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Re: First, Build a Shed
Another learning experience was deciding to use solid rivets on the trailing edge of the flaperons. "Spruce" offers a wide assortment of solid rivets and, surely, the AN470AD "hard" rivets must be the best for this job. I used the familiar "Ground Down Vise Grip Pliers" as a rivet tool and practiced squeezing two or three in some scrap aluminum. As my grandfather would have said, "It'll take two grown men and a young boy to install these!". A couple of days later an assortment of AN470A "soft" rivets arrived and the flaperon trailing edge was riveted.
If you have a use for an assortment of hard, solid rivets they are free for the asking. There are small bags of AN470AD-4-3, 4-4, 4-5, 3-3, and 3-4.
If you are considering using solid rivets on the flaperon trailing edge, the softer AN470A-3-3 might suit.
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Re: First, Build a Shed
I thought the soft rivets came with the hardware kit. They did with mine.
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Re: First, Build a Shed
This time of year East Texas sometimes gets a few days of clear, dry weather with temps approaching 70 (F). Managed to time three coats of varnish and a couple of brushed coats of Stits Exoxy primer on the spars and drag tubes. Very fortunate to do this job with the garage doors opened. A couple of neighbors stopped by while out for a walk, but they knew all about Huckleberry Finn and whitewashing fences so I had no luck passing the brush around.
The ongoing projects at this stage are the flaperon linkage and the Laker Leading edge.
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Re: First, Build a Shed
I saw a bag of soft, counter sink rivets and the manual mentions you might want to use solid rivets if you have the tools. But the inventory on the drawing calls for tiny pop rivets. I was concerned the solid rivets would be required later in the project so ordered from Spruce.
The builders with multiple Kitfox projects under their belts must breeze through these steps.
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Re: First, Build a Shed
Yes you are right, the manual called for pop rivets, but I used the soft solid rivets and there were tons left over for their other purposes.
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Re: First, Build a Shed
I bet they do work way more efficiently than we who are building our first. I spent hours fabricating two shelves and mounting my Garmin and my VPX module to them only to find out a day or two later that the shelves I made actually came in the firewall forward kit that I had not inventoried yet. Anyhow, I disassembled what I had made because Kitfox makes theirs bigger than I did. All redone now.
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Re: First, Build a Shed
Big push on the flaperons over the last couple of days.
The pictured factory tip is just a test fit. The final placement brought the trailing portion tighter and just a little work with Superfil will have it ready for painting. The balsa tips on the tail feathers wasn't that difficult but I appreciate this simple, quick solution from Kitfox.
Aligned and drilled the flaperon control horns then assembled and drilled the trailing edge hinges. The workbench height worked out nicely with the rotisserie. All of the hinge parts were assembled on the flaperon and the positioning was obvious. The Popsicle sticks at either end acted as base and target for a laser ruler to make sure the #1 and #9 fittings were parallel.
Postponing the counter weights made this an easier operation. At this stage I won't be able to resist reassembling the plane and waving the control surfaces around. It will be a good time to double check that no steps were skipped and make a more organized version of the "Don't Forget To" list.
One correction, in the interesting of not leaving inaccurate information on the forum. It was Tom Sawyer not Huckleberry Finn who was whitewashing the fence for Aunt Polly. Huck was surely out fishin' or, though I don't remember it mentioned in the book, buzzing the church with his Kitfox!
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Re: First, Build a Shed
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Re: First, Build a Shed
Looks good Carl.
I know what you mean. I intended on assembling the thing without fabric, pushing it out into the sun and taking pictures. Ehh, too much to do to waist more time than I have already. Your almost ready for covering! Have you ordered your Oratex yet? Count on 6 weeks lead time.
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Re: First, Build a Shed
Haven't ordered Oratex yet but the time nears. I have a few more decisions and tasks to do before fabric time and need to make a list and tentative schedule so I don't have bottles of glue expiring.
Took another look at Stewart Systems with the idea of completing up to the final top coat, then moving the fuselage and wings to a friend's paint booth about 45 minutes away. The topcoat would be a 3rd party, perhaps Ranthane, since there have been too many reported problems with Stewart's top coat. I'm a complete noob at spraying and don't have the skills to do this work. What killed this approach was the necessity of having a paint booth to spray some of the undercoats. It didn't take too much though to nix the idea of building a temporary paint booth in our attached garage.
I'm not going to go through the dollar calculations to compare Stewart's to Oratex. It comes down to the fact that, with Oratex, I can do the work myself in the attached garage and keep the project moving forward.