Chapter 9 - Step 3 - Attach Tabs and Installation (Completed: 9 March, 2008)

Step 3 - November 20th, 2006

After another hiatus caused by life I'm back at it... Of course looking forward to a week off is a real lift so out to the garage!!!!

We are getting the gear ready to go in the plane and the first step is to build this jig to help you hold the landing gear in the correct position while you find the center. It's almost complete but I didn't take more pictures. Bottom right is the part of the jig that is matched to the gear and then you bondo it to the gear. This all took a couple hours to build out, find the center, get it all marked and make a custom fitted jig. Add in a trip to Lowe's to buy a miter saw ( I love building.. gives you a need for just about any tool you might want - I am starting to feel a bit like Tim Allen)

On another note: I have grown in my winter beard... It's still more red than grey. Hope it's still that way when I finish this plane.

November 20th, 2006

Back at it again after a couple days out of town. I got the landing gear jigged upside down and got the attach drill through points marked out as well as the attach tab locations drawn appropriately. (On the left you can see the gear on the jig all taped up.) This all went pretty well the second time and everthing came out just the way it should. Now most of this got accomplished before I left for Thanksgiving.

Once I verified that everything was still OK, I preped for the big attach tab layouts. These are pretty beefy (45 layers per side this time and eventually that many again when I flip the whole bit over.) I got all my cloth cut and my wax paper drawings done so that I knew where I was going to be laying up and where to cut. (Here in the middle you can see me ready for the first UND layup.) After everything was was wetted out I placed them on the gear per my markings and clamped it all down per plans to extract a bit more epoxy. (right)

All in all it went pretty well. I prepared for everything in advance and had everything ready so from the time I mixed the first cup of epoxy to placing the last clamp was only about 1.5 hours. I'll unclamp and look at everything tomorrow.

December 10 th, 2006

Moving forward!!!! OK, we now have all of the holes drilled on the first set of LG (Landing Gear) attach tabs and the alignment was verified per plans by putting a 1/4" drillbit through the holes and verifying that everything lines up perfectly (Left). After that it's time to take the jig off the table and get those tabs freed up. I started by taking off the kickers and chiseling the LG jig off of the table. (Center) As expected, this left a mess on the table and made the table one step closer to resurfacing(right). Maybe this spring.

After getting the landing gear freed up (left) I rough cut the tabs using a jig saw with a metal blade (middle). Don't try to use an aggressive tooth wood blade doing this. You'll just go through wood blades. I took an hour or so to get everything perfect across the LG tab (top right) and you can see where I ended up. (bottom left.)

The few words here seems to make this less of a project than what it was... Anyway... I created a little jig to hold the landing gear on while I do the upper LG tab layup. It was pretty low-tech. Screw a couple of 20" 2x4s to the table and Irwin clamp the landing gear to it to hold it steady. (top left) Well I did this and then realized that the plans called for me to fill the holes I'd just drilled out with wax so off the jig, onto the table, steal a candle from the wife(middle)... always plenty of those around here... a piece of tape on the back side and fill 'er up!!! (right)

Now it's time to prepare for the upper LG tab layup which means it's time to cut cloth (not done) and draw lines on paper. This I did manage to get done. (bottom left). I was splitting time between this chapter and chapter 8 and I only had an hour left at this point so I preped for this layup with plans to complete it tomorrow and moved over to chapter 8 and worked on that heat duct thing that I can't seem to finish. Hopefully I get this done tomorrow although I always manage to not get it done whenever I say that so I guess that I hope that I DON'T get it done tomorrow... Yeah.... maybe that'll work.

January 21st, 2007 - More Landing Gear Installation

Well they fit!!! I finally got to test fit the gear in place with a couple 12" 1/4" drill bits holding it in place. After getting it there I plumb bob'd the gear and drew out reference lines (per plans) and verified that everything was in place. I had to elongate the forward holds slightly to make everything perfect but that's where we ended up. In the fuselage... check alignment... out of the fuselage.... in the fuselage.... check alignment... you get the idea. Now this actually happened in december but I didn't get around to putting it here till today. (Oh.. I did have to sand down one of the attach tabs a bit so that it didn't contact the upper half of the forward landing gear fuselage. It was just touching but I didn't want it to so I took the sander to it. (top center).

I took a break and then got back at it around a week ago... As usual after doing this, I read up and thought for a bit... (top right) Yes I do realize that I am wearing black socks with my tennis shoes and no that isn't normal for me. I'm not that old yet. The spirit moved me to get out there and there wasn't a pair of white socks around baring a climb up the stairs to the bedroom and I'll be danged if I'm gonna let a pair of black socks stop me from working... It was then time to drill the LG bulkheads and align and then install the MG1 and MG2 mount points. (lower left) Rather than build them from scratch, I bought mine from the Cozy Girrrls. They make some nice parts!

At this point I stopped because I lack the bi-metal bit to drill the holes and am waiting on it to come in via the mail, so i moved over to step 6 of this chapter and began working on the landing break.

Feb 10, 2007 - Getting Closer

I finally grew a pair today and drilled out the holes through the landing gear bulkheads and MG-1 and MG-2s (left). This allowed me to test fit the bushings that go in all 4 holes.... Can you say, "LIKE A GLOVE!" I didn't use the spot facing tool used by many. I went to Lowes and bought a bi-metal hole saw bit (5/8") and attached it to a 1/4" arbor with a removeable pilot bit. I replaced the 1/4" pilot bit with one that was 14" long and moved the arbor up and down the bit as needed. Total spend: $14 and it works way better!

As you can see , I have the bushings floxed in place and being aligned by my gear attach dowels (center). Those are the actual ones that will hold the gear in place. I then moved over to the gear attach tabs and did the same thing with a 5/8" hole saw with same setup and drilled out the attach tabs so that the part that belongs there permanantly could be test fitted. FANTASTIC so far. (Right) Tomorrow I am going to test fit the whole bit so cross you fingers that it all still aligns!!!

I did work in other areas today as well... Let's see: Ch 8-Step 7, Ch 9-Step 6. <----RE Link These

 March 01, 2008 <--Holy crap! Over a year....

Yes I must admit that it has been over a year but at least I am working on an MBA (Masters Degree in Business Administration) and am nearly done now.... I recently decided to get back at it and so here I am...

When last we met I was aligning and planning on the final stages of the LG installation. Pretty much all that was left was to get the attach tabs floxed to the MKNGAs (The silver tubes you see above) and fill them in with foam (per plans) or flox (my plan). I have heard of people complaining that the plans foam is a bit under done and replacing it with all flox, and since I've heard no complaints about that.... that's what I'm doing....

First, all by my lonesome I got the gear off the plane. It's been sitting in the garage, legs in the air for a year now. I tipped it sideways on the rotisserie  and took out the bottom and then the top bolt... I started at it... read the plans.... remembered where I was and then proceeded to put it back and then align the gear using a triangulation method with the centerline of the aircraft. I know the forward cant of the gear is correct because i verified it before...

After all was verified and installed in the plane again, I floxed the MKNGAs in place so that they wouldn't move anymore and waited for them to cure in place. (below right)

March 01, 2008 <--Holy crap! Two days of work in a row after a year off!

So the next day I take the LG off again and the MKNGAs are tacked into place nicely (above right). So I do my patented, "drill two boards to the table and hang the gear off of them" thing. (below left). I clamped them on using my handy dandy clampy things and proceed to flox in the whole bit and then cover it with 2 plys of BID per plans. After it cures, I'll trim it all up and make it look so nice-a!

I then went on to work more on: chapter 9 - step 6 (Landing brake / air brake)

March 09, 2008
Work continues on this step in the landing gear assembly. So now the layups I did last weekend have had a week to cure in my warm garage/hangar while I have been away working. I trimmed everything up with the Fein tool  then sanded everything smooth and ended up with the attach tabs you see below. This didn't take long, maybe a 1/2 hour total, but it got me out there and to work.

 

I belive that this completes this step in chapter 9.  I moved from here to: Chapter 9 - Step 6 where I worked on the layups on the fuselage for the landing brake.