Another monster six hour session finished the drilling for the slats. Only a few "gotchas" were hit.
First with the trailing edge skin be careful with the holes of the ribs. The last hole for each rib intersected the skin. This normally would not be a big deal but the ribs were already riveted ( per instructions ) to the bottom half of the main skin. In two cases ( outboard skins ) there was enough edge distance to drill out the rivets and use a strap duplicator to carry the hole onto the edge skin. With my inboard skins I had to make notches for the rivet heads.
All four slat pieces are drilled to final hole sizes and are ready to be deburred, primed and riveted.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
First, to anyone who is about to order their wheels please, please, please pay attention. Just spend the extra $30 a wheel and buy the tubes. The Matco tubeless tires are a nightmare. Seriously, I would rather rivet my hand to a rabid raccoon than deal with those things again.
I probably spent 15 hours trying to get them to inflate.
Some of that time was spent trying to separate the wheels. They can be really tight a large amounts of brute force will need to be applied.
The valve stems are a pain to install. A local tire shop was kind and let me borrow a valve stem installer. After that you need to get the wheel somehow beaded with the tire AND then slip a crazy rubber band gasket on between the two halves of the wheel.
If you use the tubes then the valve just slips on through and the wheels self bead.
A huge amount of progress was made thanks to the help of another local 701 builder. Together we made substantial progress on the slats. The slats are pretty straight forward, except for a few gotchas that got me. The biggest has to do with the "L" angle that reinforces the slat skin near the supports.
Trying to be industrious I went and cut the "L", notched it, bent it to match and then located the holes and drilled them into one piece. I used one of the ribs to back drill into a mirrored rib and then duplicated the holes to all the ribs.
What I forgot to do was check that all the holes of the "L" went into the support. Luckily all the holes that made it into the support were within minimum edge distances, but one hole missed. So I had to drill a fifth hole into the "L" that then made it into the slat support.
In one monster eight hour session we got the "L" spar drilled into all four slat skins, all the ribs, supports and "L"s riveted together and on one piece the ribs drilled into the skin.
I probably spent 15 hours trying to get them to inflate.
Some of that time was spent trying to separate the wheels. They can be really tight a large amounts of brute force will need to be applied.
The valve stems are a pain to install. A local tire shop was kind and let me borrow a valve stem installer. After that you need to get the wheel somehow beaded with the tire AND then slip a crazy rubber band gasket on between the two halves of the wheel.
If you use the tubes then the valve just slips on through and the wheels self bead.
A huge amount of progress was made thanks to the help of another local 701 builder. Together we made substantial progress on the slats. The slats are pretty straight forward, except for a few gotchas that got me. The biggest has to do with the "L" angle that reinforces the slat skin near the supports.
Trying to be industrious I went and cut the "L", notched it, bent it to match and then located the holes and drilled them into one piece. I used one of the ribs to back drill into a mirrored rib and then duplicated the holes to all the ribs.
What I forgot to do was check that all the holes of the "L" went into the support. Luckily all the holes that made it into the support were within minimum edge distances, but one hole missed. So I had to drill a fifth hole into the "L" that then made it into the slat support.
In one monster eight hour session we got the "L" spar drilled into all four slat skins, all the ribs, supports and "L"s riveted together and on one piece the ribs drilled into the skin.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Quick status update:
The doors are on, the latches installed, the hinges hinging.
The main gear have had their notches made and are test fit. The front fork is ready for the wheel and tire. The landing gear and strut fittings have finally been bolted into place.
I did have some problems with the Matco wheels. Despite following the drawing, I can not separate the front wheel halves. There does not seem to be a retainer clip or anything like it.
The doors are on, the latches installed, the hinges hinging.
The main gear have had their notches made and are test fit. The front fork is ready for the wheel and tire. The landing gear and strut fittings have finally been bolted into place.
I did have some problems with the Matco wheels. Despite following the drawing, I can not separate the front wheel halves. There does not seem to be a retainer clip or anything like it.
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