First, Build a Shed

[TahoeTim]

I will do my bottom stringer last while it's upside down for covering. You don't have to follow the manual page by page

[colospace]

I really appreciated being able to rotate in my fixture during the covering process. I only put my gear on once all the fabric and tapes were on (no paint as I used Oratex).
Sure was a super feeling to see it on its gear once I got to that point.

[jrevens]

Same as Gary... I didn't want to mount my landing gear, only to have to take it off for covering. I waited until the fuselage was covered (with Oratex also).

[Cherrybark]

Progress seemed to slow to a crawl over the past few days. One of the tasks was installing the floor boards. While match drilling the board and playing with clecos for the first time, I thought "Hey, now I'm really building an airplane!". I'm re-reading other build threads while moving through the build. Esser had the same thought during this stage. It's interesting to be traveling the same path as others on the forum. And I cannot repeat too many times how much I appreciate others documenting their builds.

Like a few others, I fooled around with boats for several years. West System epoxy comes immediately to mind for coating plywood and I had the materials on hand. Most boat work is outdoors and their "Slow" catalyst is favored for extended pot life. In an A/C environment, you have time to kill ever after "painting" all five boards. I used a cheap chip brush and threw it away after each coat. With West you can recoat after the surface reaches "masking tape tacky" so three coats on one side is possible in a day. This is a very useful product and the odor, not objectionable at all, brought several boat projects to mind.

The boards fit too snugly after coating and needed a little trimming. And the center console isn't going to fit without a little sanding. A little touch up epoxy will take care of the raw edges.

Should you decide to try West System, their dispensing pumps are highly recommended. The most common hardener is a 5:1 ratio and the pumps make measurement simple. The pumps can be left in place when stored.

When the front board is actually down that left side doesn't look so bad.

[Cherrybark]

While reading Esser's thread I came across his work to reduce drag in the control stick by shimming the aluminum block on the right hand side. This block needs to be nicely aligned with the white "nylon" block on the left side. Seems easy enough but I fiddled with washers and sanding the nylon off and on over three days before being completely happy. Other work was getting done but the drag kept nagging at me. Everything would be beautifully smooth, final torque, drag! No clue how many times it took but the controls work smoothly now and it was definitely worth the effort.

Tip. The tubing above the cockpit is the same diameter as the control tubing. Cutting a piece of sandpaper and "blue" taping it to this tube makes it easy to do quick sanding of the nylon block. Sand, slide the block onto a clear section of tube, tighten, test for drag, rinse and repeat.

After the third or forth disassembly I realized the nyloc nuts were going to need replacing. Happily, assortments of common bolts, nuts, pins and other "consumables" are just a phone call away. I ended up with washers under all four corners of the aluminum bearing block. As TahoeTim pointed out on the other tread, adding washers often requires slightly longer bolts so threads will extend beyond the nyloc nut. The final assembly included these longer bolts and new nyloc nuts.

[Cherrybark]

It's been years since I did any safety wire work. Here's my version of wiring the flapperon mixer bolt.

[Cherrybark]

After tacking ribs in place with super glue and taping, I whipped up a batch of Hysol, picked up my trusty pate knife and made fillets. A smear of an alcohol dipped finger and I was pretty pleased with the results.

I put stiffeners on every rib that couldn't be glued to a metal rib. It's a little weight but I'm more worried about having secure ribs during covering.

[Cherrybark]

With the stabilizer & elevator ribs in place it was time to varnish. Mixed up a batch of varnish, rolled the work table outside and got to work. It seemed natural to rotate each airframe to vertical then walk from one side to another varnishing one rib at a time. The thinned epoxy did flow nicely - a little too nicely in fact. After the second coat dried I rolled the table back into the shop and noticed just how messy the job had turned out. One downside of flat black powder coating - every tiny drip, splatter and run of shiny epoxy varnish sparkles! A 3M pad knocks off the shine and roughs up the varnish so I'm not worried about adhesion of the fabric glue. But what a mess I made during this step.

Part of the fun of building is that almost every step is a brand new process to learn. Lots of balls in the air at the moment. Rather than playing on the internet, shouldn't I be studying choices of avionics or learning more about engine installations? Hard to plan the critical path of this project schedule with so little experience.

[efwd]

Awesome Carl.
I masked off the entire vertical tail and sprayed my varnish. Pain in the A..
I have used brushes ever since. I too learned about the drips after turning my horizontal over.
Eddie

[Cherrybark]

Work started on the center console installation today. While laying on the floor and threading a long 3/16" bit up through the fuselage to match drill the two aft mounting holes I admitted the bit was almost certainly going to drift and the hole wouldn't be close to nicely placed. Taking a clue from the pre-drilled front mounting tabs I unclamped the console and worked on the mounting tabs from the top - dimpling with a center punch, drilling a small starter hole, and finishing with a 3/16" bit. Then it was back to the floor to match drill the console, but now the long bit had a nice starter hole and the job went well.

I'm concerned about the placement of the "detent" assemblies for the flap and adjustable rudder pedal levers. To put off drilling the rivet holes, I decided to assemble the rudder pedal levers - another job involving drilling a 1/16" hole through a stainless rod. For the flap handle I used a piece of wood with a V-notch to secure the rod. Frankly, I think I got lucky to pass through the middle of the rod and not break the tiny bit. Some time in the past I came across the idea to use a block to hold the rod and guide a bit through the center. A scrap piece of 1 x 4 was drilled with a tight fitting hole for the rod. A pre-drilled pilot hole neatly guided the 1/16" bit right through the middle. No doubt this is old hat for many members but I was pleased to have remembered the idea and wanted to pass it along.

Any comments or photos showing the position of the flap and rudder pedal detent assemblies would be appreciated. That's the next job.