Still thinking about an RV-14

Jim K said:
Wing kit finally got loaded on the truck yesterday. Estimated delivery date is 5-27. Shop is cleaned out. Might run to the hardware store today for some muriatic acid to try & strip the chrome off those valve covers. If the kit actually takes that long, I might learn how to nickel plate...
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Depending on the source, copper could be up to 5 times cheaper. ;)

I would say go big as I'm sure Teresa has some gold jewelry stashed away somewhere, but your YOLO! moment would probably end right there.
 
I'm struggling with project envy. Its amazing what youre able to accomplish so quickly. Im so backlogged with Heycouldjoos and emergency repairs around the house and ranch that my fun projects are at a standstill. You wouldnt happen to be also working on a self-help, motivational book in your spare time, would you? Its so bad i have to go to work for downtime to read PoA....
 
Racerx said:
Another neat science trick is aluminumdie grinder burrs with aluminum embedded on them. Toss them in with some lye. Good as new.
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Seized piston - cylinder already bored to max - aluminum smeared all over the bore. Plugged the holes in the cylinder with modeling clay (Plasticine) filled with water, dumped in a bunch of Drano crystals.

Freaking magic.

(Not an airplane cylinder)
 
moparrob66 said:
I'm struggling with project envy. Its amazing what youre able to accomplish so quickly. Im so backlogged with Heycouldjoos and emergency repairs around the house and ranch that my fun projects are at a standstill. You wouldnt happen to be also working on a self-help, motivational book in your spare time, would you? Its so bad i have to go to work for downtime to read PoA....
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lol...it's easy...just shirk your responsibilities. You should see the stack of mail on my desk...
 
Jim K said:
lol...it's easy...just shirk your responsibilities. You should see the stack of mail on my desk...
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How much of that is junk mail for solar panels or debt consolidation that you don't have? When the mail enhancement stuff starts coming in the mail, the chainsaw is coming out.
 
Racerx said:
How much of that is junk mail for solar panels or debt consolidation that you don't have? When the mail enhancement stuff starts coming in the mail, the chainsaw is coming out.
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Oh no, i triage it before i throw it in the inbox. It's all bills :frown:

This time of year I'm borrowing money, so they might as well get good & stale.
 
Racerx said:
Another neat science trick is aluminumdie grinder burrs with aluminum embedded on them. Toss them in with some lye. Good as new.
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Make sure to do it in a well ventilated place. Hydrogen is generated by the lye/aluminum reaction.
 
AV8R_87 said:
Make sure to do it in a well ventilated place. Hydrogen is generated by the lye/aluminum reaction.
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Aware. It's something I've got to be aware of on the CNC plasma with water table when cutting aluminum.
 
I usually melt pistons in two strokes and plugging the ports to hold the lye sounds laborious. I'll definitely try it on my grinding wheels though.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
How do you think @Racerx plans to UN-plug all the holes in the cylinder? :D
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That was @Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe. I just have burrs and end mill bits get chowdered up with aluminum from time to time. Cup of water with sodium hydroxide crystals and the aluminum dissolves.

Another one I thought of was how to tell aluminum vs magnesium. A little white vinegar on magnesium will fizz/bubble. No reaction with aluminum.
 
Latest update from ABF... wing kit is in Cicero, which is 35 miles from their Chicago depot. Made pretty good time considering it left Portland Friday. Their delivery estimate is still next Tuesday. I really don't want to have to run to Bloomington again, but i want it before the weekend...

My chrome removal experiment is not going well. I set up another one using phosphoric acid. Been running voltage through it for 48 hours. Probably 80% of the chrome has come off, exposing the copper layer, but it seems to have stalled there.
 
Aww, I think I was in that abf facility. Bunch of animals on the forklifts over there.

Do you need to get past the copper layer? Have you called around to see if it's worth the chemical burns?
 
Racerx said:
Do you need to get past the copper layer? Have you called around to see if it's worth the chemical burns?
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I think i need to get to bare steel, otherwise the areas where the plating flaked off will telegraph through and look crappy. I should've started with painted ones, stripped the paint and plated them. My original intention of course was painted covers, which i could still fill the pits with epoxy and paint these. I'll see what i can find at OSH this summer. Or maybe just order a set of billet ones from SDS. It's nice working with the luxury of time for once.
 
Wish I was making this kind of progress on the S-21 my dad and I are building. Finished the vertical tail and rudder while I was home last month, but being overseas in Iraq/Syria is putting a major damper on building time. It is however providing necessary funding, so I guess I'll sit here watching for updates on yours.
 
Top quality delivery on the parts, any refund on shipping for doing the last mile?

Your farm does not do cattle, your trailer is clean! Even shiny. One of the benefits of grain.

My various relatives did a mix of hogs, beef and milk. Grain too, but the lowest common denominator was cattle residue...

4 wheel grain trailers were clean, though.
 
geezer said:
Top quality delivery on the parts, any refund on shipping for doing the last mile?

Your farm does not do cattle, your trailer is clean! Even shiny. One of the benefits of grain.

My various relatives did a mix of hogs, beef and milk. Grain too, but the lowest common denominator was cattle residue...

4 wheel grain trailers were clean, though.
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Yeah.. Beef comes from the neighbor. I let him deal with all that entails.

ABF does refund a bit for not having to drive it to my house. It was about $100 last time, out the the ~$1000 bill. It's about 90 miles one way, so honestly cheaper to let them do it, but I get impatient.
 
After you figure it all yout you should open a builder assist center.
Plough the field in the morning, buck rivets in the afternoon.
 
kyleb said:
Stuff slows down mightily once the airframe is done. The canopy, firewall forward, panel and fiberglass look like they should go fast, but they move at a glacial pace.
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Kinda like building a house. Bare lot to in the dry goes pretty quickly, it’s all the interior work that takes forever, and from the outside it looks like not much is happening.
 
Bill said:
Kinda like building a house. Bare lot to in the dry goes pretty quickly, it’s all the interior work that takes forever, and from the outside it looks like not much is happening.
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Having built my house myself. I can definitely confirm this.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Seized piston - cylinder already bored to max - aluminum smeared all over the bore. Plugged the holes in the cylinder with modeling clay (Plasticine) filled with water, dumped in a bunch of Drano crystals.

Freaking magic.

(Not an airplane cylinder)
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Ferric chloride (printed circuit board etchant) works much more quickly (at much more $$ per use, unfortunately.) I've used it to "wipe" piston smear off of a cylinder.
 
kyleb said:
Stuff slows down mightily once the airframe is done. The canopy, firewall forward, panel and fiberglass look like they should go fast, but they move at a glacial pace.
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Given how quickly he rebuilt his own engine for a certified airplane, I bet he'll do a bit quicker than most builders.
 
Been spending a lot of time fixing screw ups lately. I finally got all the ribs connected to both spars and have been able to move on to the next chapter, the rear spars. I had screwed up a couple doublers last weekend. Since Van's seems to take 2 weeks to ship anything these days (I have a June 2 order still "pending"), I opted to order some 2024-t3 and make them from scratch. Pretty simple part with one bend and a bunch of holes. Didn't quite get them finished. One those are done, I can rivet the rear spars to the ribs and move on to the nose ribs, which will once again involve a crapload of deburring.

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Heat index is like 110 or something today. I drove rivets until I was soaked through with sweat, and decided I'd start working on installing the mini split i ordered, which arrived this week. Went and got it, still wrapped in plastic on the pallet. Opened the box and... whomp whomp.

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Looking forward to them telling me to take it up with the freight company, and the freight company telling me it was fine when they dropped it off.
 
Jim K said:
Heat index is like 110 or something today. I drove rivets until I was soaked through with sweat,
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Nude Riveting

Don't. Yeah, it's hot. If you're like me, when it gets hot you take off your clothes. Mebbe not all of them but some. Okay, that's better...
bobhooversblog.blogspot.com bobhooversblog.blogspot.com
 
In happier news, I got riveting help for the first time. Completely voluntary. Today is her 13th birthday, so now we have two teenagers in the house. This one is still sweet though....

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She helped me buck rivets for about 15 minutes and we got more done than I did in an hour by myself. I've got about 12 hours in riveting these top skins, and hit the halfway point tonight. To do it myself, I have to climb up a step stool and reach an arm down each side. I can juuuust reach the bottom ones with the trailing edge jammed into my armpit.

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We were interrupted by Teresa getting stung by a bee, so i carried her inside and hit her with an epipen. Somehow she managed to get it on the bottom of her middle toe, so she'll be hobbling around for a week.
 
Wow - you had an interesting day!
 
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