Here I started cutting out the F-792 rudder stops.  I am getting fairly proficient in drawing up simple shapes in CAD and generating the G-code to get them cutout with the mill.

I am not sure why Van's has you trim the one end of the angle like this, but I am sure that it will be become clear later in the project.

Cutting the angles in the angle....

What is great about the mill, is that dimensionally, I can get it more accurate than I can by hand. Additionally, once I draw it up, I can cut each one out the same as the next.  The left and right rudder stops are essentially the same.

I am trying to get out in the garage when I can (which isn't much these days).  Katelynn is taking a lot of mommy and daddy's time (its worth it though!!!)

Anyway, I used today's time to do more fuselage fabrication. Today, I drew up the F-712D Up Elevator Stop in CAD and had the mill cut it out.

Here the mill is cutting the AA6-125x1x1 1/4 angle. I initially cut the angle to the longest length called out by the prints (4 3/8") as this angle gets a couple of angle cuts making it narrower (by 1/8" at the angle and on the 1" side).  Here the mill is cutting the 1" side of the elevator stop which is nothing more than trimming angle down to 3/4" and radiusing the corners.

After the mill trimmed the 1" side of the angle to dimension, I had also CAD drew in the two pilot holes called for in the print.  Here the mill is drilling those two pilot holes.  I sure wished I would have had this thing when working on the fuel tank "Z" brackets. 

on the 1 1/4" side of the angle, there is a little whoop'd-de-do (I am sure that is the technical term) in it.  You have to study the prints carefully, as the sides are at 3/4" and where the mill is cutting in the photo is 13/16".  I am sure that there is a reason for it, even though it isn't obvious to me yet.  I just cut it out to match the drawing specs.

Here is what the F-712D, Up Elevator Stop looks like when the mill completed the cutout.  The pilot holes are all way undersized so that they can be drilled to full size when clecoed into the fuselage.  This looks way better than what I could have done if I had to cut this by hand. 

For my high standards, the mill is working great.  This is the tool I should have had when I started the project.  My plan is to scour the fuselage prints for all the parts I have to fabricate so when I can get that hour or two in the garage, I can work on parts fabrication.

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.

This page is the start of my Christmas spending spree.  Of course, everything was purchased under the flag, of "plane building".  This page details my upgrades to tools.  I had another spending spree with Chief Aircraft and Van's for things like antennas, ELT, and Electric Fuel Pumps....  I will detail the plane parts later.

Being fed up with my little bench top drill press, I decided that it was time to upgrade.  A friend at work has done a lot of investigation of what tools to buy for his shop and he recommended Grizzly as a compromise between quality and price.  After doing some research, I decided to go with the drill press below.  It has a nice big table to mount a cross vise, milling table, etc.  I am sure that it won't be great for milling, but I'll bet it will be better than the little Crapsman bench top drill press I have been using.

UPDATE:  The drill press is huge.  I got a chuckle on this when I turned it on for the first time.  The lights in the garage dimmed.  They may have dimmed in the house too.  Anyway, as soon as I turned on the drill press, Tami came out to the garage to see what was going on.  It has a pretty good sized motor on it (1.5 hp).  The drill is solid and accurate.  If I was going to do this over, I would probably get a smaller drill press.  Otherwise, this mondo size drill press works great.  I would consider the Grizzly G7944.  See link below:

http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-Speed-Heavy-Duty-14-Floor-Drill-Press/G7944

I got a dolly that can be used to mount the drill press to so that I can somewhat move it around the garage.

UPDATE:  This seems to be okay for moving the drill press around, however, what I don't like about it is that you do lose some stability of the drill press.  Since I already have the drill press on this dolly, I am going to leave it there for now.  If I was to do this over again, I probably would leave this off of my shopping list.  However, if you absolutely need to be able to move a drill press around the shop, this will do it.  

I also added a milling table to supplement the cross-vice that Kevin is letting me borrow.

UPDATE:  This milling table is a piece of crap.  Okay, I may be a little harsh here...  Maybe is just isn't that great.  It seems to settle out a little when you throw a 40 pound milling vise on top of it.  It probably doesn't help that a drill press doesn't make a good mill, however, my results with this table were basically so-so.  The cross vice that Kevin is letting me use works a heck of a lot better than this table (except when trying to mill an edge at an angle).

I went crazy and also got this clamping kit.  I currently have to scrounge for hardware to mount something to the drill press.  This kit is specifically made for that purpose.  And, it was relatively cheap so I am not out of a ton of money if it don't work that well.

UPDATE:  The clamping kit works great.  You kind of have to scratch your head though to figure out what clamping combination it takes to secure something to the drill press table.

I also got a small end mill set.  The sizes here are hard to have perspective on.  The smallest end mill is 1/8".  I went with 4-flute end mills hoping that these won't chatter as much as the 2-flute end mills.

UPDATE:  The end mills work well.  The 4-flute end mill is not actually recommended for aluminum, but they work well.  I find that I have to stop periodically to clear the mill of chips.  I ordered some premium 2-flute end mills for work on the planes aluminum parts.

Grizzly also had a decent reamer set.  For the little use I will put them through, I am sure that they will be fine.  I don't believe that there are very many cases where I will have to ream parts out.  I know of two cases where you need to ream some bushings to 1/4".  Anyway, these weren't that expensive.

UPDATE:  These are SHARP.  While removing the shipping plastic, I sliced my fingers open.  Ouch.  For the price, if they work, this was a good deal compared to what else I have seen out on the web.

I also ordered a "over / under" reamer set.  This reamer set has has one each reamer that is + or - 0.001" of the more popular reamer sizes and can be used to allow either a slip fit or a press fit.  I have a couple of places I am looking to do a press fit.  aka:  Delrin bushing for an aileron stop, etc.  These may come in handy for something like that.

I broke down and ordered a bench top CNC mill.  I have a few ideas for some parts upgrade for the RV.  A couple of ideas I have, I haven't seen other builders or companies make.  I will keep those ideas to myself until I have actually made one of them....  Anyway, I got engrossed in the mill idea after I saw the accuracy that could be had just by using a drill press and a cross vise.  With CNC, the possibilities are only limited by the imagination (and table size....  I didn't get a huge mill).

YES, I know that this is NOT necessary for the project...   Being kind of a computer geek, this is right up my alley.  I look forward to using this to improve the build quality of some of my projects parts....   Look for those parts in future web log entries.

Okay, now you have to have some way to clamp it all down.  I ordered two vises that I should be able to use on the mill.  This is a precision 4" vise.  This is a pretty big vice and it is heavy.  Something like 40 pounds.  It seemed to settle out the X-Y table I bought for the drill press. 

I also got this smaller milling vise.  This is probably more appropriately sized for a small mill.  This vise has v-grooves in it to hold tubular stock in both the horizontal and vertical orientations.

Merry Christmas to me.  Anyway, I took the evening off after I got done spending my money.  We were having an ice storm and I had to put Tami's mini-van in the garage so we didn't have to chip ice for an hour the next morning.