Thursday, February 27, 2014

Bolts in mid spar

Drilled and reamed all the holes for the bolts on the left side. I'm not sure if the black plastic sleeve/block for the wing pins are to mounted fwd or aft on the spar.


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Deburring mid spar

Finished deburring the main spar. Cleco'ed together again and drilled/reamed for the AN3 bolted rib attachment. Started drilling the steel bits as well.


Ordered some angle stock from Sandelving to make new and correct attachment angles. The ones that came with the Machined Angle Components was wrong due to error in the drawings. Can't wait for Sonex to straighten up and do what is right, have a feeling it may take ages.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Deburring

Finally home again and started deburring the main spar.

The Drill Doctor was a bit disappointing. It is not usable for 40 and 30 bits. It is simply not accurate enough. All in all a waste of money, it's better to just purchase a bunch of 30 and 40 drill bits and throw them away when they are worn. For larger bits both the relative and the absolute accuracy increases so it will be OK I guess, or hope.

I also have to fix the 9.9.13 ONX-W10-03L/R revision. I will do that by making new parts from angle stock.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Drilled mid wing spar


Still have to drill up all the steel at the tips. I'm not sure if it's best to take them now, or after the spar is riveted. Have to sleep on it.

The 3 in 1 paint is really good, and readily available locally and exist in many colors. Just have to make sure it cures for 3-4 days and it is like stone and stick like glue. It is matt/satin and very easy to spray. Gray and orange with this satin finish will look cool. Regarding paint, I think I have 4 options now. 3 in 1 which I can do myself. Jotun Topgloss BR which I also can do myself, but I'm still not convinced the end result will be OK due to milkyness when polished. Polish it (combined with 3 in 1). The last option is to fly it to Lithuania/Poland when finished and paint it there by professional aircraft painters, much cheaper than to do it in Norway. 

Monday, January 13, 2014

Right wing skeleton finished

Finished the right wing spars and ribs, riveted and bolted together ready for fitting of the skin.


Tried to spray on the Jotun Topgloss BR (Polysiloxane) with a new and much better spray gun. The result was very bad. If it is me who is terrible at spraying, or that the paint is not formulated for spraying, I don't know, probably both. It was full of pin holes or fish eyes (I really don't know the difference), looked awful even where no pinholes were seen. But I rubbed the half of the test piece with Biltema rubbing again, and it was all shiny again. Have to get some Biltema Hard Wax tomorrow and see if also that makes it all milky like the two other waxes I tried.



The 3 in 1 paint is very good. It dries in 10-15 minutes, but then it is rather soft. After 3-4 days it gets all hard and nice. J. S. Cock also has a special primer for aluminium. It is the same stuff as this 3 in one, but specially formulated to stick on very smooth surfaces, aluminium and stainless steel in particular but also glass. It is only on larger cans, not rattle cans.

I have this booklet "How to paint your own airplane" by EAA. What a total waste of paper! All it say is Acid etch, Alodine, epoxy primer and polyurethane top coat. Yes, it works and the result will be top, but the problem is that: 1- Acid etch will creep into joints and corrode your airplane from the inside. 2- disposing used Alodine is almost impossible due to hexavalent chrome. 3- Urethane is poisonous and requires a booth and a breather. 4- Epoxy primer isn't even necessary. Doing all this with all these extremely nasty chemicals is not something to do in your home. A heated garage will work, but the main point is that the only corrosion that will exist on a painted surface of aluminium is filiform corrosion, and to prevent it does not require all these stages. The corrosion that causes most problems is galvanic corrosion, and none of this will do anything to prevent it. Besides, these products are impossible to obtain locally, for me at least.

If I should go for Polyurethane, the process will be scuffing with scotchbrite, etch primer or epoxy primer, topcoat. That will last for ages without any filiform corrosion and the finish will be top. If that was to corrode, it would be due to galvanic corrosion caused by fasteners and similar. This will also require a booth, but it is somewhat doable because I can get the stuff locally. But, the equipment (booth, spray guns, breathers etc) seems like a whole lot of money and time for a one time process, that may turn out bad. Sending the airplane to some professionals may very well be a better solution.

What I (still) hope to do is use this Polysiloxane with paint and roller. Then wet sand with 1000+ grit, Biltema rubbing and wax it. It is only this waxing part that is a problem right now, maybe I can do without waxing? For primer I have four choices; Epoxy, etch primer, Vinyl (Jotun) or Polyester (JSC). Epoxy and Vinyl I know will work, etch primer and polyester I have to try first. All this I can do at home, and the end result will be like polyurethane, in some aspects even better (UV). In the cockpit I will use 3 in 1 rattle cans with a top coat of clear satin enamel, or maybe 3 in 1 spray gun with the special reducer that gives a harder satin finish instead of the matte finish.

The other choice is polish.