| day |
notes |
hours |
| 1 |
Start to trial assemble CS12 aileron link pushrod to CS08s. Find I haven't got any EURO01 washers in the small drawer units, so get box 3 out of trailer and put EURO01 washers and other fasteners into the small drawer units. Fit plain nuts to all CS04 and CS06 bolts and tighten up to check torque tubes still rotate freely. All fine, so remove plain nuts, paint stiffnuts with Duralac and assemble all CS04 and CS06 fasteners, with AN960-10L washers adjacent to all Tufnol surfaces. Temporarily assemble CS12 with plain nuts. Seems almost correct with the rod-end bearings screwed fully home. Check alignment of CS08s with straightedge across both. They come into line when each rod-end bearing is undone one turn from fully home. Tighten the checknuts at that setting. Whole roll control system now falling to centre under its own weight (even without the CS01s) so I reckon the friction is sufficiently low. Put a dab of inspector's lacquer on all CS04 & CS06 securing nuts. Find a scrap of chipboard with a hole part-bored in it big enough to accommodate the boss on CS10C and drill through 5/16". Pass AN4-7A bolt through to retain CS10C and anchor nut against chipboard for drilling. Drill rivet holes 3.3mm. The 3.3mm bit is still not behaving well, so drill through first with the old 3.2mm bit and then open up with the 3.3mm one. (A later look at the 3.3mm bit under a loupe shows the cutting edges look almost as though they have been ground down - ie the workpiece seems to have been harder than the drill bit! Will need to re-grind it before trying to use it again. Glad I bought a couple of them.) Use one rivet to keep the anchor nut in place while drilling 2nd hole in each CS10C. Paint back of anchor nuts with Duralac, dip rivets in Duralac and pull up. |
1103.7 |
| 3 |
Clean out the inside of CS10 with repeated push-throughs of an acetone-soaked tissue. Likewise clean up outside. Spray inside with zinc chromate aerosol. Degrease CS10Cs. Mix a batch of Araldite 2012 but only get one CS10C flange buttered before it starts to exotherm and goes off. Just time to insert the CS10C into CS10 before it gells too stiff. Position CS10C as flush with end of CS10 as possible. After a short break, that has cured well enough to handle. Mix a smaller batch of Araldite 2012 and apply it a bit more quickly to 2nd CS10C. Insert into CS10, and to ensure trueness this time stand CS10 upright on slightly-open vise jaws so that CS10C boss and rivets lie between the jaws and the peripheral face of CS10C can rest on the jaws flush with the CS10 tube. Clear all tools and stuff that have accumulated on the bottom of the cockpit module and lift it into fuselage bottom moulding. It's starting to feel a bit heavier now! Try sitting in it without cushions to roughly check stick movements but I think I will leave drilling the sticks until much later when I have a better idea of how thick both the back and seat cushions need to be and thus where my legs will finish up. |
1105.0 |
| 4 |
During a gap in the persistent rain, bring box 8, box 15 and some old spare cushions into the garage from the trailer. Discover that there is no dimension called out in the manual for the distance of the rivet holes for CS10C from the end of CS10, so post a query about it on the Matronics e-mail list. Cut 4 off 1" lengths of the EURO10 pieces for CS09As and file sawn ends smooth. Check fit of rivets in CS09B and CS09. Holes in bracket are fine, but those in bearing need to be eased slightly. |
1105.6 |
| 5 |
Matronics list posting reports the CS10C flange is 12.5mm, so decide to make the holes 7.5mm from the end of CS10. Mark, centre-pop and drill 4 holes at each end of CS10 with 3.2mm bit and open them up with (as yet unused) 3.3mm bit. Also open up tight holes in CS09Bs and in CS15s. Clamp CS09A plate on top of vise jaw with a scrap of steel sheet and file the edge to fit CS09 curve. Takes quite a while to get it good enough. Repeat for other 3 CS09As. Trim edges of CS09As flush with CS09. Scuff-sand bonding areas with emery cloth. Mix 2.5g + 1g (got it right this time by decanting hardener first) of older Redux and butter onto CS09As. Assemble and clamp up. Bring into airing cupboard for cure overnight. |
1108.7 |
| 6 |
File some of the recent epoxy and Redux samples. CS09/09A assemblies well cured now, bring down to garage and unclamp. Clean up a few bits of Redux excess and drill mounting holes through. Dip pop rivets in Duralac and fit to CS10 assembly, pulling up gradually in sequence as advised in manual. (Suspect that may be redundant advice, perhaps dating from before use of "liquid shim", since once the rapid epoxy has cured, the CS10C is not going to move relative to the CS10.) Paint bearing flange with Duralac and fit to CS15P. Paint rivets with Duralac and insert. First attempt to set one using the 1-ton arbour press is surprisingly ineffective. Change to the old anvil and 4-lb club hammer and most set reasonably OK with that. However, 2 are definitely not right - the shop heads are slightly offset and have got shear lines across them at about 45 degrees (had they hardened in storage? - they're not supposed to). On one of those the manufactured head has also been chipped where it must have bounced off the rivet set. Drill out those two, using the dimple in the manufactured head to centre a 1.8m drill, and then taking it out to 3.2mm which removes the rivet cleanly. Duralac another couple of rivets and insert. This time try squeezing them in the vise. That works well for the first one, but the second one wants to bend rather than squeeze - must have got it slightly off square at the start. Revert to anvil and mallet and with carefully-angled blows manage to get it straightened and partially-form the shop head. A final squeeze with the vise gets it well home. Stop here and consider that what's needed is proper support so the job stays square to the driving force, and that an extended nose on the arbour press would make it easier to arrange good support. A longer operating lever, while not necessary for force multiplication, would also provide better control of the press movement. Find a suitable length of thick-wall steel tube to slip over the lever. Cut a 24mm x 24mm piece out of some 1/2" steel plate to match end of arbour. Cut 1" off the end of an 8mm steel rod from the scrap box and face the end true. Drill the steel plate to take it. Cross-drill through both for a retaining split-pin. Cut a piece of thin steel sheet to connect the new nose to the striking end of the arbour. Drill and tap steel plate for M3 retaining screws. Clamp assembly to arbour, drill and tap face for M3 screws. Assemble arbour press again. Bandsaw some pieces of wood to act as steadies - about 6.5mm for between rivet set holder and workpiece, and about 26mm for between anvil and workpiece. Realise the standard anvil is going to obstruct the work in some riveting positions, so remove it and substitute a 30mm thick slice of 100mm diameter round steel which can be slid around as required on the press base. Paint Duralac onto bearing and assemble onto CS15S. Paint rivets and insert. For each rivet, set up the job with at least 3 wooden spacers to keep it square. Rivets can now be set squarely and easily. Find that although the extended lever adds momentum for striking, it's better to just use a steady pressure as that avoids any problems from bounces. Had to drill out another rivet with a damaged dome head in order to learn this lesson! Proceed to the self-aligning bearing on CS09 and rivet them both in a similar way. Clean off excess Duralac, taking care to keep the white spirit out of the bearings. |
1114.4 |
| 9 |
Put a cushion in the cockpit module port seat pan and sit in to check stick movement for deciding exact orientation of sticks in CS01. Find that there is only about 230mm lateral movement before CS07/08 graunches against the fuselage floor (as compared to the 280mm unobstructed movement called out in the manual). There is no interference without my weight on it. Even just pressing down with my hand on the aft end of the tunnel enclosing CS05 causes the same problem. It's because there is a depression in the fuselage floor where the seat-back flange sits, between 2 areas of brown foam. Send e-mail to Ian Rickard about Mod 72 reamer and etch-primer. Send e-mail to Graham Singleton about metal fuel pipe mod. |
|
| 11 |
Phone factory about the control obstruction. Roger says it's probably OK and will not be a problem once the cockpit module is glued in. |
|
| 13 |
Still not happy about the control restriction, and about the way that the mating between the cockpit module and the fuselage lower moulding seems very haphazard. Take some pictures of the cockpit module in-situ and of the witness marks on the lower moulding, in preparation for making a posting on the Matronics e-mail list. |
|
| 22 |
After a week in bed with a fever which put everything on hold, take more photos of cockpit module control restriction problem and post a query on the Matronics e-mail list. |
|
| 23 |
While considering the replies to my query on the Matronics e-mail list, realise that the instructions in the manual for checking control freedom are separate from the bit about stick alignment, and do not involve sitting in it. Thus my fears are probably groundless, provided that I don't clamp the cockpit module down at the rear of the seats. It looks as though the cockpit module bonding will require very thick layers of Redux in places and much thinner in others, as several posters note. Filing off a tiny bit more at the corners of CS07/08, down to the edge of the screw heads and washers, would probably be a good idea, if I could manage not to get any swarf into the bearings. |
|
| 25 |
Start planning logistics for spar cup & bush work. Phone Roger at factory about part of CS14 instructions I don't understand. He refers me to Neville, who says the pulling back of the screwed rod is to make sure it's not touching the spar hole & so possibly deflecting the CS14 - it must have good alignment without any external pressures. Neville also gives advice about bonding in the cockpit module. Get CS14s out of trailer and find some long 1/4" BSW screws for alignment as I have only metric studding. Organise help for tomorrow in moving layup table so I can get at the wings. |
|
| 26 |
In the morning clear some of the accumulated plumbing and other stuff from the floor under the trestle table at the back (north) end of the garage. In the afternoon, Ian, Philip and Harry arrive to help. Open the gates and move the trailer forwards (so the table will be on the paved area, not the grass, when it comes off the end of the ramp). Lower the ramp and the jacks, remove the fuselage top, the dolly and other things blocking the egress of the layup table. Lift the door and worktop off the layup table. Roll the table out and onto the patio. Close up the trailer, retract the jacks and move it back again to leave room for the table to pass alongside. Roll the table out to the front. Move the bike etc out of the front of the garage. Roll the fuselage lower moulding out onto the front drive. Carry the cockpit module round to the back lawn. Harry has the bright idea of tying back the polyethylene curtains which makes things easier. Clear the remaining stuff from under the trestle table and move it towards the front. Vacuum-clean the now empty back end. Roll the layup table into the garage and slide the door off the top of the trestle table onto the layup table. Fold the trestle table and roll the layup table towards the back. Bring the piece of worktop from the lawn and slide it onto the layup table, under the door. Take the blue foam off the other door and likewise slide it onto the layup table top. Finally fold the trestle table and slide it onto the layup table. There's room at the back end of the layup table for the bandsaw. Move the fuselage top moulding, dolly, etc back into the trailer, leaving just enough room at the entrance for the cockpit module stood on end. After the others have gone, check through the metal stock bucket and find the offcuts of 1" aluminium tube from the lateral pushrods to make spacers for the spar bush alignment operation. Also find some old imperial copper tube that might be even better. Check that I have some suitable large washers in stock; M12 ones fit the 1/2" UNC bolt OK. Re-pack metal stock bucket and put remaining things back into garage; some will need re-arrangement later. |
|
| 27 |
Get cockpit module, fuselage top moulding and wings out of trailer. Think about how to support the wings in the right position for the spar pin bush bonding. Check spar cup instructions again - only the cup for the tip of the port spar is to have an enlarged hole on one side to clear the adjacent bush. However, the drawings in chapter 27 of my paper manual seem to show that the other one is also relieved on one side. A check of the PDF manual shows different drawings, with only the one side of one spar cup relieved, so I will assume the words are correct. Don't seem to have any suitable tool to enlarge the hole from 1/2" to 1"; will have to see what's available from Screwfix or Buck & Hickman. Check the fit of the bushes in the cockpit module and relieve the holes very slightly so they will push in but don't have to be forced. Consider building ramps to run the wing dollies onto to get the height right - too much work. Consider using the adjustable stands to support the wings on rods or tubes inserted in the wingtip holes. Find another piece of aluminium tube similar to one already used. To match the height of the seatback, the spars need to be about a metre above the ground. Extend the stands and do a trial lift. Very tricky to keep wing upright. Could clamp or screw pieces of wood to top of stands to restrain wing, but the bases of the stands themselves are not really wide enough to provide enough stability. Finally decide to make carpet slings using a couple of old pallets as bases. Find 4 similar pieces of wood to make uprights, and a piece 95mm x 25mm for wedges. Bandsaw that into pairs of 4 degree-wedges. Clamp wedges and uprights to central spar of pallet and drill through for M10 bolts. Cut short pieces of wood to clamp carpet to top of uprights and drill through for M10 coach bolts. Clamp one end of carpet first, then adjust hanging loop of carpet to about 550mm about ground level, cutting slots to allow adjusting later as needed. Try lifting wing onto sling and it works well, with good stability. The wing balances with the sling positioned just outboard of the middle flap hinge. File down the spars to fit the spar cups, chamfer the spar ends and check that the 1/2" UNC bolt passes through with the cups in place. Strangely, the starboard bush seems thicker than the port one. Both cups slide over the bush on the end of the port spar easily, but not over the one on the starboard spar. Take the sharp edges off the sides of the spar cups with a fine file to ease entry, and spring the starboard one slightly so it rubs less on the faces of the spar bush. Run out of daylight so put everything back into the trailer. Haven't managed to get the fuselage top moulding as far in as it was, so have to put box 9 between the legs of the dolly (after removing fuselage support mouldings). Not enough room for cockpit module aft of dolly so put a sheet of plywood on top of box 9 and put cockpit module on that. Just room to put new wing supports on each side of box 9. |
1116.5 |
| 29 |
Weather looks fair today, but forecast poor for next few days. Decide to take Graham Singleton's advice and do the spar bush stuff indoors. The concrete floor will be much more stable than the lawn, there's no danger of wind movement and I didn't really want to leave a fan heater running in a tent outside on the lawn all night to cure the Redux. Take fuselage upper moulding, cockpit module and other parts obstructing wings out of trailer. Take fuselage lower moulding on its dolly out of garage and round to back. Roll layup table towards west side of garage and re-arrange other stuff to make room for wing. Take starboard wing out of trailer and wheel it round to garage. The dolly just fits, with some persuasion, between the layup table and the box of Speedframe tubing. Take cockpit module into garage. Take port wing from trailer to garage. There is a bit of room to manoeuvre left between the wingtips and the ends of the garage. Assemble fuselage top moulding onto bottom moulding and wheel into trailer, nose first. Put it at one side, leaving plenty of room alongside for access and box storage etc. Retrieve build manual, parts boxes and various pushrods etc from inside fuselage and put back in garage. Put other stuff including old cushions and box 15 back into trailer, apart from wing slings which go into garage. Just starting to rain as I close garage door, so perfect timing! Order rust remover and anti-corrosion fluids from Arc Euro Trade. Order 4-30mm step drill from Buck & Hickman. |
|
| 30 |
Phone Europa factory to check whether they are supplying Graham Singleton's metal fuel system; John says not. Collect step drill from Buck & Hickman, and buy some etch primer aerosol from Karparts. Lift wings onto slings - a bit awkward as not much room for manoeuvre, but not difficult to position sling under spar and then slide it back under wing while lifting spar. Remove wing dollies, allowing wings to balance on slings. Move them together and check that I can get the 1/2" UNF bolts through both spar bushes. Try out the actual rigging pins and find that both of them are slightly larger than the pre-assembly bolts. The one made from a socket-head capscrew with an Allen key welded into it goes into a couple of them with a bit of a push, but the pip pin will only go in one of the 4 bushes at first try. Find that the bushes all have some resin in the bores. Start to scrape it out with a scalpel but that is not effective so use 12.5mm and 1/2" drill bits hand-held, to clean them out. Only clean the pair that will be on the starboard side enough to allow the capscrew pin to enter without force; the pair on the port side need quite a bit of work to remove enough resin for the pip-pin to enter. Line up the spar again and check that both rigging pins will enter at their respective positions. Offer up the cockpit module to check the height of the spars against it - about 70mm more height needed. Lower the wing tips onto the dollies again. Support each spar in turn on a stepladder while unclamping the carpet pieces and cutting new bolt holes 150mm further in. Remove the dollies again and offer up the cockpit module to the spar assembly. Have to remove the bolts and tilt the spars up to get them past the CS08s. Can only get one bolt into the cockpit module bush - looks like the holes are slightly too far apart. Slide cockpit module out of the way and file both bush mounting holes slightly on their inner faces, until each bush is free to move slightly inboard. Try the spar cups for fit again and carefully note which one has to have the hole enlarged, and which side. Swing the bench drill table sideways and clamp to it a piece of wood that fits nicely into the spar cup. Drill out the hole on the forward side of the cup for the port spar tip with the step drill. Even taking it pretty slowly, the bit tends to bind on breakthrough of each step. Have to wind the drill table up a bit part-way through as the stroke is longer than the quill can handle. The step drill just gets the 26mm diameter completed as the 14mm step is about to contact the other side of the spar cup. Looks like the hole drifted a bit (perhaps because of the binding) as it doesn't quite line up with the other one. File it a bit to true it up and clean the edges with the deburrer. Check spar cup positions and notice that the one on the starboard spar tip is very close (a few mm) to the bellcrank bearing. Will need to take care that neither it nor any Redux actually touches the bearing on final assembly. Put bushes in seatbacks and re-position cockpit module to accept bolts and insert them. Try truing the end of the copper pipe and putting it over the bush. It clears the bush but is probably too close to the hole, so switch to the recommended 1" aluminium tube. Check length needed - about 30mm seems good. Cut 2 off 30mm lengths - because of the tube's flexibility, need to advance the screw on the tube-cutter slowly and spin it fast to get a decent cut. Assemble and tighten nuts lightly with a spanner. Check angles of seatback and spars - now within about half a degree. Check positions of CS14s and how the 1/4" screws will work for alignment. Note that because the bracket rocks on the uneven seatback, it's not enough just to position the end of the screw opposite the hole in the spar; it has to be aligned with the bore of the hole. There must be a better way than the (rather poorly-explained) method in the manual, though. |
1120.3 |
go to list of milestones
go to previous page of journal 
go to list of narrative pages
