“FUN” WITH STRINGERS
Today was a rare occasion of just having to gut it out. In some of the builder logs that I read, some people really enjoy the straightforward task of making stringers or ribs for various parts and pieces, but for some reason these stringers just drove me nuts. I stuck with it though and rather than trying to tackle this in small bites, I just stayed up and got the work done all at one time. Here are some pictures and the overall process, but as I allude to in the title, I’m going to try and avoid saying terrible things about stringers, so this may be a brief post.
So here is the basic process to make a ton of stringers that will end up connecting the tailcone pieces I built yesterday:
- First, Van’s recommends keeping the blue vinyl on each piece. Oops. Didn’t do that. Not off to a great start, but also not a huge mistake at this point. It isn’t structural just an ease of use item they mention. I’ll live.
- Mark and cut all of the pieces to length
- Chamfer the ends to 45 degrees, but only on one of the two surfaces. My bandsaw is not equipped to handle this. Also, this is a material called J-tubing, aptly named for its approximate shape. I ended up using hand tools and then grinding down and deburring to a final exact shape. This worked extremely well, but was time consuming. Certainly not a method I would recommend, but it got the job done.
- Debur everything in sight. The entire length of all pieces and angles.
LONGERON REDEMPTION
I know it sounds like I’m complaining about this, but I guess that’s because I am. This was just a lot of tedious work that was not nearly as satisfying as seeing the parts come together yesterday. But such is the life of building an aircraft, overall it wasn’t terrible, just necessary. I ended up getting a second wind and decided to do one more step and drill out and bend the longerons from stock angle aluminum.
First you are required to cut out these notches in a fairly specific shape. Not difficult at all.
Now the fun part. You place them in a bench top vise, pre load one end, and hit it with a rubber mallet until you get about a 5 degree angle deflection at a specific location on the pieces. I don’t know if it is luck, skill, excellent directions from Van’s or a little from each column, but this was a quick process and pretty satisfying to complete. The final check step is to lay each piece on top of its corresponding skin to make sure you got the angle correct. It was spot on. You couldn’t have been more precise with a machine. Okay – you can tell I’m a bit proud of this one. Bed time.
Total time today = 4 hours
Total time empennage = 134 hours
Total time aircraft = 134 hours