| Date |
|
| 1 |
Waiting... |
| 2 |
Waiting... |
| 3 |
Waiting... |
| 4 |
Waiting... |
| 5 |
Waiting... |
| 6 |
Waiting... |
| 7 |
Waiting... |
| 8 |
At last - picked up my S-19 empennage kit from Fedex terminal. It
was the best looking crate on the whole loading dock. Kudos to Rans for
an excellent packing job. |
| 9 |
No work - least not on the S-19 |
| 10 |
Unpacked the empennage kit crate and checked the inventory. (My son
who is just finishing up his A&P program helped - it's good to have
someone who knows more then I do around...) Assembled and read the
manuals. Located the parts for the vertical stabilizer and laid out on
the bench. |
| 11 |
Did the initial assembly of the vertical stabilizer. Found that I
need fluting pliers to straighten the ribs, so I ordered them and
continued working on the assembly. Started building a
priming booth out of the crate and scrap
lumber. Just to have a sense of accomplishment in spite of not having
the fluting pliers, I deburred and primed the the small stiffener angle
for the forward spar. Initial priming done with zinc chromate directly
on Scotch-brited aluminum - adhesion is not the best so I will be
experimenting. I have spent several weeks reading all of the conflicting
information/opinions (and worse) on the web regarding corrosion control
for aluminum. Ended the day by ordering the fluting pliers.
|
| 12 |
Continued work on priming booth while waiting for fluting pliers. |
| 13 |
Transfer drilled all of vertical stabilizer forward spar. Installed
rib stiffeners. Disassembled and deburred all parts. |
| 14 |
Bought a can of DuPont 4115S self-etching primer. Primed some parts
with 4115S following by an overcoat of zinc chromate. With a little
Scotch-brite on the aluminum, adhesion is excellent and the 4115S dries
quite hard. (Note the 4115S is pretty nasty stuff - I am using a
respirator for all priming.) |
| 15 |
Finished priming of forward spar assembly parts. |
| 16 |
Reassembled vertical stabilizer forward section and riveted. I am
using the Marston rivet gun - what a great tool. However, it did not
work initially, and took me about an hour initially to figure out that
it was stuck in the retracted position from the factory. I freed it by
connecting it directly to my tank air pressure (~150psi) and cycling it
a couple of times. Started working on rear spar assembly. NOTE - DO NOT
transfer drill #30 the side holes on the spar like I did! The manual says
"all holes except where ribs attach", but it should NOT include the holes where the skins will
attach. This made transfer drilling of the skins MUCH more difficult.
Unpacked the skins and found the corner was bent in shipping. Was able
to straighten this reasonably well, however, I will be asking Rans if
there are any problems with the 6061-T6 being bent like that.
|
| 17 |
Primed rear spar assembly parts. |
| 18 |
Assembled the vertical stabilizer frame and riveted. Now we have
something that looks like part of an airplane !  |
| 19 |
Made padded pliers by welding thin bar stock to the jaws of a $3
pair of slip-joint pliers, and then covering each jaw with heavy-wall
heatshrink tubing. Got all vertical stabilizer rib flanges straightened.
Formed side skin stiffeners, transfer drilled to side skins, then
deburred and primed stiffeners. |
| 20 |
Riveted skin stiffeners to side skins. Assembled and transfer
drilled both side skins. Disassembled, deburred, and reassembled. Fitted
forward skin to vertical stabilizer frame. Took a couple of tries to
finally massage the front bend so the skin would fit reasonably well. Transfer
drilled to side skins and front spar, then started positioning and
drilling the forward ribs. Discovered that 220 1/8" Clecos is not
enough...
|
| 21 |
Finished drilling of forward skin. Disassembled in preparation for
deburring. Purchased HVLP spray gun for priming - will try it out for
the first time tomorrow. |
| 22 |
Started the inital rudder assembly so that the parts could be primed
along with the vertical stabilizer skins. Transfer drilled, disassembled
and deburred. Primed vertical stabilizer skins and rudder parts with
VeriPrime (except steel rudder torque tube done with zinc chromate). Was
very impressed with how well the Veriprime works - was not impressed
with my spraying skills but that will improve with practice. :-)
Reassembled vertical stabilizer and riveted. One rivet had a malformed
head that was not noticed until after it was installed, so that will
need to be replaced. Some of the rivets on the lower part of the rear
spar (see notes for May 16th above) ended up with their heads not quite
flush. Sent an email to RANS tech support to get their recommendation.
Marked the questionable rivets with masking tape and a sharpie - will
come back to them later once I hear from RANS.
Reassembled and riveted the rudder parts. All rivets into steel were
placed wet with zinc chromate. Reamed bushings on rudder to 3/16".
|
| 23 |
No work |
| 24 |
Built rudder jig and assembled rudder frame and trailing edge.
Fitted rudder skins and transfer drilled. Decided not to transfer drill
the forward face of the trailing edge until after all of the ribs and
skins were clecoed. Unfortunately, this requires a 12" #40 bit, which is
on order from ATS.
Identified and laid out the stabilator parts - will start work on that
while waiting to finish the rudder.
|
| 25 |
Worked on straightening the stabilator ribs. |
| 26 |
Finished straightening the stabilator ribs. Marked edges of all ribs
and the spar. Formed the spar bars to sit in the spar angles. Clamped spar
angles into spar in preparation for drilling. |
| 27 |
Transfer drilled #40 spar angles to spar.
|
| 28 |
Continued assembly of stabilator frame. Noted that KPHS0048 is shown with 8 holes in the assembly drawing, but actually has 10 holes.
 |
| 29 |
Finished drilling rudder.
 |
| 30 |
Disassembled, deburred, and primed all rudder components. Reassembled and riveted.
 |
| 31 |
No work |
