Mahogany wasn't stable enough? You have to tell me what you mean by this!
I know I sound like an idiot, but the only way not to, in my experience, is to ask the question.
Mahogany wasn't stable enough? You have to tell me what you mean by this!
I know I sound like an idiot, but the only way not to, in my experience, is to ask the question.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
The Brain: "I will accept nothing less than mahogany!"
Pinky: "There is no substitute for Diana Ross!"
Years ago, my EAA Tech Counselor told me not to mix types of wood, as different species had different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE). They would expand and contract differently when the temperature changed. If they were glued together, the bond would be subject to unanticipated sheer loads.
Ron "Nog!" Wanttaja
Good afternoon Frank and Ron.
What I meant by not stable enough was that the wood split once I added a couple holes through both halves of the handle that already had groove cut out with carving chisels. Mahogany makes very nice cabinet making wood, it turns well, is easy to shape and takes an edge well. But, and this is a big but, it is not very dense. Hence, it split. I know where there is an apple orchard that was cut down out by mom and the land is up for sale. Next time I am out there I will call and harvest some nice branches out of the brush piles.
Jim
Thanks much, Jim. Had never worked with Mahogany.
Ron Wanttaja
9/24/17, I promised some pics after a few days with an hour here and a couple hours there. It doesn't look like much but fabrication takes time. First thing I did this week was track down some grade 8 1/4" x 3 1/2" bolts. These were fitting in 10 mm x 2 mm sleeves that got welded to the fuselage. So the sleeves had to be drilled out slightly and then the bolt heads weld onto the bottom of the sleeve.
The next two pics are of the upper and lower rudder mounting area. The two flat vertical tabs have two 3 mm holes drilled for attaching a spruce gap filler within the rudder hinges. I also drilled the tip of the longeron unions and welded in a 10 mm x 2 mm horizontal bolt sleeve for the hinges as well. I did bend some 2 mm sheet in a long U shape that gets welded at the upper longeron (for the vertical stabilizer) I suppose. I need to research this on subsequent Kiger drawings or the web as my one page did not show much detail.
I have some more fabrications to weld in back here but it is coming along nicely. Now if the Skins could win tonight it would be a most fabulous night.
So what fits onto those huge bolts?
Last edited by Sam Oleson; 09-26-2017 at 09:13 AM.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
Frank those are for anchoring the horizontal stab, probably with welded in bungs inside the large tubing of the stab
Last edited by Fokker Builder; 09-25-2017 at 05:43 AM.
Ah. I didn't realize we were towards the tail there. I thought they were up by the cockpit!
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
When longerons come to a point we are near the tail
10/8/17, I actually did a lot today. Had 3 pics but really everything is on this one pic. Let's see, first thing I did this morning was to cut off that lower bolt sleeve, tab, and rudder stand off. The day I welded that on there were French Nieports and British SE5's strafing the flugzeugwerke so my work that day was off by 6mm. The redo went well and is spot on.
That long bracket up top receives the back of the vertical stabilizer and the rudder hinge bolt. The one I had bent up last week during the enemy attack was too short and had to be redone. Just needs to be rounded and have the bolt hole drilled.
Next I worked on shaping the rudder gap filler (in spruce). I didn't review it on the plans today but pretty sure it gets a strap around the stern post and it gets 2 small screws through both the upper and lower tabs.
After the rear was secure and I flipped the fuselage on its side to finish up the underside welding, I then started to mock up the vertical stabilizer. I made the 10mm piece that runs from the lower and upper fin tubes. It came out well. Much of the rest of the tubing parts are fabricated but still need to fab the two brackets that weld on and hold the rest of the rudder gap filler. Hope to finish that work this week and start mocking up more tail feathers next weekend.