Aviation Coming Eventually

I don't feel like going into depth on every little aspect of work I've done over the last 10 months, so I'll hit the highlights and if anyone has questions, feel free to comment and I'll elaborate.  As the year started the garage was cold. With a propane heater it would get warm enough to work for a few hours, but because 4130 steel is an air-tempered alloy, it needs to be sufficiently warm out for welding. Long story short; I can't weld, so I make parts. I plugged away making little bits so I can use them when it comes time to build a new assembly. The landing gear legs and spring struts have metal straps to reinforce the bushings in the ends. I knocked these out in a couple days after work. Likewise, the tabs that will become door hinges and the fittings for the tailwheel were cut, drilled, and deburred. As it warmed up and I got an order of laser-cut parts the aileron control arm and pulley brackets were welded to the torque tube for the control stick.  I also cu

 What do you think, is 15 months long enough to go without an update? Yeah, I think so too.   Let's get right into the meat of it then. Now where did I leave off... -Rummages through old posts. Sounds of scrap tubing bouncing off the floor accompany muffled curses- AHA! Found it. We were waiting to finish weld the fuselage. I had a good review from my Tech councilor in April of 2021 and started in on finish-welding the fuselage. I started at the tailpost and worked forward, spiraling around the fuselage as I welded each tubing cluster. I made up a rotisserie of sorts to allow me to turn the fuselage for better access to all sides of each weld. The rotisserie consisted of two 2x4 stands with a hole drilled in an end. This hole accepted a piece of tubing on which the fuselage could rotate. This is probably one of those "a picture is worth 1000 words" deals, so here ya go. The front pivot is just some gas pipe bolted to a plywood plate. The plywood is held on the fusela

I decided to hold off on finish welding the fuselage until my tech councilor could check it over and, if necessary, I could make changes while it was still relatively easy.   So instead I started tackling smaller projects. I started by welding up the control stick. Then moved on to rudder pedals, torque tube, and the forward torque tube bracket. I bought myself and entry-level TIG welder and after a bit of practice I thought I would try it out on some airplane parts. The rudder pedals, torque tube, and mounting bracket were all TIG welded. The pedals turned out okay, but I had mis-measured the scrap I made them from and they were too short. The bracket turned out great, TIG made welding on the little sheet-metal feet pretty simple.    The torque tube was... not great. All it consists of is a 1" diameter tube with a steel bushing welded on in the center for the control stick to pivot on. But, try as I might, I just could not get that stupid little bushing to weld on right. I welded

On January 18th I posted my last blog update; both fuselage sides were tack welded. That was seven months ago now. I should update more regularly. Okay, self-flagellation over, let's get to the content! Once both fuselage sides were tack welded, I pulled all the jig blocks off the table, elected not to repaint again, and just laid out the stations for the top view of the fuselage. We lay out the top view because the top of the fuselage is flat which makes it a lot easier to jig things up if you lay out the fuselage upside-down. With the top view lofted out on the table I could start adding in jig blocks starting in the cockpit area where the sides are parallel. A stick and some clamps help hold the sides parallel for this photo op.  Now may be a good time to mention, if I haven't already, that I am widening this fuselage from stock. The original Jr Ace (Model E) was 33-1/8" between tubing centerlines at the widest point. This makes for a pretty cramped space when two peopl

 Once the tail surfaces were done and I decided to pursue widening the fuselage to 38" I could clear the jig blocks from the table and paint over the lines for the tail. I then laid out all the dimensions for the fuselage side onto the fresh white paint. It's worth noting here that the plans give views of the top, bottom, and side of the fuselage, as if you are looking straight at the side. However, the sides angle back in space, so if you were to flatten that side out to lay on the table, it will actually be longer than the dimensions given on the drawing. In drafting, flattening out a panel like that is referred to as "developing". Widening the fuselage by almost 5" also changes the length of the side, so the developed side is actually 1.5" longer than shown in the side view. I drew up the developed side in CAD and used the dimensions from CAD to lay out on the table. The dimensions given on the drawing are to tubing centerlines and need to be offset to s