Page 15-07 Build Time: 373 hrs

Page 15-07 Build Time: 373 hrs

Making progress now that I have parts to assemble. Took too long to get to this point but it's a lot of deburing and priming.

Spent 13 hours this weekend working through the spars and ribs. 

 A nice shot of all those hours of working through the ribs. Pretty parts.

Finally attaching the ribs. No problems here. It took a while to get back in the grove of assembling - reading everything three times until no mistakes are found.

 This section takes some getting use to. Left parts on right side with right doubler on left rib... Just follow along and check ahead and behind for direction. I suppose if I thought about it long enough it would make sense. Here's the right main almost done.

 The right spar is done and back up in the rafters. The Left will take a bit more as I fiddle with the stall switch and fit the landing light.

Page 15-02 Build Time: 342 hrs

Still in section 15 - grinding through the ribs. I've finished the FWD ribs and have the left main ribs debured. I figure 2 to 3 more days until I can assemble the main spar.

Had to take a few weekends off to deal with the Cessna. Pulled the engine out due to a broken cylinder stud. Led to splitting the case, replacing the cam and buying a new prop. The good side is I found it on the ground and not in the air and the wife says hurry up and finish the new plane - the 152 is too needy.

Page 15-02 Build Time: 314 hrs

Making progress on the FWD ribs. Had a productive day yesterday but still quite a ways to go before I'll be attaching these to the spar.

Only a small pile of FWD ribs left to deburr. Still need to scuff, flute and prime. I'll get the aft ribs to the same point before primer.

Page 15-02 Build Time: 307 hrs

Section 14 complete. On to the ribs!

Rear spars finished and looking good.

Rivets look good.

 Got through cutting off the required pieces of all the forward ribs. I read the entire section carefully and when it got to attaching the right ribs to the left spars I thought it didn't make sense. Once I read it all it does make sense. They just call ribs that point one way - inboard I believe - right and left. I managed to get 5 of them deburred. It won't take too long since they don't have too many deep slots in the flanges. Most of the debur will happen on the wheel and I've been finishing up with a scotch brite wheel on the die grinder. The lightning holes do need an initial prep since they're pretty rough. I haven't fluted any parts yet. I'll leave that until after they are scuffed since that interferes with the pad and makes it a little harder. I plan on using the "2 inch" method on you tube and see how that works out.

Page 14-02 Build Time: 299 hrs

Found the finished RV 12 at AirVenture and met Richard. I spent quite a bit of time looking over the plane. The paint is awesome. I went back early in the morning the next day and crawled around it. Sat in it for a while and laid under it just looking around. My first impression was how big it was. I'm so use to seeing bits and pieces that the finished product looked huge. I also love this color. I was planning on the current Toyota blue but a little darker looks very nice. Can't say enough about the lines on this paint job. I'd hate to just copy it but it looks fantastic. There was another finished 12 at the show that was built by the high school kids. I compared the edges of each to see if I'm obsessing over deburing - I'm not. The SLSA was what I expected given what I've seen from the finished parts in the kit. The school version was a bit over done as I would have expected. I'm somewhere in the middle and on track I believe.

Nearly complete with section 14. Just have to finish out riveting the rear spar. I noticed that one of the berrings is binding a bit on the aileron bracket so I'll take that apart and redo it. Shouldn't be too big a deal since it uses #4 rivets and they come out pretty nicely. The bind came from trying to get the 426 shop head to sit flush in it's counter sink. I should have taken a bit off the rivet before setting it and I'll do that when I reassemble it. The rivets on the front sub spar were also too short by one size but I had the correct ones so the parts turned out nice.

Decided to make them a mirror from the rivets perspective since they'll go on each side.

The correct shop head. Can't say enough about the EZ Squeezer - perfect shop heads.

I also worked on the servo motor tray since I hadn't got to that before and wanted to prime the parts. The tray came out fine but the arm gave me trouble. The rivets are 3-9 and when they swell in the insert the shop head is a little under spec. I took two shots at it drilling the rivets out and replacing them but wasn't happy. I'm sure it was physically OK but I didn't like the way it looked and it's a critical part so I ordered a new arm and insert and the new one came out as good as can be done per the drawing. A 3-10 or 3-11 would have been a better rivet to use to get the correct shop head diameter but the 3-9 is the longest in the kit. In any case, it's built as it should be per the drawing. Of the 4 main things I like about the RV kits is the access and cost of parts. These were $32 total but if that were a FAA/PMA part it would have easily been close to $100. I believe the gaps in getting time to build are causing some of the problems but you can't tell if it's going to work out until you actually do it.

The old and the new. 

Much happier with the new part (no primer).

You can see that using the 3-9 rivet the shop head is a little small. But it's built by the book so it's good enough.

Next weekend I'll redo the aileron berring in the hinge bracket and complete section 14. Then it's on to the ribs.

Page 14-02 Build Time: 279 hrs

     Got through enough parts to have a primer session this coming weekend. Everything is ready to go for section 14 as well as the servo tray and trim parts that I didn't get to from the empanage kit. I haven't posted too much about the problems I've run into on this blog (I haven't run into any significant problems other than what I had hoped for better results on the empanage - Vans says build it and fly it so that's the plan). Reading through other post though there are tricks and gotchas that are a great source of info. So going forward if I run into anything I'll post it.
     The parts below are the typical lot. Working through debut, counter sink, match drill and final drill then through scuff, clean and prime really does get you very familiar with each part and you can see how it comes together. I won't be able to assemble this lot until August since I'll be off on vacation next week making my way to AirVenture on the motorcycle. Next year I'll fly there but I don't expect to be able to do that in this plane.
     I did buy the buffer motor and a stand for my debur wheel. It's a great addition since the motor has a smaller diameter than the wheel (for now at least) and a longer shaft. You can work parts much easier with this setup. I also have the stand on wheels so it's mobile and it seems to be working out well.
     Eventually I may buy a second wheel for the other side. I put the buffer pad on there looking for balance and also so I wouldn't loose the attachment parts. One of the great aspects of building a project like this is buying tools. I suspect at some point I'll get involved with the local EAA chapter and help others.

All cleaned up and ready to prime

The old setup - a grinder with the debur wheel hanging off the side of a table.

The new setup - stand alone - longer shaft and smaller diameter motor.

Page 14-02 Build Time: 272 hrs

Back to turning aluminum into art. I've finally finished school and have my weekends back to work on the plane. I finished section 13 in June and it wasn't that big of a deal. There are only a handful of rib clips to debur and attach and I didn't prime them since the half of them are already on the spar and I see no point in trying to prime those. The spars are hung in the rafters for now while I work though section 14. Those parts will be primed as well as the rest of the wing assembly Section 14 is pretty straight forward and I was very carful not to take any more material off the stub spars where they will mate with the fuselage. I've read where others have found the wing rocking due to a bad fit and I think I read where there are over sized stubs but that would be a nightmare trying to dig those out of the assembly. I should have the parts for section 14 ready to prime next weekend and will have a primer day the following weekend. After that I'm off to OSK on the motorcycle. A long ride to the midwest. I've done it a couple times and it's always an adventure. Next year the plan is to take the mighty Cessna to OSK with the Hayward Air Rally.

This turned out to be a nice way to gage the countersink. Make a template and size the hole. 

Getting a nice group of parts ready for prime. Most of the deburring was done on the scotchbrit wheel. While I was in Harbor Tools the other day I saw a nice polishing motor. It has a longer shaft and a lower profile. They didn't have any in the box but I'll grab one next time I'm there. It was only $35 and doing this on the wheel is so much faster.

Not sure if the photo depicts the difference but the parts are pretty rough before debur. On the right are finished parts.

Aluminum to Art!