(page 11-08 finished) Ein Klöster Föken......           

...Well, almost.  Crimping the Molex connectors turned out to be a royal pain.  There are some excellent videos on EweTube (they really are a bunch of sheep regarding political correctness and anything other than left-wing politics) made me realize that I needed a special tool rather than the garden-variety crimpers I already possessed.  I got the one from SteinAir which worked quite well.  The near-microscopic pins were difficult to see, even with some 3x magnifiers I bought at Wall Mart.  The insulator requires a "bear hug" crimp, while the conductor needs a plunge-type crimp, both possible with the SteinAir crimper.  Once the pins are crimped, they are inserted into a connector (shown at the ends of the five wires in the picture).  As each pin is inserted, tiny ears pop out, locking the pin in.  A special tool is required to remove a pin once inserted.  How do I know this?  The build manual clearly shows where each pin goes, but I found it difficult to insert each pin.  Only one orientation will work, and I had to make multiple attempts with each pin using some ground-down needle-nose pliers.  Somehow, one pin went into the wrong hole (joke here redacted owing to the family nature of this blog).  Following my verbal outburst, the air in the workshop had a blue tinge.  I ordered the tool from the Mother Ship, removed the errant pin, and now the servo tray is finished.

I received the new actuator tube and aluminum plug (see description of their death in the previous post), drilled the #40 holes with a drill press this time, and successfully squeezed the rivets.  It was still quite difficult to squeeze those long, skinny rivets without bending them, but it's done.

My decision to paint as I go is holding me up.  I need to get that figured out -- either order all the equipment and do it myself or pay someone to do it.

(page 11-08 revisited) Double homicide (of airplane parts)

RIP F-1287E and F-1287F.  Fabrication of the parts for the stabilator trim servo requires match drilling #40 the actuator tube and aluminum plug, then squeezing two AD470SF3-9 rivets.  My first three squeeze attempts resulted in bent rivets and the subsequent drilling out of said rivets.  The holes were then enlarged enough that I pronounced the parts dead.  After thinking a bit, I concluded that I created this problem by using a hand drill rather than a drill press, resulting in a bit of wobble which allowed the rivets to move slightly when being squeezed.  I briefly considered going to 1/8th inch rivets, but I was not comfortable removing more meat from the tube, considering what would happen if the part failed.  I contacted the Mother Ship, and they concurred that new parts should be used.  I was also concerned that play could be felt with the plug inserted into the tube prior to riveting.  I realize that setting the rivets would tighten this up, but in a vibration-rich environment such as an airplane, relative motion between parts could lead to fretting corrosion.  I got permission from Van's to coat the plug with epoxy before insertion, allaying my no-doubt-groundless worries.  The rivet is a bit short for the application (as determined by my trusty rivet gage), resulting in a shop head that's a bit small.  This isn't an issue since the rivet is loaded entirely in shear.

(page 12-02) Fitting fairings............           

Had I trimmed the v-stab and rudder fairings to the indentations from the molds, it would have been essentially perfect.  Not knowing this beforehand, of course, I used the fit-remove-trim-repeat method as given in the plans and ended up there after a couple of hours and lots of fiberglass dust.

Sticking with my plan to paint parts before assembly, I'm looking into the Stewart paint system, which is supposedly less toxic.  I'd like to never use Alodine again, if possible.  In the interest of time I considered having the painting done by someone else, but after hearing horror stories about wings being dropped by painters, I'm pretty much resigned to doing it myself.  This, of course, will require purchasing an HVLP spray system and accessories.  $$$.

Notice the cord attached to the top of the v-stab tethering it to the rafters. It would be a disaster if this thing fell over, denting the skin.  I have nightmares about the tail cone falling off the saw horses.

(page 12-02) My 433rd favorite thing..............              

....sanding fiberglass.  I postponed pages 11-01 through 11-05 and 11-08 through 12-01 for a number of reasons.  I've definitely decided on the paint-as-I-go approach, thereby eliminating some of the dissassembly-reassembly called for in the plans.  This brought me to the v-stab and rudder fairings, which require sanding to allign with and fit inside the metal parts.  The plans suggest wrapping some 80-grit around "a cylindrical object" and doing it by hand.  This would have taken a while, and we're currently experiencing the mother of all heat waves -- 101 F this particular day -- so I carted the belt sander outside (to keep fiberglass dust off everything in the garage) and used it.  I considered using a Dremel tool with a sanding drum, but thought it would be difficult keeping the straight edges straight with this.  Worked like a charm.  I used the curved top of the sander for the curved rear portion of the v-stab fairing and the flat part for everything else.  The edges being sanded will be hidden beneath the aluminum, so it's not critical anyway.  The whole operation took only ten or so minutes.

Ron Alexander has a good writeup on painting airplanes (Google his name and the topic, it may have first appeared in Sport Aviation).  He strongly suggests painting individual parts before assembling the airplane, if possible.  I'm curious why most builders don't do this (maybe I'm about to find out).  I'm aware of the possible variations in color with different batches of paint.  I'll take the chance.

(page 11-06) School's out.....                                                                    

All final exams are graded and all grades are turned in.  The laws of thermodynamics will not pass through my brain again until August 20, replaced by visions of making massive progress on the RV-12.  I also have until the end of the month to get my antique Corvette inspected or my registration will be revoked.  Busy month ahead, made easier by the fact that the Spousal Unit (my beautiful and brainy wife, Karen) accepted an offer today for a full-time faculty position in Mechanical Engineering here at UNC Charlotte.  What are the odds that a husband and wife would be able to teach in the same department?

The servo tray was near disaster.  The plans say to rivet the doublers, then final drill .25 the holes.  This would have worked fine if I had clamped the un-riveted ends together before drilling.  As it was, the doublers, being held to the tray by rivets on the ends, bent significantly when drilled, embedding chips between the doublers and the tray.  The rivets for one doubler had to be drilled out and the doubler removed and pounded flat with a hammer.  I was not happy.

I'm struggling with the decision to paint each part as I build it or wait, as others seem to do, until after flight test to paint the whole airplane fully assembled.  I would really like to avoid installing and removing the horizontal stab and vertical stab (and anti-servo tab and rudder) multiple times.