Kitfox Aircraft Stick and Rudder Stein Air Grove Aircraft TCW Technologies Dynon Avionics AeroLED MGL Avionics Leading Edge Airfoils Desser EarthX Batteries Garmin G3X Touch
Page 5 of 47 FirstFirst 12345678915 ... LastLast
Results 41 to 50 of 466

Thread: The Barn Find Build

  1. #41
    Senior Member Eric Page's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
    Location
    Toledo, WA
    Posts
    863

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    Quote Originally Posted by alexM View Post
    I should stop selling my surplus parts until you've had a chance to pick through them.
    Yeah, there's a more than even chance that I'm missing anything you've got extra.

    Hoping to see pics of the welding soon. You've got some catching up to do!
    I'll definitely post pics of the process and I'll probably come knocking on your hangar door, begging to use your rudder torque tube straightening jig.

    Starting Sep 1st my full time job will be Kitfox building, so enjoy your lead while it lasts!
    Eric Page
    Building: Kitfox 5 Safari | Rotax 912iS | Dynon HDX
    Member: EAA Lifetime, AOPA, ALPA
    ATP: AMEL | Comm: ASEL, Glider | ATCS: CTO
    Map of Landings

  2. #42
    Senior Member bbs428's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    SW Missouri
    Posts
    649

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    Nice find on the fuel fittings. Keep on finding and fixing! Soon you'll be in new territory, building the way you want.
    Somebody said that carrier pilots were the best in the world, and they must be or there wouldn't be any of them left alive. — Ernie Pyle

    Brett Butler
    Flying: 1998 Model 5 Outback, 912ul Zipper 110hp, G3x avionics, ss7 upgrades

  3. #43
    Senior Member Eric Page's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
    Location
    Toledo, WA
    Posts
    863

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    Thanks, Brett. I'm definitely looking forward to being done moving backwards.

    -=-=-=-=-=-

    Spent a few hours today scraping Poly-goop from the horizontal stab. It was put on really thick here for some reason, and it seems to have adhered more aggressively that it did on the fuselage. It's looking like a 2 or 3 day job, all in.
    Eric Page
    Building: Kitfox 5 Safari | Rotax 912iS | Dynon HDX
    Member: EAA Lifetime, AOPA, ALPA
    ATP: AMEL | Comm: ASEL, Glider | ATCS: CTO
    Map of Landings

  4. #44
    Senior Member Eric Page's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
    Location
    Toledo, WA
    Posts
    863

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    Today I finished scraping adhesives from the horizontal stabilizer. Almost every joint where a rib meets a tube had a glob of epoxy that made a lump higher than the rib that would show through fabric covering. Many ribs also had epoxy drips on their edges, which also would have shown through. With 64 joints to scrape, plus all the tubes and rib edges, I think I've got twelve hours just in cleaning the horizontal stab. One of the photos below is a before-and-after showing one of the joints. Not all were this bad, but many were.

    I also found a couple of places where the ribs have some issues that I'll correct by bonding small doublers to their sides. Another photo shows one of these places; I have no idea what happened there, but it's an unacceptable mess. I plan to cut out the errant piece of plywood and sandwich the gap between two small pieces of plywood that overlap the rib by 1/2" or so on both sides of the gap.

    It still needs a good wipe-down with acetone, and there are a few of the rib-to-tube joints that would benefit from a little Superfil and sanding before re-covering.

    This evening I dug out some scrap pieces of 1-1/2" rigid insulation foam and cut them up with a miter saw to make mock-ups of all the Dynon remote avionics boxes (last photo). Since I'm taking the fuselage to a welder anyway, I might as well figure out where everything is going to mount first, then I can specify locations for additional welded mounting tabs.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Eric Page
    Building: Kitfox 5 Safari | Rotax 912iS | Dynon HDX
    Member: EAA Lifetime, AOPA, ALPA
    ATP: AMEL | Comm: ASEL, Glider | ATCS: CTO
    Map of Landings

  5. #45
    Senior Member Eric Page's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
    Location
    Toledo, WA
    Posts
    863

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    You're not going to believe this, but I got sidetracked from the project for a few weeks.

    I had to get ~6,500 sq ft of landscaping done before the fall rains began and turned the place into a mud hole. I put ~130 plants in the ground, spread 30 cu yds of bark mulch, laid 137 ft of edging brick, excavated a walkway, back-filled and compacted it with 3/4-minus gravel, then topped it with 30 bags of marble chips. It wore me out!

    With that done, I finally got back to the Kitfox, but I did a little more shop preparation first. I cleaned out my garage and moved a bunch of auto and power equipment supplies onto some empty shelves in a spare bedroom closet. That cleared a shelving unit in the garage to get airplane parts off the floor. I also moved bulky airplane parts (tail sections, landing gear, windshield, cowling halves, etc.) into the spare bedroom for storage (being a single guy has one or two advantages...).

    Next I built a workbench to hold a 6" vise and bench grinder that I got for a song at an industrial auction, as well as a new drill press and disc/belt sander (cheapie Chinese, but surprisingly well built). The bench is made from 2x4s held together with Simpson Strong-Tie brackets, which produced a remarkably solid frame. The top is a layer of 3/4" particle board and a layer of 3/4" melamine; the lower shelf is just melamine. I bolted the tools down so they don't walk around, and mounted a box with 4-way receptacle under the top to plug the tools into. An old extension cord with the female end chopped off lets me plug in the whole table. Finally, I put retractable caster wheels (from Amazon) on the legs so it can be rolled around, but sits solidly when in use.

    [Note, if you're in the market for a disc/belt sander: apart from some plastic parts being orange instead of green, the WEN sander that I bought is identical to the Ryobi unit sold at Home Depot, but is ~$50 cheaper on Amazon.]

    With that done, I used some rough-cut lumber that I got free from a friend in the timber business to build wing rotisseries. They're loosely based on the EAA design I posted recently, except I didn't like the widely spaced legs (they looked like a tripping hazard), so mine have a single, central leg. I also didn't see the point of using cable stays to brace the upright, so I used scrap pieces of melamine from the workbench to make gussets instead. My upright posts are 4x4s fabricated from two 2x4s and a piece of 1/2" plywood sandwiched together. I like the EAA design's pivot system, so I'll stick with that. The rotisseries aren't 100% done, as I'm not ready to mount a wing yet; I'll finish them when I do that.

    Finally, some progress on airplane parts: I used the new drill press and a #30 drill to remove all of the rivets from the rudder torque tubes. Unsurprisingly, I found that two of the four plastic bushings are unusable due to the first builder ruining them. With the tubes apart, I used a wire wheel and wire cup to remove powder coat from the tube parts in preparation for welding on gussets. I still need to get the tail wheel mount down to bare metal but I'm still on the fence about how to proceed, since the bottom rear half-rib is already bonded in, as is the fiberglass rudder post fairing.

    I also spent an hour or so getting one of the brake calipers cleaned up. Fortunately, it looks (and feels) like the cylinder bores cleaned up well enough to make a seal with new o-rings on the pistons. The outside of the caliper bodies are pretty badly pitted, but I think they can be rescued with some chemical cleaning, followed by body filler and silver paint. Perhaps I'll send them to be powder coated, for the sake of durability. TBD...

    Today I went up to Tacoma to see Alex's "Project 5" (he's doing very nice work, and coming up with some neat ways to do things), then we both went to visit with Nate to see the AeroMomentum AM15 (117hp) installation in his SS7. I was leaning in that direction before the visit, and I was pretty impressed with what I saw. The engine looks very well put together, and Nate sounds happy with it after ~22 hours of flying.

    Nate is the Kitfox beta tester for the AM15, and he's only had a couple of small problems. One was a failed radiator that was attributed to the mounting method, but AeroMomentum provided him with an aluminum cage to mount the replacement, and that feels very solid. The second failure was the loss of a tooth on the crank position sensor reluctor. AeroMomentum said they had never seen one fail before and suspected that the part may have been dropped at some point before installation in Nate's engine. They sent him a new one at no cost. Nate said he's had good support from the factory and joked that if he had called them right then (a Sunday afternoon), they would have answered. Performance-wise, Nate said he's seeing ~2,000 fpm initial climb with his 3-blade Luga pitched at 15.5°.

    Alright, time for dinner then back to work!
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Eric Page
    Building: Kitfox 5 Safari | Rotax 912iS | Dynon HDX
    Member: EAA Lifetime, AOPA, ALPA
    ATP: AMEL | Comm: ASEL, Glider | ATCS: CTO
    Map of Landings

  6. #46
    Senior Member bbs428's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    SW Missouri
    Posts
    649

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    Top notch result on the rotisserie and bench! Mine works well but falls way short in the "looks" dept. Lol. I made mine from the "possible's pile" of metal, lumber and such in back of the shop. Also known as the junk yard.

    Nice find on the bushings and getting the brakes cleaned up!
    Somebody said that carrier pilots were the best in the world, and they must be or there wouldn't be any of them left alive. — Ernie Pyle

    Brett Butler
    Flying: 1998 Model 5 Outback, 912ul Zipper 110hp, G3x avionics, ss7 upgrades

  7. #47
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2017
    Location
    Mapleton,UT
    Posts
    1,224

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    Looking good! Good idea on gusseting those rudder pedals!
    Dustin Dickerson

    Building 7ss STI x 2
    Oratex
    29" shock monster
    EP912STI 155hp
    Garmin
    N33TF......FLYING!
    N53TF......FLYING!

  8. #48
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2020
    Location
    Steilacoom, WA
    Posts
    729

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    I'm envious of that bench. If I had it in my garage I would have to push my plane outside. I have used my drill press a few times and have had a bench grinder on my list, but have used my Milwaukee 12V angle and straight grinders (several times per day actually) and find them indispensable for cutting, shaping, deburring, etc.
    Kitfox 5 (under construction)
    Commercial SE/ME, CFII

  9. #49
    Senior Member Kitfox Pilot's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Location
    Spring Garden Illinois
    Posts
    859

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    Looking good Eric, looks like you have the build headed your way now.
    Harlan and Susan Payne
    Sold Piper Archer
    Flying FarmFox STI Kitfox N61HP
    Rotax 915is, Airmaster prop
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5A...oCVUP15G0uB-Yw

  10. #50
    Senior Member Eric Page's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
    Location
    Toledo, WA
    Posts
    863

    Default Re: The Barn Find Build

    Quote Originally Posted by bbs428 View Post
    Top notch result on the rotisserie and bench! Mine works well but falls way short in the "looks" dept. Lol. I made mine from the "possible's pile" of metal, lumber and such in back of the shop. Also known as the junk yard.
    Yeah, that's pretty much what mine was made from. The lumber was useless for anything else and had been cluttering up my garage since the house was finished over a year ago. I had three sticks left that I cut into pieces and gave to my next door neighbor for his fire pit!

    Quote Originally Posted by alexM View Post
    I'm envious of that bench. If I had it in my garage I would have to push my plane outside. I have used my drill press a few times and have had a bench grinder on my list, but have used my Milwaukee 12V angle and straight grinders (several times per day actually) and find them indispensable for cutting, shaping, deburring, etc.
    The drill press was really handy for removing the powder coat. I just put a small wire wheel in the chuck and that let me use both hands to control the parts; much easier than holding the part in one hand and a drill in the other. I haven't found a use for my angle grinder yet (apart from building the tube straightener), but I did buy a finger sander, which I figured would be handy for cleaning up the plates where the rudder torque tubes mount.
    Eric Page
    Building: Kitfox 5 Safari | Rotax 912iS | Dynon HDX
    Member: EAA Lifetime, AOPA, ALPA
    ATP: AMEL | Comm: ASEL, Glider | ATCS: CTO
    Map of Landings

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •