| 171 | Not Routing Leading Edge | 6/22/2008 |
| | After running a few sacrificial pieces through the router to get familiar with the round over bit prior to using on the stabilizer leading edge I decided it was far too aggressive and difficult to manage with a large bulky item like the stabilizer. Since rounding will now be done with hand tools I moved on to the stringers. I cut and planed enough 1/2" x 3/16" pieces to do the stabilizer. I paused before glueing to think about how they bend at the leading edge taper and how it might warp the leading edge having them all pulling up if I glued top first with the stab in it's jig. I might just glue the tops and bottoms in as pairs and work my way down the stabilizer. It is perfectly flat and doing it this way shouldn't cause any warping stresses. Might just build a little jig to hold the stabilizer vertical and flat to ensure it maintains trueness during the process.
Man hours: 1 |
| 170 | Stab Gussets Trimmed, Sanded and Corners Cut | 6/18/2008 |
| | I got home and had the house to myself. Headed straight to the garage, grabbed the stab and got to work. First trimmed off the gusset overhang on the router table with a laminate flush trim bit. Sanded out the bumps from glue runs leaving good smooth flat surfaces. Traced a CD for the corner radius and cut with a handheld jigsaw (leaving a safety margin of about 1/16th"). Lastly, hand sanded the corners down to the line I drew for nice clean smooth leading edge corners. Fine sanded all glue joints and gusset sides.
Man hours: 1.5 |
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| 169 | Stab Corners | 6/17/2008 |
| | I pulled the stab from the jig and started to think about the radius of the leading edge corners, and scanned the area for some round things to "try". The result was a CD. I traced it on the gusset and looked at it for a while. It seems to have the right look without cutting too deep into the framing. I have corner blocks in this area for just this reason so I think this is the shape I will go with. If I'm lucky I'll have a little time to trim off the gusset overhang and cut the corners tonight. Probably the only time I'll cut corners on the Piet.
Man hours: 0.5 |
| 168 | Side 2 Gussets Done - H. Stab | 6/15/2008 |
| | Got the all the T-88 sanded out and leveled the gussets areas to the gusset plane. Scored with coarse 60 grit, vacuumed, and then started mixing T-88. Thinking about next steps, it looks like the next thing that I'll do is take the stab out of the jig, cut the front rounded corners and round the leading edge and sides on the router table prior to adding stringers. A 3/8" radius bit should do the trick. Will add the top and bottom stringers at each location as a pair to cancel the tendency for springback of the stringers at the leading edge to warp the stabilizer. Was a great way to spend Father's Day.
Man hours: 5 |
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| 167 | Stab Side 2 Begins | 6/9/2008 |
| | Today was a big test of my measuring accuracy. If my measurements were accurate the symmetrical stabilizer should fit back into the jig when flipped over. A few little glue runs I couldn't easily see needed were hanging onto the jig. Once the stab was freed from the jig, the structure was flipped and fit nicely back into the jig. Still need to level off all the gusset joints and remove a few blobs of T-88 and clean things up a bit before proceeding.
Man hours: 1 |
| 166 | First Round of Gussets Done | 6/8/2008 |
| | Leveled all the gusset joints checking with a straight edge. Scored with coarse 60 grit. Vacuumed up dust with the shop vac. Positioned and clamped at each location and scraped off drips.
Man hours: 2 |
| 165 | Jig Ready to Go | 6/1/2008 |
| | All the clamps are now mounted on the jig. Since the jig was moved to a different location I'll go through the leg leveling process again, double-check the setup and positioning of the members of the stab, coarse sand and level all the glue joints and start glueing her up!
Man hours: 0.75 |
| 164 | A Few More Clamps | 5/26/2008 |
| | Had a few minutes so I headed out and added a few more clamps to the jig. About 10 to go and should take about another 40 minutes to finish the jig. Final gusset area leveling, coarse grade sandpaper scoring and glue remains. When? Soon I hope. I need a real morale boost with this project and nothing does that better than progress and tangible finished parts!
Man hours: 0.25 |