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Re: Building tips and hints
hi guy's, wanted to post what we did to support the fuel line and wireing through the seat tunnel. used some left over alum, tubing from a rans s7 build and clamps to the air frame tubing.
also added a swing down fuse panel. hope someone can use this.
please keep the tips coming no matter how small, they are a great help.:D
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Re: Building tips and hints
One tool I absolutely love and might be a good idea on the Acrylic windshields and bubble doors is a Zero Flute counter sink. It is perfect for non chatter duburring of holes.
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Re: Building tips and hints
Fabric covering tip (this one's for Jiott):
I'm sure others have different ways to get the tape lines on the wing wrap straight, but this is what I found to work well. Make use of those chalk lines and don't make the mistake of grabbing black chalk (use the blue)...don't ask how I know that :D
http://www.azshowersolutions.com/Wing1.html
Dan
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Re: Building tips and hints
Spent yesterday working on the wing spars. Things went very well but I thought I'd pass along a small piece of wisdom. The spar inserts are a pretty snug fit in the spar tubes and can gouge the tubes if not inserted carefully. I've seen it suggested to use some sort of lube, but I was hoping to avoid that as I intend to slosh the insides with primer after the inserts are rivetted. I found that the long spar tubes will sag a very small amount when positioned on the building jig and that this slight curvature can cause the straight inserts to bind as they go in. Things go much better if the spars are laid flat on a table and even rolled back and forth a bit.
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Re: Building tips and hints
This is gonna sound pretty silly, but I stumbled on a pretty simple tool for marking the rib locations on the spars. If you've not done it yet, the trouble is making lines on the spar tubes so that they run perpendicular to the spar. I've seen folks simply wrap paper around the tube and that seems fine, but yesterday I noticed that the little cardboard tube that safety wire comes in looked to be the same size as the spar tubes. Well, it turns out that it is almost a perfect fit, being just a tiny bit snug. After a few seconds on my spindle sander the tube slides perfectly over the spar tubes and makes drawing the lines a snap.
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Re: Building tips and hints
The 5/16" Nylaflow tubing used for the rudder cable guides comes coiled in the kit, & will have a pretty good curve to it. Simply cut your sections of the tube to length, then put them in your oven at 180 deg. for about 2 minutes. They will straighten right out, and can be "helped" a little with your hands while they're still warm. Works great.
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Re: Building tips and hints
Wing Assembly - All Models with wing tanks.
If you plan on lacing the ½ rib under the fuel tank at rib location #2, you need to plan ahead. The rib under the tank is nothing more than a cap strip that you glue to the bottom of the fuel tank with scrap pieces of wood for spacers to form the profile.
Make a template of your planned rib stitch locations and transfer those marks to the lower cap strip. Then glue your cap strip spacers in position avoiding the stitch locations. You can plan on making a custom needle to reach under the cap strips.
John Pitkin
Greenville, TX
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Re: Building tips and hints
Rib Lacing - All Models
As suggested in the Polyfiber manual, you should make a full size template of your rib by tracing around the wing tip rib. Draw the stitch spacing on your template. I found this template to be invaluable. I made my template out of poster board. My cardboard wasn’t long enough so I joined two pieces with duct tape and cut out the pattern with tin snips.
Use a chalk line for layout of the rib lacing stitches on the wing. Blue chalk works well and is cleaner than red or black.
Pre-punch all the holes prior to lacing to assure even spacing of your stitches. Pre-punching the holes also speeds the job. Use a sharp needle for punching. When the holes are punched, blow the chalk line residue away with compressed air. Do not wipe the chalk line as it will imbed into the weave of the fabric. A faint chalk line may remain after using the blow gun, but any chalk will be sealed in next two coats of Poly Brush. The chalk will not affect you final finish.
The Kitfox has 1 inch wide ribs, but reinforcing tape is not available in 1 inch width. You must use two strips of 1/2 inch tape side by side. If you pre-punch the lacing holes before you apply the reinforcing tape you can use the holes as a guide for the tape. Do not let the tape overlap a hole as it will cause a dimple in the tape when the stitching is tightened.
Sharp needles are great for punching holes, but they are not good for locating the blind hole when lacing through to the other side. The sharp tip will snag the fabric inside the wing and make it very difficult to tell when you have the needle in position to push through. A dull needle with a smooth rounded tip is much better. A few seconds on the disk sander created a smooth ball tip. Simply push the dull needle through and feel for the edge of the rib on the opposite side. Slide the needle up and down along the opposite rib edge and it will pop into the pre-punched hole.
Rib lacing goes a lot faster if you have an assistant, but it’s not impossible to do it alone. I had my wing in a rotisserie jig so it was easy to flip. Vertical positioning worked best for me as I could reach over the wing to pull the needle through. When I was half way down the rib, I flipped the wing to put the trailing edge up and finished the lacing.
Because internal structure may get in the way of your needles, you may have to skip a hole when passing through, then double back to reach the desired hole. Rest assured, it is possible to reach every stitch location on the Kitfox wing.
John Pitkin
Greenville, TX
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Re: Building tips and hints
Good post John. I did a couple of things differently on my SS7:
To layout the rib stitch spacing I used a flexible 1" wide piece of fiberglass (actually a trimming off the wingtip) and laid it on the tip rib capstrip and marked the position of the trailing edge. Then I marked the 2.5" stitch spacing on this piece, doing my best to avoid internal structures. Then I moved this marked piece to the next rib and the next, etc. to check every rib to make sure my stitches would freely go all the way thru. I found that I had to readjust the spacing and starting point slightly, but when I was done every stitch was evenly spaced and lined up down the wing. Using this marked strip I then marked and prepunched the holes with the needle. Of course I also made a similar strip and transferred the markings to the opposite side of the wing, using a square to keep all the stitches parallel and vertical. This method avoids the chalkline and its mess.
When I actually stitched the ribs, all stitches went thru without problem and none had to be skipped and backtracked. There are many ways to skin a cat and this was my way for what its worth.
Jim
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Re: Building tips and hints
Rib lacing – All models
When you reach the end of your lacing cord, or the last stitch on a rib, you are left with a knot and short piece of lacing cord that must be tucked inside the fabric.
Trim the cord to about 2 inches long and turn a needle around backwards. Thread the cord through the eye and poke the eye end of the needle inside the exit hole. Hang onto the cord as you push the needle inside and the knot will drag down into the wing. Release the cord and push the needle a little further to slip the cord off the needle inside the wing. Be sure to hang on to the needle so you don’t drop it inside the wing!
Photo 1 shows holding the needle backwards with the cord in the eye.
Photo 2 has the needle poked inside the wing and the cord released.
John Pitkin
Greenville, TX
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Contaminated Syringes
So today I was running some epoxy primer through the insides of my drag/anti-drag tubes using the same animal syringes that I use for Hysol application. I took the syringe from its unopened package and squirted primer into one end of the tube and caught the runoff in a cup at the other end. I immediately noticed that the primer wasn't wetting out the surface very well but didn't think much of it. When I was done with the tubes I filled my paint gun with the runoff so that I could put a coat of primer on the brackets that attach the tubes to the spars. As soon as I began spraying I got the worst case of fisheyes I'd ever seen. My first thought was water in my compressor as I had been running the drill most of the morning. I drained the tank and still no joy. Well, I finally came to my senses and realized that the syringe had some sort of lube in it and that this had contaminated the whole enterprise. I cleaned things up, mixed another batch of primer and this time everything worked just fine. Bottom line is that those syringes need to be CLEANED before using, especially for something as critical as the glue that holds the wings together :eek:.
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Re: Building tips and hints
True story. about 15 years ago when I was building my kitfox I heard a tip about using an animal doctor's syringe to apply epoxy to the ribs. I looked everywhere around town but couldn't find one. I then had an idea to go to the local veterinarian office to get one. Sure enough they had them on a shelf with the horse doctoring items. They were very expensive...about $25.00. I went home and mixed up a batch of epoxy then opend up my horse syringe and found it was already loaded with horse medicine.
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Re: Building tips and hints
Glue syringes- All Models
We operate an equine training facility. In twenty five years I've never encountered a sealed, unused syringe with any kind of lube on the inside. If you do, I'm sure the FDA wants to know about it.
There are some products that do come preloaded in large syringes but it's pretty obvious. Ivermectrin, Zemectrin. Electrolytic paste, come preloaded in an oral application syringes. But you wouldn't be able to use them in your shop because they are already full with a very sticky paste. They are also about $12 each. Not your typical toss out syringe.
We get new syringes from Tractor Supply. They are about $0.80 each in bulk. They are sealed and sterile and never have lube.
John Pitkin
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Re: Building tips and hints
(John, I think Tom's story was suppose to be one of those strange, true, and funny stories. Having had horses all my life it made me laugh)
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Re: Building tips and hints
My syringes are from Exel and are sealed. I believe they are for feeding, not for needles. The manufacturer describes them as non-sterile. Regarding the lube, it was a minute amount, but you could actually see the tiniest little blob on the very tip of the plunger. You can say it ain't so, but I was there and it was.
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Re: Building tips and hints
While on the syringe thing...When I was building my plane I asked my wife (a dental assistant) if she could bring a few home to try with the gluing applications. She brought a straight one with about 3/8 diameter tube and a curved one (I think she called it an irrigation syringe...help me out Lowell ;) ). I fell in love with the irrigation syringe which is a tube of at least 1/2" ID. Usually had to snip off half of the curve to open it up enough, but these worked so well I had her buy a box at cost from the dental supply.
Dan
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Re: Building tips and hints
I buy the irrigaton syringes by the box and use them for epoxy and anything else I need to apply in precise locations and quantities. They are indeed lubricated by what I always supposed was a light silicone oil on the rubber plunger tip. I have never removed the lube as I remove the plunger and fill from the rear and the lube only touches the resin in contact with it and it is impossible to extrude that last bit of whatever. Mostly I use it for small quantities of structural adhesive and so far have had no adhesion issues I am aware of. After this experience it might be wise to at least wipe off the tip, or if planning on using it for a solvent based mix rinsing it off with acetone. I suppose with the primer, the solvent attacked the lubricant and it mixed throughout. The attached photo of a new syringe plunger shows just above the highlight on the left a small puddle of the lube. The other photo shows the syringe for a relative size - about 3/4" OD.
Lowell
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Re: Building tips and hints
Well, it just goes to show you there are lots of products out there and they are not all alike. Some syringes may have some sort of lube in them. If it is a silicone lube then it would definitely cause some fisheye problems with paint or primer. I don't know what it would do with Hysol.
Seems pretty easy to pop open the assembly and use a bit of denatured alcohol on the plunger as a bit of prevention.
JP
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Re: Building tips and hints
Knowing zero about syringes, I went online today and learned that sterile silicone oil is the industry standard lubricant used in medical syringes. A few cutting edge manufacturers use alternatives, but they all use something. I'll never use one for paint again, and I'll wash em before using them for glue.
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Re: Building tips and hints
This is what I use.
These are marketed specifically for dispensing epoxy. They are probably an adaptation of a medical irrigation syringe. The tip can be cut to adjust the size of the "bead."
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3M Car Bra Protection
I'm going to give credit to Desert Fox 4 for this one as he told me about wrapping the door areas with a clear protective film a while back. After seeing a few wear marks beginning to develop (due to getting in and out), I finally started calling around to see if I could find this stuff http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...otection/Film/
It took a few calls to various installers, but I finally found one that was willing to sell me a few feet of the stuff. It went on easy and now I'm less concerned about marring the paint in this area. :cool:
Thanks for the idea Steve
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Re: Building tips and hints
Dan, I'm pretty sure the film I used was not a 3M product therefore it has yellowed very slightly ( I don't care) from Sun and heat. You'll have no problem with the better 3M product over the same period of time.
Dan & I both have the model 4 wide body modification which makes this probably more important than for the stock model 4's but it's still a good solution to high wear areas where you want to maintain the paint scheme integrity.
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Re: Building tips and hints
Is this stuff tough enough and flexible enough to use as gap seal between the horizontal stabilizer and elevators?
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Re: 3M Car Bra Protection
It took a few calls to various installers, but I finally found one that was willing to sell me a few feet of the stuff[/quote]
If you are talking about the bottom square tubes of the door frames, i found that plastic drywall edging fit perfectly on my series 5. Trim it to fit and contact cement it in. 9 years later it still good as new. Bruce Lina N199CL
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Re: 3M Car Bra Protection
Quote:
Originally Posted by
airlina
I found that plastic drywall edging fit perfectly on my series 5. Trim it to fit and contact cement it in. 9 years later it still good as new. Bruce Lina N199CL
Nice Bruce, It's amazing some of the things we come up with when a need arises.
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Re: Building tips and hints
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SkySteve
Is this stuff tough enough and flexible enough to use as gap seal between the horizontal stabilizer and elevators?
Steve, I think this stuff would be quite possibly a good material for gap seal. It is very strong and certainly flexible enough. Adhesion is very good and it would stretch just a little. I have a little left over...might be an interesting test.
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Re: Building tips and hints
reducing bushings - all models
Sometimes I need a bushing to reduce the size of a hole. The seat belts on the Kitfox, for example, have 3/8 inch holes but use 1/4 inch bolts for mounting. It's not a precision bearing so there's no need to go to the lathe to make one.
In this case, I just cut a small piece off the end of some 3/8 aluminum tube left over from the stringers. Just a touch or two on the belt sander to flatten the cut ends and it fits perfectly
John Pitkin
Greenville, Texas
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Re: Building tips and hints
Cheap Metal Shears - all models
Need to make a straight cut in some thin sheet stock and the snips just don't do a good job?
It's easy if you have a metal shear but most home shops can't justify the expense for the occasional need. How about a $25 version that will do many of the smaller jobs.
Visit your local office supple and get a paper cutter. A paper cutter will slice through 032 Aluminum stock with surprising ease and it will still slice through paper after hundreds of cuts in aluminum.
You'll find lots of uses for it in the shop.
John Pitkin
Greenville, TX
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Gasket remover
Well I wish I would have though of this a lot sooner. But anywhere it says to remove the powder coat, don't waste your time sanding. It can take hours in the case of the rudder torque tubes. Instead go to your hardware store and buy permatex gasket remover. Tape off the area you want to remove the poweder coat, spray on the remover, and hit it with a wire brush. Finish up with a wipe of the rags. It takes seconds. For removing the powder coat from the inside of a tube I found using a plumbing brush for copper pipe to work well. http://www.beltco.com.my/catalog/ima...MA-500x500.jpg
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Re: Building tips and hints
That's pretty cool. I could have used that help when I was building.
How did you come up with this idea?
I wonder if it will work on my smoker to remove backed on crud and not be hazardous to cooking food.
I suppose you could wash everything off with soap and hot water after you used the remover but not sure I want to be the guinea pig on that idea.
Anyway, that's for the idea.
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Re: Building tips and hints
I use the stuff at work and it makes short work of all paints and gasket gunk so I thought I would give it a try. It is some pretty wicked stuff. I'm not sure if it would work on the baked on crud or the hazards but you might find somehtign you want to test it on.
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Re: Building tips and hints
You guys probably already know this but I was real pleased with my first use of solder sleeves in my wiring project. Someone suggested I try using solder sleeves to terminate the shields on my shielded wire (for radios, intercoms, ignition, etc.) I got some to try and Wow! Makes the job much easier and quicker than hand soldering or crimping to the shield. You can just slip a pigtail for grounding the shield into the solder sleeve and when you apply just enough heat to melt the internal solder ring it flows all around the connection and seals up the shrink sleeve ends with adhesive to make a neat and compact quality joint. Even I had a perfect result on the first try!
Solder sleeves are kind of spendy but worth every penny. The original brand is RayChem, but ACS and other avionics shops also sell a Japanese copy, Sumitomo solder sleeves, for about half the price.
Jim
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Re: Building tips and hints
I previously posted how great the Sumitomo solder sleeves were for work with shielded wire. I have to back off on that post and say that they were the reason I had to scap out my first intercom wiring harness. I found that there is not enough solder in the little ring to saturate the shield and some pigtails you insert into the sleeve, so the solder joint becomes kind of questionable. By pulling on the pigtail I found that some of them came loose rather easily. So I redid the whole thing. The second time around I made sure my pigtail and any bare wire was pretinned and then added solder to the joint before I put on the solder sleeve. This gave very strong joints but kind of defeats the purpose and convenience of the solder sleeve. Being a beginner at this I probably wasn't doing something right the first time around. Just be aware that there isn't much solder in the ring in the solder sleeve. I think hand soldering the joints the old way and then covering with shrink tubing is still a good way to go.
Jim
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Re: Building tips and hints
How I removed dry, brittle protective plastic from my aluminum flaperons.
I'm on my 2nd Kitfox project and found an easy way to remove the protective plastic covering from the aluminum flaperons that have been on for over 20 years. Some might have gone through this process and have their own way of handling this. I used Jasco paint stripper purchased from my local Lowes hardware store. Just a warning though, I used several pair of rubber gloves to protect my fingers, but the stripper is very nasty and will go right through the gloves and do a number on your fingers. Tape your fingers with masking tape first before putting on the gloves.
Enjoy the 3 minute demonstration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvTJyIaatCQ
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Re: Building tips and hints
Paul,
Very informative video. However, the absolute best part (for entertainment purposes) was the beginning: 20th Century Kitfox. What a hoot! Loved it.
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Re: Building tips and hints
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Re: Building tips and hints
Please don't critique the weld but this fitting on a tall bottle jack works well to lift a main. I Plan to put a broader base on the jack some day for stability.
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Re: Building tips and hints
Vertically alligning wing spar inserts
The wing build fixture end blocks as shown in the manual prevent you from looking into the root end of the wing spar and using a square to vertically align the spar inserts. I used my table saw to cut a vertical slot in the stop block. Now I can sight through the slot and line up the web of the spar insert with the edge of the slot.
Attachment 4819
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Re: Building tips and hints
When you are adjusting washout when you are rigging your wings, it can be hard to move the rear spar attach point with out going to far or messing up your front attach bracket. To aid in this I simply put a ratchet strap between the door frame and the bracket. One little adjustment moved it in place and held it there until i could verify the washout and tighten the spar attach.
http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...psb7936705.jpg
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Re: Gasket remover
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Esser
Well I wish I would have though of this a lot sooner. But anywhere it says to remove the powder coat, don't waste your time sanding. It can take hours in the case of the rudder torque tubes. Instead go to your hardware store and buy permatex gasket remover. Tape off the area you want to remove the poweder coat, spray on the remover, and hit it with a wire brush. Finish up with a wipe of the rags. It takes seconds. For removing the powder coat from the inside of a tube I found using a plumbing brush for copper pipe to work well.
http://www.beltco.com.my/catalog/ima...MA-500x500.jpg
I intended to pick up some gasket remover today but forgot it when I was in town. I decided to try MEK (which I have on hand) because I noted the other day it tended to make the powder coat a little sticky if in contact with it for any length of time. I found that by saturating a small rag (or piece of cotton) in MEK, wrapping it around the area where the powder coat is to be removed, and then covering the area with a piece of plastic (or tape) to keep the MEK from evaporating, within just a few minutes the powder coat became soft enough to easily remove with a soft wire brush.
Peter B