Thursday, January 5, 2012
Wing Installation Fixtures Complete
January 2, 2012 - Wing Stands on Wheels!
Woke up to a strange sight: really dense ground hugging fog covering the LA Basin, but ending just about a half a mile from my house. The tops of buildings and a crane were poking above the fog.
Then, after breakfast, took the family to the South Coast Botanic Garden, where I took this idyllic photo of children frolicking along the main thoroughfare through the gardens, laughing and holding hands.
Of course two seconds after this photo was taken, Brandon and Audrey tripped over each other and piled up on the asphalt, skinning Brandon's knee and leaving Audrey with a cut lip, and bleeding profusely from the mouth. Clearly it was time to change gears and go work on the Bearhawk.
Lisa and I took up where Don and I left off on New Year's Day, installing the leg extenders on Wing Stand #2. When they were both on wheels, we rolled them out on the ramp for a PR shoot:
The long spindly legs combined with the uneven ramp surface made the fixtures appear to tilt at crazy angles, so we rolled them right back inside.
All that's left now is to complete the crossbracing to give these fellas enough stiffness and strength to roll around with a wing on top.
Then, after breakfast, took the family to the South Coast Botanic Garden, where I took this idyllic photo of children frolicking along the main thoroughfare through the gardens, laughing and holding hands.
Of course two seconds after this photo was taken, Brandon and Audrey tripped over each other and piled up on the asphalt, skinning Brandon's knee and leaving Audrey with a cut lip, and bleeding profusely from the mouth. Clearly it was time to change gears and go work on the Bearhawk.
Lisa and I took up where Don and I left off on New Year's Day, installing the leg extenders on Wing Stand #2. When they were both on wheels, we rolled them out on the ramp for a PR shoot:
The long spindly legs combined with the uneven ramp surface made the fixtures appear to tilt at crazy angles, so we rolled them right back inside.
All that's left now is to complete the crossbracing to give these fellas enough stiffness and strength to roll around with a wing on top.
January 1, 2012 Progress
Lisa, Don, and I Spent about 1.5 hours on the morning of New Year's Day working on the Bearhawk. First task was installing legs on Wing Stand #2. This was mostly Don and Lisa drilling indiscriminately while I covered my eyes.
In parallel, we got the Varner miter saw up running, and used it to cut leg extenders from pressure-treated 4x4 purloined from a long-abandoned Swamptooth landscaping project. Unfortunately we ran out of lumber and had to take a very long long lunch break to steal another 4x4 from my front yard.
After cutting to length, with nice square ends thanks to the Varner saw, we drilled out holes for the casters, using a drill block intended for rivet removal, clamped to the square end of the post:
Next we enlarged the pilot hole with a worn-out 1/4" bit and then a 5/16 spade bit before threading in the caster (obtained at no cost from the Varner Compound).
Next was the tricky part: getting the leg extenders properly positioned onto the fixtures. To do this we initially eyeballed the height and clamped them up. By this time it was just Don and me.
We then fine tuned the height of each leg and reclamped everything to drill bolt holes to attach the extenders. We got one stand done and partially crossbraced before Kent came over and our productivity ground to a halt.
We didn't keep careful track of hours, but the 2nd half was from about 6:30 to 9:30, so 3 hours times 2 belly buttons. Total project time for the day: 3 x (1.5) + 2 x (3) = 10.5 hours.
In parallel, we got the Varner miter saw up running, and used it to cut leg extenders from pressure-treated 4x4 purloined from a long-abandoned Swamptooth landscaping project. Unfortunately we ran out of lumber and had to take a very long long lunch break to steal another 4x4 from my front yard.
After cutting to length, with nice square ends thanks to the Varner saw, we drilled out holes for the casters, using a drill block intended for rivet removal, clamped to the square end of the post:
Next we enlarged the pilot hole with a worn-out 1/4" bit and then a 5/16 spade bit before threading in the caster (obtained at no cost from the Varner Compound).
Next was the tricky part: getting the leg extenders properly positioned onto the fixtures. To do this we initially eyeballed the height and clamped them up. By this time it was just Don and me.
We then fine tuned the height of each leg and reclamped everything to drill bolt holes to attach the extenders. We got one stand done and partially crossbraced before Kent came over and our productivity ground to a halt.
We didn't keep careful track of hours, but the 2nd half was from about 6:30 to 9:30, so 3 hours times 2 belly buttons. Total project time for the day: 3 x (1.5) + 2 x (3) = 10.5 hours.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wing Stand On Its Feet
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Waiex Christmas
Christmas gift to myself: about 20 minutes of project planning on the Waiex. Sonex provides only hard copies of the drawings, so to really get organized I am spending time going through the drawings and distilling them into a digital bill of materials (BOM), which will help me efficiently plan out processing and assembly of the airframe kit parts.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Facing Reality
So to shift the balance, I have set up a satellite workshop in the garage. This little offshoot of the My New Invention Heavy Industries leviathan will be dedicated solely to piece part work on the Waiex on days when I don't make it to the hangar.
One issue though: I still need to run this whole concept by Don, having run off with his drill press and stripped the main facility of key capital equipment that may be needed for the Bearhawk.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Wing Installation Fixture Hardware
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