Mile stone met today!!

[inzersv]

After one year and four months, an EAA Tech advisor inspected my Kitfox SS and gave me the thumbs up to begin covering. I was feeling a little stagnant there for awhile. I am covering with the Stewart System. Today I covered the right wing leading edge with the felt. Monday I will start glueing the fabric. I have the jitters just thinking about it.:D

[GWright6970]

Great news!!!! :D PROGRESS!!!!!!!!!!:)

[68niou1]

Way to go Stan! Congrats! :D

[DesertFox4]

Congrats. Stan. A little effort everyday and those milestone will continue to appear for you.
Good luck with the covering process. I have no experience with the Stewarts process but have heard good things. It may surprise you but the covering was the highlight of my build. You'll enjoy the feeling of rapid progress as the covering goes on. Your dream really takes shape during this part of the build. Have fun.

[inzersv]

Kitfox friends, I ended up having surgery last year and with the nasty cold winter only did some inside work on my panel. But I am now covering. Since I am using the Stewart System, I was wondering if we can rename this thread as Stewart System and those of us using the system could post and share here. I will post some photos as I go along. I started with the elevators as they are fairly easy. They have been heat shrinked to 250 degrees. After trying a Black & Decker from Walmart and another brand from JoAnns Fabric, I finally ordered one from ACS and it arrived today. I have the first blanket on the right wing glued and shrunk to 250 degrees. Tomorrow I will do the second blanket. Hope to hear from others. Good to be back in the build.

[cap01]

I know what you mean about the irons , they can drive you nuts trying to calibrate the temp . then if you can calibrate one the temperature cycles so much your not sure how much you've shrunk the fabric . I deep sixed all the irons and ordered a ski wax iron and solved all those problems .
good luck and have fun

[inzersv]

The iron from ACS seems to work just fine. The right wing is covered and shrunk to 250. Tomorrow I will shrink it to 350 and do the finish tapes and I hope get the UV Sealer on (two cross coats with a brush) and start the 2nd wing.

Cap01 what is unique about the ski wax iron? If it keeps an even temp and can get to the 350 degrees I am interested. The ACS iron is a steam iron so does have an auto shutoff which is a pain.

[cap01]

the wax iron I have goes to 320, which is plenty for me . I don't shrink to 350 . they heat up really fast . the one. I have is the cheap one , since I didn't know anything about them I figured I've spent more than 60 bucks on other things that didn't turn out so well. I forget what the heat tolerance is but it's something crazy like + - 5 degrees . the one I have is 800 w and the better one is 1200w and has a digital temp readout on the handle . not sure the advantage of the 1200w as it's max temp is also 320 f . they aren't shaped like a cloths iron but rather a rectangle with a 1/2 base . these irons were mentioned in the kitplane magazine that had the write up about oratex . I also think these are the irons that oratex will sell you . the cheap one worked great for me on my last project but I regret not popping for the better model with the temp readout .
have fun with your project

[inzersv]

Well folks, I for the life of me don't know why I put myself under such pressure. Rib lacing is a piece of cake and fun! :) Thank you Jeff Bock for your timely phone call yesterday. And I say again, if you fly into Felts Field again, and need to spend the night, we have a bed and victuals. Enjoyed our conversation. Look forward to seeing your SS7.

[inzersv]

Finished rib lacing my right wing and working by myself, it takes me about 30 minutes per rib. I didn't have to do my morning walk this morning; I got it done walking back and forth pulling cord. :p Now I am trying to do the perimeter tape around the elevator without using bias tape. Stewart System video shows that it is real easy. Not for me! :confused: We will try it again tomorrow. I am having so much fun building again. :)

[DesertFox4]

Glad you are enjoying the process Stan.:)

The rib stitching will have to be relearned by yours truly when that time comes around. Too many moves to remember from 13 years ago. I know once you get it into your head it goes pretty quickly.

[inzersv]

What do we do with the rivets that hold the wing tips to the wing? Do you put anti-chaffing tape down or reinforcing tape and then finishing tape?

[inzersv]

Correction, that is the rivets that hold the aluminum strips on for the wing tips.

[jiott]

Those rivets are the flush head type, so if you do a careful job of countersinking the holes there will be nothing sticking up above the surface. I just covered over them with the finishing tapes and all is good. If you want them to be absolutely invisible you coud put a little Superfill over the rivet heads and smooth down perfectly flush. No need for reinforcing or chafing tape in my opinion.