Woohoo! It’s coming! The empennage kit will arrive at the airport this Thursday! I haven’t had the time yet to build any workbenches since I’m still waiting on the lease doc to be finalized by the city. I’m hoping I’ll be allowed to store the 2 crates in the hangar for now.
I stopped by the hangar over the weekend to check if it’s been cleaned up and made ready, and sure enough, it is! I’m hoping that the city will sign off on the lease this week so that we can start preparing it over the weekend.
One of the first things I’m going to do is hang 2 flags against the back wall (pics soon!), then start building the main workbench in the center. It’ll be 6′ by 30″ so that it can hold the fuselage and also allow us to get close enough to do riveting, etc. (hence the skinny width).
I also have some shop lights to hang from the rafters to help illuminate the main build area in the center, along with the various workbenches I’ll have on either side. Once those are in, I’ll start moving tools over. Exciting times!
I’ll be using the EAA’s Builder’s Log to document the build of our RV-7. I was considering writing one myself (and still may do that), but once I found out that the EAA already has one, so I’ll be starting out using it to detail the actual build process, while posting progress and pics here. Our log’s URL is:
We’ve finished it! I had promised that before we start on the actual plane that we’d finish at least one of the practice kits, and last night we pulled the final rivet. It isn’t exceedingly pretty, not is it perfect, but it helped us think about how to build something from metal, and begin developing needed skills.
It was an experience I think all builders should go through. Actually, I think everyone who has never worked with aluminum should take one of the beginner classes offered by the EAA, or Van’s. Unfortunately, with the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, there aren’t any being offered.
The kit is Paris for and awaiting shipping, the hangar paperwork is with the city for signatures and the insurance is paid and active.
This morning we clicked the Submit Order button on vansaircraft.com and committed to building the first section of the airplane! This starts a chain of events that are all interlinked. I need to obtain a Builder’s ID from Van’s in order to start the Hangar Keeper’s insurance policy which is required by the airport to start the lease on our hangar.
With the click of that button, we’re now going to be put in the delivery queue for the empennage kit. Next up is the email from Van’s requesting a 25% deposit to officially be put in the queue. Once we get the lease submitted and approved by the city, we will be able to start “moving in” to the hangar.
The plan is to start building a couple standard EAA workbenches, plus an 8-footer that’ll hold all the machines I’ll be bringing down from the house: grinder, drill press, bandsaw, etc. The airport manager had a shelving unit that was left by a former tenant, which she said we can have. That’ll be the first of 3. So, we’ll move that in. After that the microwave and fridge, of course!
After that, we wait for the delivery of the kit! Our local FBO has graciously agreed to accept the crates and drop them off at the hangar for us, which is awesome. Once they arrive, it’s right into it! I’ve got our official EAA build log created and ready to start detailing the build process.
These are exciting times!
Yesterday I thought it’d be more advantageous for us to start working during the day, and as a result, we had a marathon of sorts. We worked on and finished 4 steps! Now we’re down to the last one.
So far the practice kit has been a great learning experience. Not only did we get acclimated to using our new air tools, but we tried several different methods of riveting, which will absolutely help us tackle the actual airplane. I’ve been asking around to borrow a pneumatic squeezer, but now that I have our hand squeezer dialed in, I think I’ll forego that. They run about $800 to purchase, which is equivalent to a second 10″ avionics display AND a couple smaller gizmos.
We did run into some issues with riveting this time. Namely, we both achieved our first Smiley Faces. These were tough rivets to place, and we learned through trial and error what not to do. We now have several rivets that we will drill out and replace, so that we get that practice (I tried one, but really screwed it up when the drill ran off the rivet head and onto the aluminum).
On the plus side, setting the double-blind rivets along the trailing edge went surprisingly well. It was one of the steps I was sure I was going to blow, but with the help of the builder’s guide and a little patience, they ended up looking pretty darn good!
Today we move on to the last step: rolling the leading edge and riveting it. That’s the last one, and short of practicing drilling out some rivets, we’ll be finished.
I promised myself once we finish the practice kit, it’s time to order the empennage!
Here are some shots from our marathon:
Continuing on with the practice project, tonight we installed the leading edge wedge and through-drilled and clecoed.
The challenge here was drilling at 84 degrees to the skin. For that I laser cut a gauge on the Glowforge, according to the instructions:
I have to admit, the drilling was a bit nerve wracking. The wedge was floating between the skins with no easy way to anchor it. We ended up using a couple small pieces of double-sided tape. Sheila held the gauge while I drilled.
It ended up working out okay. The edge looks pretty straight, and that’s what matters.
Next is step 7, disassemble and debur everything and countersink the holes in the wedge. That wedge is going to be tricky because it needs to be double-blind riveted.
Huzzah! I just heard back from the airport manager that there is a hangar coming available this month at our airport. We’re super-excited given we missed out last month on a smaller T hangar, which was okay, but not quite roomy enough for building. This T-style hangar has plenty of room, and should make it very easy to build the plane.
I’m planning on putting a couple 4’x2′ 5-shelf storage units in the back, and an 8′ workbench on either side in the “wings”. I’ve been eyeing a rolling tool cabinet from Harbor Freight for storing all the tools. It has a wood top so that it will also be a rolling workbench. That should be enough work space to comfortably work on everything.
I’m trying to make the most of the small build space I have to work with until a hangar comes available at the airport. Since I’ve started, I removed some rickety wall-mounted cabinets in the back of the garage, and added 2 72″ tall metal shelve sets, and most recently, a 4′ workbench with a pegboard and lighted hood. I got a great deal on the workbench… $79 at Harbor Freight! I’m really loving Harbor Freight.
Anyhow, tonight I put up the sign to officially christen the garage as my new hangar!
The next chapter in the saga was to fabricate something from scratch. The instructions call for making this special dimple/bucking bar for the small area of the ribs that you can’t fit any other tool into:
The tool we need to fabricate is only 3/16″ thick, so it can slide inside the rib and let us both dimple the holes near the end as well as set the rivets. I lucked out and found that Home Depot had a 3/16″ x 1/2″ inch bar. The problem was it was 36″ long! I only need 4″.
Not having done any kind of metalworking since jr. high school shop class (and even then I’m not sure we did any metalworking), I had to go check out YouTube to see how I could cut down the bar to 4″. I could, of course, leave the bar as-is, but I want to practice all these new skills.
I found a video that showed 5 ways to cut steel, ranging from a plasma torch to a die grinder to a chop saw. Since all I have is a couple compound saws and a circular saw, I decided to try a metal sawblade in the smaller of compound saws.
But before we go there, I have to drill a hole near the edge of the steel. I read that using cutting oil would help prolong the life of the bit and help keep the shavings in one place. The video, found here, showed using a dpring-loaded punch to make a starter hole. Well, I had to have one of those! So, off to Home Depot I went, where I picked up the bar, a 7″ diamond metal cutting blade and a bottle of the closest thing I could find to cutting oil.
Drilling the hole went smoothly. First I used the punch to make a good-sized hole 1/4″ in from the top and side. Drilling was uneventful. One thing I learned was that drilling metal works best if you drill SLOWLY. So I kept the speed down and got through the piece.
Next was the daunting part…at least for me…countersinking the hole. I had tried this on the first part and it didn’t end well. I asked Grant Powers, who is also doing an RV-7 build vlog, how to make sure the countersink is not too large. He pointed out Van’s instructions in section 5 regarding countersinking, which has the correct procedure, down to adding 7 clicks on the microstop pilot cutter to underset the dimple just enough.
That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow we set up the saw and try to cut the bar down to 4″!
Here’s the finished piece! The saw worked very well, and the sparks gave quite a show!
