| day |
notes |
hours |
| 1 |
Cut out the 4 strips of BID marked up yesterday, plus a couple of small patches for the lower bulkhead. Lay them out on pieces of polyethylene sheet. Mix 2 strokes of epoxy and add 3 doses of flox to make it just non-slumping. Butter into outside rear corners of containment bulkhead. Mix 4 strokes epoxy and wet out first pair of BID strips. Lay onto side and rear of bulkhead, then remove polyethylene sheet. Stipple into good contact and add peel-ply. Repeat mix, wet-out & layup for other side. Mix 2 strokes epoxy and wet out both layers of BID on top of lower containment bulkhead. Paint most of remainder onto inside faces of main bulkhead. Erect curing tent and set fan heater thermostat to 3.5, giving 27C, 50% RH shortly afterwards. 27C, 21% RH by bedtime but not yet fully cured so leave fan heater on. |
1440.7 |
| 2 |
32C, 17% RH; layups well cured so turn off heat. Some of the epoxy painted on the inside faces has crept under the bottom surface and needs to be rubbed down. Remove peel-ply. Trim glass edges with padsaw & diamond bit in Dremel. Smooth flush to wood with Perma-Grit files. |
1441.3 |
| 4 |
File off surplus epoxy that has crept onto unwanted areas of containment bulkhead. Drill through the holes of the stop and the lower bulkhead. Realise the lower bulkhead holes are too close to the sides to allow the AN970-3 washers to fit and so will need to be re-positioned. Assemble in position and check for clearances - seems OK, between 0.5 & 3mm. |
1441.7 |
| 5 |
Turn down a piece of 6mm wood dowel to 4.8mm, for filling now unwanted holes in containment bulkhead. Mark and drill new holes that will keep washers as far away as possible from flox corner while not protruding beyond edge of bulkhead. Try washers; they need bending at one edge to fit snugly against the flox corner. Assemble it all in-situ and check clearances - all OK. Mark final position on fuselage floor for bracket location. BID patches for brackets will need to be about 80mm wide with 2 off 45mm flanges, ie 80mm x 90mm overall. |
1442.3 |
| 6 |
Cut the 4.8mm dowel into 2 suitable lengths. Cut to shape and attach, with masking tape, polyethylene sheet around bottom of containment bulkhead. Abrade bonding area of fuselage floor with fine Perma-Grit sheet. Mark and cut 8 pieces of BID 80mm x 90mm. Lay them out in 2 stacks of 4 on polyethylene sheet. Mix 6 strokes (far too much!) of epoxy and wet out BID. Paint fuselage floor with epoxy. Lay BID brackets in place. Apply several layers of peel-ply. Vertical flanges of brackets are tending to flop away from bulkhead, so put small blocks of wood in place to keep them in contact. Set lower bulkhead on polyethylene film and peel-ply. Apply epoxy to inner (redundant) bolt holes and insert dowels. Peel-ply around dowels. Apply epoxy to inside faces of bent AN970-3 washers and hold them in place against the rear of the bulkhead with a couple of spare 10-32 screws and nuts. Construct polyethylene sheet tent around bulkhead and set fan heater in place at thermostat 2.5. 15C, 49% RH at first, rapidly reaching 28C, 30% RH. |
1444.5 |
| 7 |
Turn off heat in the morning; 39C, 9% RH. Remove wooden blocks (with some effort - should have put polyethylene sheet between them and the peel-ply). Remove peel-ply. Mark and drill 4.8mm holes in the BID brackets & bulkhead sides with the Tight-Fit right-angle drill adaptor. |
1444.9 |
| 8 |
Remove the bulkhead and the polyethylene sheet and clean up the places where epoxy has crept away from bonding areas & under bottom of bulkhead. Trial assemble the lower bulkhead - looks fine. Remove that again and trial assemble the main bulkhead onto the BID brackets with the AN3-5A bolts, AN970-3 washers and temporary nuts. Trim rear edges of BID brackets with diamond burr in Dremel. |
1445.4 |
| 11 |
Dismantle the containment bulkhead from the BID brackets. Clean up the top and front edges of the brackets with Perma-Grit block. Find 8 more spare 10-32 screws and grease them, along with 10 nuts. Mix 1 stroke epoxy and paint onto washers, assembling them against the various parts with the spare 10-32 screws and nuts. Lay the bulkhead down in the fuselage aft of the brackets and lay polyethylene sheet over to form a curing tent. Set fan hear going at thermostat 3.5. 23C, 41% RH within a few minutes. |
1446.6 |
| 12 |
Remove temporary screws holding washers while bonding. One washer falls off - must not have been clamped tightly enough. Clean up and replace in position with rapid epoxy. Tighten temporary screw just a bit more than finger-tight this time to make sure the washer is pressed against the bulkhead. Assemble bolts onto bulkhead and leave lying down in fuselage so as not to be a hazard. Remove swinging arm from landing gear frame. Mark, centre-pop and drill port top hole 2.5mm, then open up to 4.8mm. Order a new-shape cowl from Neville Eyre & send deposit for it by online transfer. |
1447.8 |
| 25 |
Mark and drill starboard upper hole in landing gear mounting frame, as for port. Similarly mark and drill the 2 holes in each bottom leg of the frame. |
1448.7 |
| 28 |
Cut out rest of wheel well shape with diamond burr on Dremel. Clear all the accumulated stuff out of the fuselage, vacuum up most of the dust, and tilt onto starboard side. Measure & mark line 790mm back from firewall across bottom of fuselage for aft end of wheel well. Trim starboard side of wheel well; use diamond blade in oscillating saw to start blind ends; cut main sections with 18TPI hacksaw blade in padsaw handle. |
1450.6 |
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