Archive for category Tools
Ailerons Finished (3/17/11)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Ailerons, Construction, Tools, Wings on March 17, 2011
2.0 Hours -
My new bucking bars from The Yard arrived yesterday, and I was anxious to “play” with them. The first thing I did was attempt to set the aft-most rivets in the right aileron’s trailing edge. With the new, narrow bucking bar, these were a piece of cake to set. I wish I would have bought this when I started working on the empennage!
I bought two new bucking bars from The Yard. The one on the right is specifically for bucking the aft-most rivets on the ailerons. The one on the right just looked like it would come in handy.
The new bucking bar made setting these rivets a cinch...I wish I would have bought it when I was working on the empennage!
Next, I went to work on the left aileron, repeating everything I did on the right aileron. For details, see my post from March 15th, which details the aileron assembly. Everything went according to plan while riveting. However, my pop-rivet puller started giving me problems. The jaws don’t seem to want to grab the rivet shank…sometimes they grab, sometimes they don’t. It was a hassle, but I managed to set all of the pop-rivets and it’s definitely time to buy a new rivet puller!
All riveting on the left aileron is complete. It looks nice and straight...I'm happy!
Side view of the left aileron.
Once all of the riveting was completed, I bolted on the aileron brackets. The inboard brackets were easy, but the outboard brackets are too narrow for a wrench. To tighten these, I had to hold the bolt head with a set of pliers, and slowly tighten the nut with the smallest wrench I could find. Eventually, all of the bolts were tightened and torqued. However, I didn’t put torque seal on yet. I was getting tired and hungry and decided I would recheck the torque another day and apply inspection lacquer at that time.
The inboard aileron brackets are attached with three bolts.
Side view of the inboard bracket.
The outboard bracket attaches with two bolts. Due to the narrow space between the bracket walls, these brackets weren't the easiest to install and torque.
The ailerons are now completely finished. Next up is the flaps. After that, nothing is left except installing push rods and riveting the outboard bottom skins.
More Countersinking and Wing Prep (12/10/10)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Construction, Leading Edges, Main Structure, Panel/Wiring, Spars, Tools, Wings on December 10, 2010
2.3 Hours -
Tonight, I resumed countersinking the left spar. I finished countersinking the bottom of left spar and the leading edge portion of the top of the spar. To do the top, I had to remove the outboard skin. Now, I just have the top/inboard of the left spar and the entire top of the right spar remaining to be countersunk.
Once I finished countersinking for the evening, I cleaned the spars with acetone and sprayed some self-etching primer to cover the exposed aluminum in the countersinks.
After countersinking the main spar, I cleaned it and sprayed some self-etching primer.
Ready for a break from countersinking, I decided to make the ground wire for the stall warner system. This was fairly quick to complete since all I had to do was to cut a 3.5 inch piece of 18 gauge wire, strip both ends, and crimp on terminals. To crimp the terminals, I ended up buying a ratcheting crimper from SteinAir. The dies on the crimper are interchangeable, and I purchased dies for both RBY and BNC terminals.
I bought this ratcheting crimper from SteinAir. It has dies for both RBY and BNC terminals.
Nothing complicated...the stall warner ground wire is a 3.5 inch piece of 18 gauge wire with terminals crimped on each end.
Finally, I started deburring and dimpling the left wing structure. Trying to break up the monotony, I would deburr a rib and a portion of the rear spar, then dimple those sections. Changing tasks like this seems to help me work longer. However, there is still a lot of countersinking, deburring and dimpling left to do in the wings.
Parker Rolo-Flair
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Preparation, Tools on September 23, 2010
I received my new flaring tool today. Within 5 minutes of opening the Parker Rolo-Flair, I was able to make a much better flare than the ones I had made with the Summit tool.
My new Parker Rolo-Flair. I was able to make a better flare with this, compared to the Summit tool, on my first try.
The Rolo-Flair has two dies that are rotated to the correct tubing diameter and then used to clamp the tube in place. The die surfaces are smooth, not serrated like the Summit tool. The Rolo-Flair also has a positive stop that lets you know exactly how far to insert the tube. When the tool is closed, the stop moves out of the way. With the Rolo-Flair, it was also much easier to tell exactly how far to rotate the cone-shaped flaring head…as soon as the proper depth was reached, resistance increased dramatically. The tool then burnishes the edges when the flaring head is backed out. Without spending much time to prepare my test tubing, I was able to make a nice flare on the first try. But, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Using the Rolo-Flair, there is no scarring on the sides of the tube and the flare is nice and clean.
Flare made with Summit tool: Notice the scarring on the side of the tube...the tube is also distorted into a somewhat oval shape.
Despite my bad pictures, we have a clear winner!
A Few New Tools for the Wings
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Preparation, Tools on May 9, 2010
In preparation of the arrival of my wing kit, there are a few things I need to buy. As usual, some of these things happen to be tools.
There are a lot of ribs in the wings, and each rib has three lightening holes cut into it. The edges of all these holes have to be deburred. Until now, the few lightening holes I’ve had to deal with, I’ve just used some emery cloth and ScotchBrite pad for deburring. This method is fine for a couple holes, but it is slow and tedious. So, for the wings, I’m going to use a 2” ScotchBrite wheel attached to a pneumatic die grinder. This will let me deburr the holes the same way I deburr the edges.
Kobalt die grinder with 2" ScotchBrite wheel.
In addition, during wing construction, I’ll encounter aluminum tubing for the first time. This is used for fuel lines and also in parts of the pitot and brake systems. Where ever a connection is made, the tubing has to be flared to 37 degrees. Flairing tools can get very pricey, and I’m only going to need to make 20 or fewer flares for the entire plane. Therefore, I decided to go on the low end and try a flare tool from Summit Racing. At $30, I won’t feel too bad if the results are poor and I have to get one of the more expensive tools to finish.
*EDIT* After a couple of attempts at using this flaring tool, I’m not happy with the results. The flare itself is adequate, but the block holding the tube leaves marks or scars on the tube. In addition, I’ve found that the tool distorts the tube to the point where a sleeve is very difficult to slide into place. I can make it work, but I don’t want to chance this on the fuel system. Therefore, I’m going to call my $30 experiment a failure and order a Parker Rolo-Flair. The Rolo-Flair is significantly more expensive at around $100, but I haven’t heard any complaints about it either.
I'm going to try this less expensive flare tool from Summit Racing. If the results are poor, I'll get a rol-flair.
To bend the tubing without collapsing it, a special bending tool is used. This tool was also purchased from Summit Racing, and should do the job well.
A tubing bender is a pretty simple tool.
Finally, I bought a digital caliper. The caliper I already had uses a dial. This is fine, but if you don’t pay attention, you have no idea how many times the needle spun around before stopping. The digital caliper gives me a reading in inches or mm and seems to be very accurate when compared to the dial caliper. Plus, I had a coupon that took over $20 off the full price.
Digital = Easy to Read; Dial = How many times did the needle go around?
Ideal Stripmaster
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Preparation, Tools on February 28, 2010
I’ve added another new tool to my arsenal…a wire stripper for small gauge wire.
There aren't many tools that can easily strip 26 gauge wire (thanks for that Ray Allen), but the Stripmaster makes nice work of it.
The Ray Allen Company manufactures the servos used in Van’s electric trim systems. For some reason, Ray Allen has chosen to use extremely small 26 gauge wire on all of their components. The problem is that most strippers won’t strip wires this small. However, the Ideal Stripmaster model (45-097) handles them with ease. Most stores sell them for $39-$49. I purchased a new one off Ebay for $29 including shipping.
Now I’m on the prowl for a deal on a good d-sub crimp tool
Left Elevator Continued (1/31/10)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Construction, Elevators, Empennage, Tools on January 31, 2010
1.0 Hours -
Once again, my time to work on the plane was limited by other things that needed to get done. While I did have to go to work and do some necessity shopping (can’t build an airplane on an empty stomach), I have to admit that I was being a little lazy and just wanted to veg in front of the TV a bit too.
My 1.0 hours of project time was well spent though. I finished drilling the left elevator skin to the skeleton, disassembled the elevator, and started working to deburr and dimple all the parts. No pictures of this as it is essentially the same as the right elevator (and numerous other pictures I’ve posted about deburring, edge finishing, and dimpling). This should keep me busy for another couple of days as well.
On another note, I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at other build sites to see how people handled the bends on the elevator skin tabs and the trim tab ends. Some people construct a wood bending block per the Van’s instructions and have no issues. However, a lot of people cut the tabs off and make riblets instead. In anticipation of struggling with this, I bought a cheap Harbor Freight bending brake. Even if I’m able to bend the tabs per plans and forgo the riblets, this tool will easily justify it’s $35 price tag. Just bending a small piece of scrap aluminum was kind of fun (yes, I’m easily entertained!
I bought this bending brake in anticipation of making riblets for the left elevator and trim tab.
New Tools and Some Workshop Organization (1/10/10)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Empennage, Tools, Workshop on January 11, 2010
After working on the plane Saturday, the workshop was in a bit of a disastrous state. This, combined with my desire to find a better storage solution for my completed empennage sub-assemblies, gave me an excuse to make a trip to Lowes and then head into the garage for a little over an hour.
The 5 empennage sub-assemblies are fairly large and difficult to store. Remember, you build these and then set them aside until you are ready to attach them to the fuselage.
The horizontal stabilizer is, by far, the largest of the pieces measuring in at over 8 feet long. However, it is also the easiest to store. It is hanging from a bike rack mounted to the garage wall. The rack is solid and it keeps the piece off the floor and out of the way.
The remaining parts still in need of a storage solution are the vertical stabilizer, rudder, and two elevators (of which I’ve finished the vertical stabilizer and rudder). For these, I decided to make a four-slot rack (somewhat resembling a bike rack) out of PVC. I chose PVC because it is strong, very easy to work with, and I had about 30 feet of 3/4” pipe on hand. After quickly sketching my design, I ran to Lowes to pick up all the necessary fittings. Forty-five minutes after returning, I had my rack assembled.
I built a rack out of PVC to store my empennage parts.
Top view of empennage rack.
Next, a little workshop clean-up. All tools stored properly and tables cleaned (ok, tables cleared off using some high pressure air!). I also started to clean the clecos that were used to glue the rudder. These came out fairly clean thanks to the Boelube coating I gave them, but they still had a fair amount of tank sealant on them. I decided to soak them in some acetone overnight and see what happens. If I ruin the twenty or so clecos, no big loss.
Finally, I have bought a couple more new tools recently. From Brown Tool, I purchased #6 and #10 Screw Dimple Die Sets and another flush squeeze set so that I would have two flush squeezes with the larger diameter face. From Avery Tools, I bought an “Oops Hole Saver Rivet Kit.” This kit contains 6 different sizes of NAS1097 rivets. The NAS1097 rivets, also known as “oops rivets” or “hole saver rivets,” have a factory head one size smaller than what you would normally find on that size shaft. For example, a NAS1097AD4-3.5 has the shaft diameter of a 4- rivet, but the head size of a 3- rivet. They can be used in holes where you had to drill the hole larger but want to keep the head size the same as other rivets in that area, or, they can be used for nutplate installation. On nutplate installation, using a smaller head allows you to countersink the aluminum sheet rather than dimple it. Dimpling the sheet is easy, but dimpling the nutplate is not. The NAS1097’s allow you to avoid this.
From left to right: Male #10 screw dimple die, Female #10 screw dimple die, flush squeeze set, #6 screw male dimple die, #6 screw female dimple die.
Avery's "Oops Hole Saver Rivet Kit" contains NAS1097 rivets of various sizes.
Started Rudder Final Assembly (12/3/09)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Construction, Empennage, Rudder, Tools on December 3, 2009
1.4 Hours -
My order from onlinemetals.com finally arrived yesterday. The two pieces of metal I received were a 5 foot long piece of aluminum angle and a 6×2 inch piece of 3/16” cold rolled steel. The aluminum is for keeping the rudder trailing edge straight, while the steel is for making a combination female dimple tool and thin bucking bar for tight spaces.
To make the dimpling tool, I simply drilled a #40 hole in one corner of the steel and then countersunk it to accept a AN426AD3 rivet head. I then repeated this on the opposite side with a #30 drill for –4 rivets.
I countersunk a piece of thin steel to serve as a female dimple die. #30 on one side, #40 on the other.
Using this was not as easy as I had hoped. You really have to swing hard with the hammer while holding your parts in place. To make a dimple, I placed the rib over the hole in the steel bar, placed a male dimple die through the hole from the top, placed a socket over the male die’s shaft to protect it from the hammer blows, and hit it with a hammer. It would normally take two or three blows before the dimple would be acceptable.
The bucking bar plus male dimple die makes an ok dimple. The socket protects the dimple die shaft from the hammer.
The dimple on the left was squeezed. The one on the right was made with my bucking bar set up...not bad.
Once I finished dimpling all the holes in the ribs that I could not get to with my squeezer, I started final assembly of the rudder skeleton. I started by riveting the spar reinforcement plates and nut plates to the spar. Then, I assembled the bottom rib/rudder horn assembly.
One of the rudder reinforcement brackets installed with the nutplate.
Everything was going well until it was time to rivet the rudder brace to the rudder horn. Some builders have been able to find a way to use solid rivets here and squeeze them with their longeron yoke. I couldn’t figure out a way to get my longeron yoke to fit, so I chose to use the optional LP4-3 blind rivets. Unfortunately, when I pulled out my bin of LP4-3 rivets, there were only three left and I needed four.
I went ahead and set the three rivets I had and left the fourth hole with a cleco in it. Fortunately, this won’t hold me up as there is nothing that will block my access to this hole during subsequent construction steps. However, I did stop here for the evening and immediately placed and order for LP4-3 rivets and some fuel tank sealant from Van’s.
The rudder horn, reinforcement plate, spare, rib assembly
I ran out of LP4-3 rivets for attaching the rudder brace. I'll order more from Van's tonight.
Two More New Tools
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Preparation, Tools on November 13, 2009
Today, I gained two more tools. One was purchased, the other was made. There’s something rewarding about making your own tool too.
I’m going to need a back riveting plate soon, and I didn’t want to pay $50 for one from the aviation tool vendors. While theirs are nice, they are small and not worth the price. The simple solution was to find a slab of steel that I could polish. When I started to research this a bit, I found out that cold rolled steel has a smooth, almost polished surface when it is milled. I found some of this steel at Home Depot and it is indeed smooth, but they didn’t have a piece thick enough to server as a back rivet plate.
After a little more searching, I found an on-line metal retailer, conveniently called OnlineMetals.com, based out of Washington. They sell just about any type of metal you could possibly want! I purchased a piece of cold rolled steel measuring 0.375” thick, 4” wide and 24” long for $35 including shipping. The piece of steel is perfectly smooth and will require no finishing on my part prior to using it as a back rivet plate.
A slab of cold rolled steel will serve as my back rivet plate. This plate measures 0.375"x4"x24" and is nice and smooth.
The back rivet plate 0.375" thick. For reference, the table top is 3/4" plywood.
The second tool, the one I made, is a rod end bearing installation/adjustment tool that will be need to install rod end bearings in the control surfaces. I followed a basic design I found on-line using PVC. Basically, it is just a few pieces of 1/2” PVC, at coupler and a tee. One piece of PVC gets some slots cut into it so that it can hold the bearing. The coupler covers the slots and holds the bearing in place. All together, it cost under $10.
A homemade rod end bearing tool...and a rod end bearing.
The business end of the rod end bearing tool.
The rod end bearing fits nicely into the groves.
New Tools (sort of)
Posted by Ethan Jacoby in Preparation, Tools, Workshop on November 5, 2009
I’ve accumulated a few new tools and other shop stuff since my big tool posting on 9/2/09. I’ve written about a couple tool purchases (torque wrench, pneumatic squeezer), but I’ve come to realize that it is the small stuff you need to know about when getting ready to start your build. So, since I’ve been taking a couple days off from building due to a sore back, here’s an update:
Upper Cabinet for Tool Chest – I bought the upper cabinet for my tool chest early on and I’m glad I did. The tool chest went from practically empty to pretty darn full in a couple of months. If you can afford a bigger chest, go for it. I couldn’t be happier with this Pro-Works chest from Wal-Mart.
The Pro-Works tool chest is great!
Hardware Cabinets – The kits come with a lot of little bags full of rivets and other hardware. To keep all of it organized and quickly accessible, you need some sort of cabinet with a lot of drawers or bins. These are from Lowes and were about $15 each.
Some sort of organization system is essential for all those rivets!
Label Maker – I bought this Brother Label maker from Costco. The labels look great and are quick to make and apply. Eventually, I’ll get some clear label tape and this labeler will even be used to label my panel.
Brother P-Touch labelers are cheap but good.
#21 drill bits – The only #21 drill I had was a threaded drill for my angle attachment. The angle attachment is a pain to use, so I bought some regular old #21s.
#21 Drill
Pop Rivet Dimpler – I thought I was going to need this handy little dimpler for the horizontal stabilizer skins, but I figured out how dimple the holes near the leading edge with my C-frame. however, I know this will still come in handy and I’ll probably have to get the larger size as well. To use this, you just squeeze the pieces together by pulling on the nail with a pop-rivet gun…simple!
A pop rivet dimpler allows you to dimple in tight quarters.
Avery Deburr Tool – I didn’t like the multi-burr tool, that came with my tool kit, for deburring small holes. This one from Avery is much easier to use on all those rivet holes.
Avery Speed Deburr
Hand Seamer – When prepping the ribs, you have to make sure the flange is perpendicular to the webbing. A hand seamer makes this simple. It’s basically a hand operated sheet metal brake.
A hand seamer is just a small sheet metal brake.
Scotch-Brite Pads – The maroon pads are great for scuffing the surface before priming or even a little light deburring. Each pad is about the size of a letter sized piece of paper. I bought one at my local NAPA and cut it into 2×2 squares.
Mandrel to Mount 6” Scotch-Brite Wheel in Drill Press – Rather than buying a grinder, I bought a steel mandrel from Avery which allows me to chuck my Scotch-Brite wheel into my drill press. The advantage is the slower speed of the drill press compared to a grinder. I’m not sure if having the wheel horizontal is any easier than having it vertical in a grinder.
Mounting the Scotch-Brite wheel in the drill press allows it to spin at a slower speed than in most grinders.
Vise – Nothing fancy…a four inch vise from Harbor Freight. This is essential for holding pieces while bending.
A vise is an essential tool.
Respirator – MEK and primer, while supposedly not carcinogens, smell nasty. A simple charcoal filter respirator eliminates the odor.
A must when working with MEK and primers.
Countersink Cage – I bought a second countersink cage so that I could set one up with a #40 countersink and one with a #30 and hopefully not have to change them very often. Set it and forget it!
Having two countersink cages allows me to set each up with a different bit and leave them.
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