket.  It will pretty much fill that particular bay of the baggage compartment.

In order to lighten the bracket further, I decided I would cut a lightening hole in the center of the bracket.  I basically just marked "X" using the holes I transferred from the strobe power supply to the bracket to identify the center.

Post lightening hole cut....

The bracket fits in the luggage bay nice and tight.  I will add some holes on the flange (3 / side) to secure it to the baggage compartment ribs.

Here are the two different flanges I bent in the bracket in case you found my description confusing.

This bracket is very light and amazingly rigid.  I am going to make the ELT bracket out of a little heavier aluminum sheet since the ELT is slightly heavier and isn't as large (it won't stiffen the mounting plate like the strobe power supply will).

Today, I riveted  the F-705 bulkhead together.

In the picture below, you have the F-605C bar doubler. The outboard hole is drilled for an AN3 bolt, then you have large area with no holes, then rivet and AN3 holes resume.

However, when you swing away the F-605C bar doubler, you see that there is one rivet hole that just goes through the F-705B (center section bar) and the F-705A rear spar.

The prints tell you to set a AN470AD4-6 rivet in this hole.  It is somewhat cryptic, and I am surprised I didn't miss it.

After I set the rivet, I repositioned the F-605C into position and you can see there is plenty of room between the F-705B and the F-605C.

On the F-705 bulkhead, there are several rivet holes that need to remain open at this stage of building.  I carefully reviewed the prints again and again, and put yellow tape over the holes that did not get rivets.

I am preparing the seating area and the baggage area to have fully removable floors by nutplating the floors. I am going to have items such as strobe power supplies, ELT, and wiring that I may need to get to someday.  By nutplating the floors, i won't have to drill out all the rivets to access, repair / replace those components.

Once I got the F-705 bulkhead riveted together, I started clecoing the the center fuselage together.  It felt pretty nice to have something to show for my efforts today that was a larger than ribs, angles, and nutplates.

Just another angle...  Woohoo, big deal.

Kevin Faris is supposed to come down tomorrow.  He is hopefully bringing down his metal shear to add to my fabrication tools for the project.

I spent the while day working on scrubbing, alodining, and priming the parts for the F-705 bulkhead. 

By 10 pm, all the parts have been primed.  I really like the AKZO primer, but man is the at stuff time intensive. 

Not a lot of pictures to show for my efforts....

I started my Saturday with drilling the F-705K and the F-705L to the F-705F channel.  These are basically the components that allow the seats to be reclined to two different positions for traveling in comfort at 200 mph.  Anyway, the F-705 F channel is the only component of the three that is pre-drilled.  The F705K and the F-705L basically come as strips of aluminum.

Not pictured, you have to take the F-705K and bend a 4 degree angle in it (come on Van's>>>  4 degrees ?!?!?!?). Who can bend to that precision out of their garage?  Regardless of the specification that Van's has, the idea of bending the F-705K is so that when the F-705K sits on top of the F-705L, one end of the F-705K will sit on top of the F-705F channel.  Don't worry if this doesn't make sense, I have pictures of it below.

First thing I needed to do is figure out how to locate the F-705K and L on top of the F-705F.  Van's instructions just state "DRILL THE F-705J ANGLE, THE F705K PLATE AND THE F-705L SEAT ADJUSTMENT SUPPORTS TO THE F-705F CHANNEL."

Okay, not much to work with.  I can usually figure out this what I need to do by looking at the prints and referencing builders web sites, but sometimes I would feel a lot more comfortable if I had a little more direction...

Here is how I got everything to line up:

• I drew a centerline on the F-705L, marked the first hole in 1/4" from the edge of the strip and drilled one #40 hole in that location.
• I clecoed the F-705L to the F-705F channel and lined up the center line in the row of pre-punched rivet holes.  I colored in the last hole with a sharpie marker and then removed the F-705L to ensure that I had the last hole 1/4" from the edge of the F-705L.
• I drilled all the F-705L holes to #40 using the F-705F channel as my guide.
• Removed the F-705 L to transfer a couple of holes to the F-705K.

I had to scratch my head a minute on where to locate the F-705L with respect to the F-705K. 

Here is the first #40 hole I drilled between the F-705L and K.  For placement of the F-705L, I positioned it up on the F-705K right where the F-705K the 4 degree bend was made.  The pictures below show better what I mean.

I basically drilled three holes between the F-705L and K.  One at each end and one in the center so that I could cleco those two parts to the F-705F channel and drill the remainder of the holes.

Here is how the F-705K & L sit on the F-705F channel.

Just another angle.

This picture shows my left to right alignment of all the pieces and parts.  I couldn't be happier.  Both left and right seat adjustments lined up this good.

While everything was clecoed together, I countersunk the F-705K for the flush rivets it will receive later.

I won't get into just how many times I have fabricated these angles....  Anyway, lets just say it was more than twice!!!  Anyway, one of the last things I had to do with the F-705G angles is to mill / drill a slot in angle to account for the canopy latch.  I chucked up a 3/8" end mill and put the angle in a cross vice mounted to the drill press.  With a little Tap Magic cutting fluid and some patience, I got some great looking slots cut into the angles.  The drill press doesn't make a very good milling platform, but it still did a significantly better job cutting the slot than I could have gotten with drilling a series of holes and doing lots of filing....

Here is shot of what my cross-vice setup looks like.  Until I get my bench mill, this did an acceptable job.

I clecoed the angle back into the F-705F channel and then filed the slot with all the parts installed to more or less make the hole  look uniform with all the parts.

Just another shot....

Here is what they angles looked like from below.  I had to dress up an area on this angle on the bottom left corner there.  On these angles, I didn't cut the 1/8" taper like Van's calls out.  I clecoed the angle to the F-705F channel and then sharpie marked the angle to taper the angle so it more or less lined up with the taper on the F-705F channel.  It isn't perfect, but it looks pretty good.

This  side, looks better, if only the picture was fuzzy.....

If I wouldn't have had to spend  3 hours re-fabricating botched F-705G angles, I would have gotten a lot farther.  Ooh well, not expensive mistakes, just time consuming.  Now I think I am going to move back up to the center section and finish some odds and ends up there.

I am getting really close to being able to prime and assemble something here.

It was recommended to me by Kevin that I consider putting the holes in the seat ribs to run electrical wiring down lower on the rib.  The normal hole that is taken out to 5/8" is the tooling hole where the cleco is in the picture.  The problem with this appears to be that when the electrical wiring gets closer to the center of the fuselage, the control column and the wiring interfere with each other.  To prevent this conflict, I moved the holes down near the bottom of the rib.  I just picked a centralized location at the bottom.....

On select seat ribs, I marked for provisions to accept a DG-10 size adel clamp with enough clearance to the bottom of the rib, I could use up to a size DG-12 adel clamp.  Yes again, these will weigh slightly more than say a Ty-wrap base that is attached via double sided sticky tape, but then again, I won't have to worry about them falling off in two years.  Once I got one seat rib layed out the way I wanted for the adel clamps, I drilled the holes to size.  Then for all the remaining ribs, I clecoed them together (back to back) and then drilled out the same hole locations for the other seat ribs.

• No, I didn't do this to all the ribs.  I believe I drill 4 of them for adel clamps.
• Yes, it is all about symmetry and craftsmanship.  I don't want it to look like a half baked plan....

I am also drilling all the seat ribs for nutplates.  The entire seating area floor will be capable of being removed for removal, replacement, repair of components without the need to drill out the rivets.  Yeah, it may add a little weight, but it won't be much.  Without a nutplate jig, I have to drill for the nutplates using a sacrificial nutplate and clecoes.

For the F-705J angle, you have to lay out a line of rivets to attach it to the back side of the F-705F channel.  Van's has you lay out of line of nine rivet for the F-705J.  Well, my rivet fan has provisions for ten rivets.  So magically, my F-705J angle has 10 rivets in it.  I measured in 1/4" on both sides and then spaced out the rivet fan to hit the first and last rivet holes.  This is one of the few places that neither the F-705F or the F-705J is pre-punched, so you can more or less do what you want here (within reason, of course).  I don't think that I would try to get by with three rivets here.

There are some particulars here on the F-705J to pay attention to:

• You can't just draw a line down the center of the angle to lay out your rivets.  This angle sits 1/8" above the F-705F channel.  If you center the rivet line on the angle, you won't be able to rivet the F-705J to the F-705F as your rivets will be very near the top of the bend for the F-705F.  Note the print shows that you lay out the rivet line up 1/4" from the bottom edge of the angle.

I just ran a #40 drill bit through the holes in the rivet fan and clecoed as I went.

Since the F-705J angle sits off the F-705F channel by 1/8", I found a 1/8" thick angle, and put it under the F-705J and clamped them both into place.

The real trick I found with the F-705J is that there is no real mention in the prints and in the instructions as to where to place the F-705J on the F-705F channel.  Since this angle holds the seat back in a particular position, it is kind of important that all the pieces and parts line up.  So what I did here is centered up the F-705K on the F-705F channel.  Then I centered / lined up the F-705J with the F-705K.  Clamped it into place and then drilled the initial holes of the F-705F to F-705J to #40.  After completing that, I went and drilled out all holes of the F-705F and F-705J to size #30.  Hopefully, everything will line up.

If you have followed my log entries, you know I had some problems with my original F-705G angles.  When I cut the new angles, I cut them them as straight angles and did not put the 1/8" taper on them as called out in the prints.  After I had drilled them to the F-705F channel, I marked the taper on the F-705G angle with a sharpie marker.  Then I set up the drill press to mill the edge of the angle to get the desired taper on the F-705G.  This worked really well, but I did have to take it pretty slow since the drill press is not a real good milling platform.  Anyway, I got the taper on the F-705G angles to match (almost perfectly), the taper on the F-705F channel.  I only had to do a very little amount of filing to remove the milling marks left by the end mill.

It seems like I am working on a lot of little things for the center fuselage and that it is taking me a long time to finish any one thing.  I am hoping with some of this prep type stuff (i.e.: drilling for nutplates, adel clamps, etc) that when this starts going together, it will be fast and furious.....

I am pretty much trying to get the mid section of the fuselage going.  Kevin Faris drove down again today to put in another day of his time helping me.  I cannot understate the value of having someone who has "been there, done that" help when you get to the fuselage.  Kevin has been really good at pointing things out I should be thinking about.  He assembles ribs and bulkhead assemblies as fast as he can find my parts.  Me>>>  I have to look at the prints two or three times to figure out what is going on.  I am fortunate to have Kevin helping me.  He is every bit as meticulous as I am (even when it isn't his plane) and everything he is helping me fabricate is outstanding.

Anyway, the picture below is one of those meticulous, mind numbing exercises we started with on today's construction.  I had fabricated the  F-705G angles earlier in the week and I needed to match drill them to the F-705D bulkhead side channels.  I wanted to ensure that I drilled those holes straight since that angle is pretty thick (I hate oblong holes).  So Kevin came up with the drilling arrangement below.  It worked great and the holes turned out great, exept for some location issues we self-induced on the right angle.

I couldn't hold the drill that straight even if I wanted to.....

Once we got the F-705G angles match drilled to the bulkhead side channels, we sharpie marked the slot needed to allow the canopy latch to pass through.  Kevin had brought down a cross-sliding vise, some end mills, and some adjustable reamers.  Anyway, we chucked up the end mill and milled the hole out for the canopy latch. 

I am sold on the end mill.  It sure is nice to have the right tool for the job.  (That excludes my hunk of junk drill press).  Anyway, the slot looks pretty good.  So far, Kevin and I were feeling pretty good about our progress, but that changed about an hour later.....  Read on....

A cameo shot of Kevin installing the control column so we could check it for fit.  We were also trying to scope out wire runs to get all the wiring from the wing to the forward fuselage.  As I understand it, the snap bushing locations Van's gives you could be bigger in order to accommodate all the wires and tubing that has to go forward.

A status picture.  I can actually visualize this could actually be an airplane someday....

Okay, here is where we (I) ended up taking two steps backward for everything we did earlier today.  I had noticed that the F-705G-R angle looked crooked after we drilled it.  Sure enough it was crooked.  It apparently slipped under the clamp and now was not sitting flat against the bottom side of the top channel (F-705F).  Okay, that was a builder induced problem.  Well, I went over to look at the other angle F-705G-L and I noticed that the top flange of the angle was not laying flat on the F-705F top channel, but everything looked like it was drilled straight.  What the heck????  I was in such disbelief, I forgot to shoot a picture of it.

Okay>>>  This is where I introduced Kevin to my HIGH TECH NUCLEAR MAINTENANCE TROUBLESHOOTING SKILLS.  I asked Kevin if this would pass the "Sesame Street Test".  I got the deer in the head lights >>>  HUH?!?!?  So I explained the Sesame Street theory and it does something like this:  If it looks like it doesn't look right, it probably isn't.  We had another example were some holes didn't line up properly.  It didn't pass the Sesame Street test, but we mis-drilled the holes anyway....  These happened to be a  couple of holes for the cover support ribs on the center section.  Anyway, I will detail my fix to that in a later log entry.
I removed the mis-fitting F-705G-L angle and put it up against a machinist square.  What the HECK????  It wasn't extruded to a 90 degree angle.  You can see friggin daylight under the square.

 

I mean it is not just a little air gap here.  No wonder the F-705F channel on top looked like it had twist in it.

No, I am not chastising the angle i.e.: "bad angle". I did, however, want to throw it out in the snow bank behind the house which is now a snow-ice cube.....

I thought that maybe it was something I did to the F-705G-L angle while I had it in the vise and doing the fabrication so I got the original stock out and put the square to it.  The hole friggin length of it was mis-formed.

I had some other small pieces of the AA6 angle from the wing kit left over and you can see that they were properly formed.  This angle looks great.  I will be re-fabricating the F-705G's.  One builder induced error and one material problem.  What are the chances?????

We assembled the seat ribs and the baggage compartment ribs to come up with a strategy for wiring all equipment that is going to be going into the plane.  You can see some of my sharpie notes on the ribs where I need to enlarge holes or drill additional ones.  I think I have a plan that will ensure I won't be introducing a ton of shavings after I have this thing skinned.

Just another angle.  Where are my seats???  Lets put them in.  I promised Tami that we would get the first engine start in before Christmas.  (I just didn't tell her which one, and I don't think that she picked up on that subtle omission)

By the end of the day, Kevin and I had come up with a full "to-do" list.  We had to call it quits as I ran out of whiteboard space.

We ended up not getting as much behind us as we both had hoped, but we did make some good headway when developing a strategy on how we (I) would handle upcoming installations of wiring.

Today I wanted to wrap up prepping the F-704 center section and move on the F-705 bulkhead assembly.

Before I started riveting the center section (horizontal & vertical) together, I needed to match drill #30 holes in the center section vertical bars (F-704G) to the center section.  Have you noticed that everything is called "center section"?  As thick as the vertical bars are, I was concerned that I would end up drilling those holes at an angle which would make it hard to set a AN426 rivet.  As it turned out, I got all 4 holes straight and they came out fine.

Next, I moved on to rivet the F-704C's and F-704D's to their respective center sections.  What I found worked the best here was to use the c-frame to set the rivets.  A couple of 2" x 4"s served to hold the center section level with respect to the c-frame.

Once I got the center section properly positioned, I WHACKED the c-frame with a hammer.  This worked pretty well.  I actually had quite a little control over setting the rivets with a hammer.

Once I set all the rivets with the c-frame, I went back to set the flush rivets that attach the center section vertical bars to the center section.  I had previously countersunk the vertical bars to accept the flush AN426AD4-14 rivets.  I ended up setting those rivets with the c-frame as well.  I just put a flush rivet set in the c-frame, positioned the center section, and WHACKED it with a hammer again.  The -14 rivets were the longest rivets I have and they are still short.  From what I can tell, they do not perform a structural function.  They just hold the vertical bar in place while you attach the wings to the fuselage.

This was the forward center section.  Looks like a serious structure when you start to put all those rivets in.

While I was working on the center section, I installed the 18 or so nutplates.  That only took a few minutes.

Completing what I wanted to work on with the center section, I moved on to the F-705.  It probably took me over  an hour to locate the majority of the parts for the F-705.  I spent another two hours removing vinyl and deburring parts.  No exciting pictures to be had there.

One of the first parts I fabricated on the F-705 was the F-605C doubler.  You have to taper the doubler down to a rounded point with a 1/4" radius.  The print shows that the bar doubler is supposed to be 12 1/2" long.  Mine was actually almost 13" long.  I looked around various builders web sites and I didn't see anyone mention trimming this doubler so I left the length alone and marked the taper according to the print dimensions.

Ready to trim....

Cut, debur, file, debur some more, then repeat. After nearly an hour and a half, the bar doublers were transformed to look like like the drawing on the print.

The next fabrication task was to fabricate the F-705G- L/R angles since I am going with a tip-up canopy.  Now this seems like a simple task on the surface. I forecast another hour or two of cutting, deburring, filing, etc.

You have to make two of these angles and Van's instructions do not say to much about fabricating them, but reviewing the prints, I got the feeling that the two angles were NOT going to be the same.  For example, there is a 1/8" taper on the angle on the left side.  Van's makes reference that the "LEFT SHOWN".  Hmm, does that mean that the RIGHT one is different?  Looking at the print, it looks like the taper is to the outside of the F-705 on both the left and the right sides.  I am assuming that is because the fuselage is starting to taper aft of this bulkhead and the 1/8" is to make sure that it doesn't interfere with the fuselage skin.

The other thing that I noticed with fabricating the angle, is that this is being made out of AA6-187x2x2 1/2.  The print shows that the shorter flange is 1 3/4".  When lining up the angle on the F-705D Bulkhead Side Channel, it appears that if you leave the angle 2", that it will be pretty close to a row of rivets.  Trimming the angle to 1 3/4", it places that angle between the row of rivets on the F-705D.

UPDATE (12/25/07):  After fabricating my F-705G angles for a second time, you DO NOT need to trim the shorter flange of the angle to 1 3/4".  It will not interfere with any rivets in the F-705.  The only reason I can see to trim the angle to 1 3/4" would be for weight savings.

First F-705G (left side).  I have it marked on cut the angle to the 1 3/4".

You can see the difference in the angles.  The left one has been trimmed to the 1 3/4" and the one is just waiting for its turn at the band saw.

Hard to see here but, the left one has a taper on the left side and the right one has a taper on the right side.  This thick angle is time consuming to fabricate.  Two hours or so, and the F-705G's are cut out.

What a long day. I was busy all day and don't feel like I have a lot to show for it.  On the F-705, so far, there is a lot of time fabricating parts

Today I had something unique on the project....  Kevin Faris who recently completed his first flight and is in his phase 1 testing, came down and put the day in helping me get started on the fuselage.  It was alot of fun to see him go to town.  My eyes were glazed over trying to figure out the prints and Kevin started picking up parts and putting them together.  We made lots of progress during the day.  We got so busy, that I didn't even think about taking pictures until after we were done with everything.

Before Kevin got  down to help, I had fabricated F-633 control column mounts.  These were pretty straight forward.  It is important to drill the holes in accordance with the call outs on DWG 11 before you remove the extra material for saving weight.  If you trim the F-633 before you drill the mounting holes, it is hard to clamp the the mount to the spar web.

Next thing I did is drilled and countersunk the center section flanges for nutplates.  There is like 18 of these...  PIece of cake. I was having wing flash backs.

The center section has two holes in the center that need to be laid out and drilled in preparation for snap bushings.  They lay in a line for attaching inboard seat rib.  Yeah, I had to double check this.  That is the way Van's has it.

I actually drilled out the F-704 and the F-716 at the same time.  Otherwise, the unibit may have wanted to shift or elongate the hole.

Van's has other holes that need enlarged too.  This hole (between the 3rd and 4th rivet lines) had a pilot hole so it was just a matter of drilling it out to the proper size.

Ditto for the other side.

The cover support ribs below had pre-drilled pilot holes that need to be enlarged to accommodate electrical, brake and fuel lines.  There is a problem here with the holes.....  Can you see it?

I (actually Kevin) didn't notice this until we clecoed them to the F-704F.  All the holes should line up between the 4 cover support ribs.  You can see that the holes for the F-782B (small ribs) and the F-783B (large ribs) were drilled out opposite of each other.  The only thing I can think of here is that when Van's pre-punched the pilot holes on the small ribs, they had them in their punch press backwards.

Anyway, they are $3 each, so I ordered two new ones.  Even if the pilot holes are backwards, I should be able to enlarge the holes so that they match the large ribs now that I know what I am looking for.

UPDATE (12/25/07):  I got the new cover support ribs (F-782, aka: small ribs) from Van's.  They had pilot holes that were the same as the original ribs I had.  I.E.: backwards to the larger F-783B ribs.  I drilled the new rib holes differently than how Van's had them pre-punched.  See future log entry as to how they turned out.

I fabricated two center section spacers F-904J from some AT6-05/8x3/8 stock.  I took some time with them and got them exactly equal in length and the ends cut square.  These turned out really well.

DWG 22 has you remove some rib material for clearance of the control column and on two of the four inboard ribs, you cut a 2" notch out of the rib so the control column can be installed / removed. 

Here is what they looked like after nibbling out rib material to enlarge the holes necessary for clearance of the control column.

Here you can see the 2" notch cut out of the inboard two ribs.  There is a seat rib access plate (F-716B) that holds the removed rib section back in place.

Just another shot.

Anyway, Kevin and I got a lot done.  By the time we were done for the day, I was numb.  I had to take notes to recall everything we got done.  It definitely goes faster when you have someone helping you that knows how to build a plane already.  Tami was thrilled beyond belief.  She didn't have to help all day long....  She wants Kevin to move into the spare bedroom until the plane is done.

I was surfing Tom Wruble's site again and he purchased some large aluminum air vents from Air Kit, LLC.  Unlike Van's air vents, these are machined aluminum.  It was the picture below originally posted on Tom Wruble's site, that convinced me to spend the money on this upgrade.
My wife does not like cold drafts in a car either, so I figured that Van's air vent probably wouldn't perform well enough for us.  Tami's folks live in Minnesota and it can get cold up there and that could make a long flight for me if you know what I mean.  Therefore, I decided a air vent that had a good seal was in order.

You can read Tom's opinion on the air vents offered by Van's and Air Kit, LLC by going to his web page at:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/thomaswruble/Soapbox.htm
Needless to say, I was convinced and sent Air Kit, LLC a personal check for $288 (for 2 large air vents).  They had a price increase January 1, 2004 so I ordered them before the end of the year so I could save myself $20/pair.

The picture is deceptive of how big these vents are.  They are really nice and I think they will work well.  I am glad I came across them on Tom's website.

Air Kit, LLC can be reached at the following web address.  They didn't have on-line ordering when I ordered, but I just e-mailed them, Jeff (I think) promptly returned my e-mail with a confirmation, and then I sent him a personal check.  He promptly got the air vents in the mail to me.

http://www.bravoavtech.com/airkit/

I have more or less decided that I am going with the more conventional "steam gauges" for my instrument panel.  I have always been a high tech individual, but as I get older, I seem to be slowing the pace I adopt high tech.  Besides, it is always expensive being on the leading edge.  However, in my hypocrisy, I am keeping room on the panel for a Dynon EFIS, JUST IN CASE.

I had a wild hair up my a_s (My .Mac account won't let me post web pages with cuss words in them...  BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING).  I got bored last week while working on some of my college homework and placed an order to Chief Aircraft for a Mid-Continent turn coordinator.  Well, UPS left me a Valentines present in the garage today.  Man is this nice looking instrument.  I won't need this for a while, but I am trying to purchase and pay for some of these smaller things when I get the cash for them.  I foresee instruments and avionics as a big expense and one of the more difficult to pay for.  My strategy, one device at a time...

Not shown, but I ordered the amphenol plug to wire this into the panel (If I ever get that far...).

I also got 50 feet of 26 AWG, 5 conductor wire to wire the electric trim servo from Aircraft Spruce.  I think that should be more than enough to wire the trim servo up.  Ray Allen also sells this on his website too.