Monday, July 13, 2015

Doing Odd & Ends While Watching Primer Dry

Yesterday, after remaking the F-1258 links for the right rudder cable, tried to prime the parts that have been prepared the past couple of days … but the weather was not cooperative as it rained most of the afternoon and evening so worked on little things.  However, that all changed this afternoon and was able to get all the parts awaiting primer sprayed.

Following the cleanup of the airbrush, decided to have a look at the hardware that will be attaching the rear window to the turtle deck. The holes in the turtle deck looked a little small to me for the #6 screws called for in the plans, so an attempt was made to place one of the screws into the holes in the turtle deck … it wouldn’t fit. The plans were referenced and nowhere on the plans I have does it mention enlarging the turtle deck holes to #27. The plans just say to remove the aft window and enlarge all the holes in the window with a #27 Plexiglas bit … but make no mention of also needing to drill out the holes in the turtle deck skins to #27 for the 6-32 screws that will secure the aft window to the turtle deck skins.

Beginning on the quick task of drilling out all the holes in the turtle deck to #27 so the 6-32 screws will fit through the holes in the turtle deck skins to secure the aft window.

Builder tip: Prior to doing the final instillation of the aft window onto the turtle deck skins, builders should check that the #6 mounting screws fit through the holes in their turtle deck skins. Better to find out now as opposed to finding out after the batch of fuel tank sealant used to seal the window has been mixed.

Looking for more to do instead of watching the primer dry, decided to have a look at the canopy parts. Some items were already taken care of prior to painting the canopy frame. However, there were a couple of tasks that still remained to be completed. One such task involves enlarging the mounting holes in the C-1216 gas struts.
Both C-1216 gas struts prior to drilling. The plans show the mounting hole on the body of the gas strut needs to be enlarged to 1/4" and the mounting hole on end of the strut’s rod gets enlarged out to a whopping 3/8".

I decided to go ahead and drill both ends of each strut with the 1/4" drill bit first, then final drill the 3/8” mounting holes on strut’s rod.
Using the drill press to enlarge the mounting hole on the body of one of the gas struts to 1/4".
Enlarging the mounting hole on the rod end of the strut to 3/8".
Completed drilling of both ends of the C-1216 gas struts.

Another task to perform on the canopy frame was to match drill to #30 the ten holes in the canopy frame. Some of these holes caused an interference problem with the chuck of the drill, so a 12" drill bit was used. After all 10 holes were drilled and deburred, LP4-3 rivets were placed into the holes. For deburring, a wooden dowel rod was used to scrape the burrs off the inside of the square tubing. If a burr bent and went inside the rivet hole, a rivet was used to push the burr back down to get scrapped away by the wooden dowel rod.
Using a 12" drill bit to drill the canopy frame.
Using the hand rivet puller to set an LP4-3 rivet into one of the newly drilled rivet holes in the canopy frame.

After finishing up placing all ten rivets into the canopy frame, decided to call it quits for the day.