It's Full Size

I have my first goof-up on the first page of instructions. There's a step early on where you have to trim the front spar of the vertical stabilizer at the bottom of a doubler and round off the bottom. I mis-interpreted how to round off after trimming which left the flanges at the bottom of the spar shorter than they should be. I'm not sure if this is a deal-breaker, but it's definitely a goof. I've asked the forums for their blessings to proceed or if I have to order a new part. I've also been working on a new Google Form to Google Sheet for tracking time on the build so I'm going to stop including that in posts leaving these posts for major milestones or headaches. I'm hoping to get the display of that sheet cleaned up on the front page.

Build Date: 04/25/2020 Time Today: 01:20 Total Time on Empennage: 05:04 Total Time:  05:04 Helpers: Moxie Bolick Sebastian Bolick 1:20 doing the final count and putting away everything from the empennage kit. Ready to start now. Great help from Sebastian and Moxie. Kicking myself for not getting pictures.

Build Date: 04/24/2020 Time Today: 02:00 Total Time on Empennage: 03:44 Total Time: 03:44 Helpers: Moxie Bolick Great help from Moxie calling out the numbers while I checked things off. There are a heck of a lot more skins than I expected. Is this a 2-ply airplane?  I also need to figure out a good storage solution for the hardware. There are just way too many different things and vastly different quantities mass quantities of some rivets and only a few of some other things. Difficult to use storage bins for things like that. Might need a trip to Harbor Freight to see what they have cheap. 

Build Date: 04/23/2020 Time Today: 01:44 Total Time on Empennage: 01:44 Total Time: 01:44 Helpers: Sepastian Bolick Moxie Bolick Alex Bolick The empennage kit arrived from Van's today and we unpacked it together. The paper was a huge hit with the kids (all 3 of them) and Sebastian helped me carry all the parts to the basement shop. There's a daunting amount of parts here and a scary number of rivets, bolts and screws. One step at a time...... Delivery was from Old Dominion Freight in a full-size 18 wheeler. Nothing but my little crate.  My car doesn't get to live in the garage for a bit. 

Finished off the practice kit today. It's far from perfect but also not terrible. I learned a lot that will make building easier which is the whole point. Definitely use a squeezer whenever possible. Hand riveting isn't hard but it requires more finesse with more opportunity to quickly screw something up. I finally know what most of the tools in the Cleaveland kit are for. I think the best part of the practice kit is that the basic techniques and parts are now a bit more obvious to me. There's going to be enough to learn with each step of the build that I don't need to be confused by the basics.  I'm not crazy about how the front of the control surface came together. I think I did a decent job of it, but the instructions seemed to say just rivet the halves together wherever. I was looking for something more precise that followed a form, but I guess it's just practice.  Bare aluminum shows every ding and scratch. I'm not ...

Assembled a couple of shelving units from Costco and brought home some unused storage Bins from work. The 2-4 week lead time from Van's was pessimistic and the empennage should be here early next week. I plan to inventory and separate the parts in the bins and shelves. I also added a few more LED shop lights also from Costco. The shop is really coming along.

Today was the day that I jumped off on the adventure for real. RV-14A empennage kit order is it. Current lead time is 2-4 weeks so some time in May 2020 I should be officially starting the build. I went with the tricycle gear because that's what I'm familiar with. There's no doubt that tail draggers look cooler on the ground. If this were a front-and-back 2 place airplane I think I would have gone that route. Since the RV-14 is side-by-side seating, I thought it works better as a tricycle gear.

Finished up the toolbox project tonight. Really it's been mostly done for a while now just waiting on primer for the final assembly. Everyone says it, but you really do learn a ton on these practice projects. I now know the difference between an AN470 and AN426 without thinking about it and I know the difference between 3/32" and #30. I'm totally comfortable drilling and deburring now and I recognize that riveting well really is an art form. There are definitely mistakes that I made on the toolbox that I, hopefully, won't be making on the airplane. A few rivets are bad examples, the primer was put on too thick running in some places and too thin in others. The latch should also have been put on under more stress so it was secure. Overall a great learning experience and confidence builder. The biggest downside is that my newfound confidence has me contemplating the empannage kit.

Today I tried my hand at priming on the practice projects. Here's the procedure I'm using: Assemble all parts including match drilling, deburring, and dimpling.  Scrub everything with Bon Ami and maroon Scotch Brite in the guestroom bathtub.  I'm not using Alumiprep or Alodine. I might get talked into it, but Bon Ami is easy to use and I'm not sure that I need alodine.  Lay out on the painting screen. Dry off with the air hose.  Wipe down with Acetone to remove any last skin oils.  Don the respirator & mix the Akzo.  Wait 30 minutes. Load the primer into the gun using a screen.  Spray the first side.  Wait 15-20 minutes. Spray the second side.  Clean the paint gun with MEK. Remove the respirator and put everything away.  Here's what I learned: Akzo is NASTY stuff! As soon as I slightly cracked the lid the fumes were intense. This is definitely something to use a respirator the whole time it's being worked wit...

Made some good progress on the Van's practice kits today. Sebastian and I have been working on the toolbox kit already and I started the practice flap today. The practice flap includes a pre-practice mini-project which is basically using several rivet techniques on a couple pieces of aluminum skin and angle. That part is complete with no problems. It was a lot of fun sorting out the different rivet sizes and trying out different things. If anything the squeezer makes riveting just too easy. It really makes perfect rivets with no effort. The flap kit looks pretty complex in a good way. I think I'll get to try out some of the more complicated techniques I'll need for the RV.  I'm hoping to try out priming the toolbox and flap parts this weekend. I was holding off on the toolbox assembly until I could get some primer practice on it.

Finished the power Tools table tonight. This is a 2' x 4' EAA table that we made out of spare lumber. Turns out that it's the perfect size for my power tools. I plan to sit this with the short end against the wall giving me easy access to the grinder and vice and decent access to the band saw and drill press. Everything is bolted to the table with studs that are wood screws on one end and machine screws on the other. Except for the vice which is attached with 1/2" bolts. I really hope that I like the positions. 

You could say that my basement floor isn't perfectly level, but the truth is really that my EAA benches aren't perfectly level. They're close, but it's really hard to get them exact with 4x4" feet. My solution is these feet from Amazon . Drill a 1/2" hole and screw it the sleeve and you're good.  At the same time I wanted a way to roll the benches around the basement when I needed but have them be sturdy when they aren't moving. These wheels were the perfect solution. They fit perfectly on the ends of the EAA bench.

Today we built a simple 2' x 4' frame out of 2x4s and 1/8" plywood and chicken wire. The plan is to set it up on sawhorses outside for priming. We have a supply of Bon Ami for cleaning and Akzo primer. Once I have the breathing situation figured out I'll start priming the practice toolbox.