March 24, 2007:
After all pre-assembly final drilling of the tank, Angela
began
the tank disassembly by deburring the zees & one of the the
baffles.
April 10, 2007: One
of the last tank pre-assembly steps we did was countersink
the nutplate attachment holes on the tank attachment zees yet.
We're going to alodine these the same time as the other
parts, so
the nutplates won't come until later.
May 11, 2007:
After alodining everything, and priming a few of the exterior
pieces, we began the riveting with the zees. We
attached all the nutplates to the tank attachment
zees.
March 20, 2007:
We clecoed the ribs, attachment bracket, and stiffeners in
one of the skins, along with positioning the J-stiffener.
March 21, 2007:
We clecoed the second tank to the same point as the first.
March 22, 2007:
During the final drilling of all the other components, I
final
drilled the aft tank inboard rib to the tank attachment bracket and the
tank inboard nose rib using a long #30 bit.
March 20, 2007:
We deburred the baffles with most of the other parts
prior to pre assembly of the tanks.
March 21, 2007: After the J-stiffeners were drilled I slipped the rear baffles in place and clecoed them in. After that, the tank attachment zees were clecoed on. Now, of course it wasn't until everything was clecloed in place that I realized there was this additional hole between two of the normally spaced rivet holes. There's a matching hole in the skin, but its only on the lower surface. A quick check of the rivet assignments and nothing is slated to go in this hole, but it just bothered me... so, I unclecoed the baffle from the second tank and turned it around so this hole would line up with its corresponding hole in the skin.
With the baffles correctly oriented and the zees all in place, I final drilled the zees to the baffles and ribs.
March 21, 2007: After the J-stiffeners were drilled I slipped the rear baffles in place and clecoed them in. After that, the tank attachment zees were clecoed on. Now, of course it wasn't until everything was clecloed in place that I realized there was this additional hole between two of the normally spaced rivet holes. There's a matching hole in the skin, but its only on the lower surface. A quick check of the rivet assignments and nothing is slated to go in this hole, but it just bothered me... so, I unclecoed the baffle from the second tank and turned it around so this hole would line up with its corresponding hole in the skin.
With the baffles correctly oriented and the zees all in place, I final drilled the zees to the baffles and ribs.
March 22, 2007:
During the rest of the pre-assembly final drilling I also
drilled the skin to baffle holes.
March 22, 2007:
I used a #19 drill to open up the screw holes in the fuel
tank skins.
March 23, 2007:
Tonight I went through the monotonous task of countersinking
the
rear baffle to skin rivet holes. These are the only skin
holes to
get countersunk, the rest get dimpled. Although the plans
don't
specifically say it, I think its to ease the installation of the baffle
when its sealed in place later during final assembly. If the
skins were dimpled it would be a real pain trying to squeeze the baffle
into place between the upper & lower skins.
Here's that
'additional hole' I mentioned the other day. I don't plan on
using it so I didn't countersink it.
Labeled!
Also see Fuel Sender info below.
March 24, 2007:
Here's a step the plans don't call out… final
drilling the bearing used
to attach the aileron torque tube to the tank attachment bracket.
Angela deburred
the baffle's holes,
and followed that up by deburring all the stiffener holes.
Then
the rivet holes in the fuel cap flanges were countersunk in order to
accept the dimples that will eventually be put in the skins.
March 29, 2007:
Angela deburred all the stiffener holes and then dimpled them.
April 1, 2007:
Here's another step the plans don't call for... I know the
rivet holes in the rib for
the finger strainer flange need to be final drilled. So, I
went
ahead and clecoed the flanges in place & final drilled the
flanges
with the ribs, and then deburred.
April 6, 2007:
Continuing with the dimpling duties Angela spent a little
time deburring and dimpling a few ribs.
April 7, 2007:
Deburred and dimpled a few more ribs.
April 10, 2007: I wanted to get the last 5 ribs out of the skins, deburred, and dimpled, but didn't quite have the time to dimple them just yet… next time.
April 10, 2007: I wanted to get the last 5 ribs out of the skins, deburred, and dimpled, but didn't quite have the time to dimple them just yet… next time.
One
last thing before quiting for the night, Angela came out and helped
pull the good ole blue plastic off the skins… fun
stuff! I
can't believe we even log time for this… but it does take
time… bummer! One thing I've found
though… if
you're doing it solo (which I did the last little bit), its much easier
if you clamp the skin to your workbench. It frees up both
hands!
April 13, 2007: We had some pretty nasty weather here in North Texas this evening. So, what do you do to get your mind off of tornado sirens?? Well, dimple fuel tank ribs of course! Ok, maybe it didn't happen like that… but Angela did dimple the remaining ribs.
I took on the task of deburring the skin holes… fun stuff… as usual :-(
April 13, 2007: We had some pretty nasty weather here in North Texas this evening. So, what do you do to get your mind off of tornado sirens?? Well, dimple fuel tank ribs of course! Ok, maybe it didn't happen like that… but Angela did dimple the remaining ribs.
I took on the task of deburring the skin holes… fun stuff… as usual :-(
April 20, 2007:
We're alodining everything internal to the tanks, and priming
everything external. Tonight I made a quick attempt to get
everything ready for alodining.
April 22, 2007:
Today
is alodine day. Most builders leave the tank interior bare,
but
we're going the extra mile and alodining eveything. Maybe its
because of my history with rental aircraft and the amount of water I've
seen in the fuel system. It would be nice if I could say ours
will be "perfect" and never see water... but yeah right. So,
like
most of the other primer choices on the plane, it's a peace of mind
thing. Plus, there's the added bonus that the alodine will
help
the adheasion of the proseal. One
thing unique for us about the tanks is we're alodining the
skins.
We haven't done this yet, so it was something new to figure
out.
I tried the "brush on" method by laying the skin on our screen door we
use for priming. The challenge is keeping the skin wet while
keeping yourself dry. All in all, it was a little challenging
maneuvering the skins with the winds. But, it's all done now!
In hindsight, if we were to alodine skins again, I may search for another method, or at least technique. The results were barely acceptable (by my standards at least). The surface treatment is VERY uneven, which by itself is fine, but some areas appear as if they weren't touched at all.
May 11, 2007: Last thing to do before riveting is to prime a bit. I plan to prime the exterior of the ribs and baffle after the tanks are assembled. However, there are some surfaces that are more easily accessible prior to assembly, and a couple of mating surfaces that I'd like to get some primer between. So, the plan is to prime the bearings, the shims, and the tank attachment zees. In the pic you can see the tape attached to each zee where it will be prosealed to the baffles.
After mixing up the primer, and while waiting through it's 'induction period', I brushed some on the tank brackets where the shims and bearings attach. Why didn't I spray these? I didn't feel like taking the time to mask off the portion of these brackets that are internal to the tank (you don't want primer inside the tanks... could flake off and clog the fuel lines)
And hears a shot of one of the zees after priming showing the "primer free" bonding area ;-) On another note… the reason I wanted to prime these things now is because once these things are attached to the baffles it will be next to impossible to prime the underside of the flange with the nutplates (the surface my thumb is on).
In hindsight, if we were to alodine skins again, I may search for another method, or at least technique. The results were barely acceptable (by my standards at least). The surface treatment is VERY uneven, which by itself is fine, but some areas appear as if they weren't touched at all.
May 11, 2007: Last thing to do before riveting is to prime a bit. I plan to prime the exterior of the ribs and baffle after the tanks are assembled. However, there are some surfaces that are more easily accessible prior to assembly, and a couple of mating surfaces that I'd like to get some primer between. So, the plan is to prime the bearings, the shims, and the tank attachment zees. In the pic you can see the tape attached to each zee where it will be prosealed to the baffles.
After mixing up the primer, and while waiting through it's 'induction period', I brushed some on the tank brackets where the shims and bearings attach. Why didn't I spray these? I didn't feel like taking the time to mask off the portion of these brackets that are internal to the tank (you don't want primer inside the tanks... could flake off and clog the fuel lines)
And hears a shot of one of the zees after priming showing the "primer free" bonding area ;-) On another note… the reason I wanted to prime these things now is because once these things are attached to the baffles it will be next to impossible to prime the underside of the flange with the nutplates (the surface my thumb is on).
June 1, 2007:
Ok, I admit, I gave in… I didn't like the way the tank
skins came out so I decided to sand them down and re-alodine. I
didn't scuff them the first time, and… yada, yada, yada…
I'm now more satisfied with the finish, so we're good to go. Done!
