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Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 11:54 am
by bobthebuilder
Thanks guys. I needed a bit of a push.

Here goes .....
I finished blocking the table a few weeks ago. It now looks like this:

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I was REALLY nervous about bending the longerons, even though I had bent a few samples first.
One of my concerns was that of burning or marking the table. I had thought of making up a steel or aluminium spacer to place between the wood and the red hot 4130 tubing. This should protect the table right? Hmmm ... But! .... It would effectively create a heat sink that would cause the tubing to cool rather rapidly, and harden it. Eventually I figured that there wasn't really an option but to burn the table.

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Now that it's over, I'm not really sure what the fuss was about!
The tubing, once cherry red, actually ignites the chip board surface once placed between the wooden blocks.
I tried to keep the torch away from the wood as far as possible.

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Now the fun stuff starts again. Notching the tubing is really fun and rewarding.

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Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2013 7:10 pm
by avgas
(^^) (^^) (^^)
well done :wink:

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 8:42 am
by Robbie Shaw
Bryan ..... Like i said if you need help call me....

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 11:33 am
by bobthebuilder
Thanks Mate.

Oh ... sorry, forgot to reply to your SMS.... I will have your camera bracket ready on Thursday.

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:22 pm
by Robbie Shaw
You are a * many thanks ..... Remember Thursday (radio check)... Please confirm....

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 6:48 am
by bobthebuilder
It's been a while since I updated this.
Work on my S1 didn't stop, but it slowed a lot while we delt with some business expansion issues.
You know ..... life happened!
I try to do something EVERY night. Even if I only drill one hole, cut one notch, it will eventually get done.

Anyway .... I started notching tubes for the fuselage truss using a 5/8" Dremel sanding drum. It worked ok, but took around an hour or so to complete a notch. The finish and fit was pretty good, but I couldn't get a 3/4" sanding drum for the bigger tubes. Man! ..... There had to be a way to make this go faster!

Shopping time!
I read about all of these hole saw type notchers. The guys that had them ranted about them, so I ordered one from Aircraft Spruce and waited two weeks for it to be delivered. I couldn't wait!!! I was so excited .... you know, like a chick in a shoe store!
When it arrived, the box seemed a bit smaller than what I expected, but hey! ..... this was it! The OL JOINT JIGGER!!! Whoooo HOOOO!!!!

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The general quality of the tool is pretty good. Nice anodized aluminium finish. I would rate it about 8/10.
I really didn't want to get it dirty, but I had to give it a go. I fitted a hole saw, clamped a tube into the thing, and spun the drill up! An impressive plume of white smoke appeared as the oil on the inside of the tube burned away. The drill started to jump around, as the teeth sheered off the hole saw. It got worse, it didn't notch the tube, but rather kind of ripped it up. The finish was bad ... to be polite.
OH F@#K!!!

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One hole saw per notch. This was going to be expensive. I went to the local hardware, and bought all of the 5/8" hole saws they had in stock.... like twelve of them. After hours of experimenting, I couldn't get a neat, well finished notch. The teeth on the hole saw seemed to be way to course for the thin walled tubing I was trying to notch. Nobody said that in any of the reviews I read. I gave it up as a bad idea and sulked for a few weeks.

If you are looking to build a roll cage for your wives car, it may suffice. But don't waste your time or money if you want to notch thin walled aircraft tubing.

Back to the drawing board!
Three months later, this baby emerged:

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The tube is clamped in a lathe chuck and can be rotated to notch the tube on both sides. The notching is done by a sanding belt. I made two rollers to suit the two different sizes of tube I will be notching. It works pretty well and can cut a notch in about a minute and a half. Mission accomplished!!!

WAIT A MINUTE!
I could have notched all of the tubing for the entire fuselage with a Dremel in less than three months!
What a waste of time!!!!
Ahhh! ..... I enjoyed it anyway!

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Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 6:55 am
by bobthebuilder
The fist of the two fuselage sides is ready to be tacked together.
If you didn't fuss around to much, one could probably accomplish this in a week or two.
It took me around four months. Don't get me wrong! ..... it was loads of fun.

some pics:

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Questions to my AP:

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Although I wanted to cut the "excess"tubing away, I was advised not to, because it forms a double wall, and in the landing gear area, strength ain't a bad thing.

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 9:05 am
by Jean Crous
vhpy I can now understand why you are " Bobthebuilder".................dang ! that is one smart idea to notch the tubes (^^) (^^) (^^)
Jean.

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 7:11 pm
by avgas
Damn nice tool you arranged! sell it to Spruce vhpy
Those notches are first class (^^) (^^)

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 7:24 pm
by JvTonder
Byron who are you trying to kid, surely not us? The only reason you bought the Sonerai plans is so that you could built all your fancy tools :twisted: :lol: :lol: The plane is just the cherry on top. (^^)

:wink:

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2014 10:24 am
by Jean Crous
JvTonder wrote:Byron who are you trying to kid, surely not us? The only reason you bought the Sonerai plans is so that you could built all your fancy tools :twisted: :lol: :lol: The plane is just the cherry on top. (^^)

:wink:
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: ** **

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 6:15 pm
by bobthebuilder
:oops:
Oh dear!!!!

I have just made six tube support legs to support the longerons while drilling.
Guess the appropriate name for them would be "Little Jaco's" :lol: :lol: :lol:
Pics to follow shortly.

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2014 10:10 pm
by JvTonder
:-) Ou grap gat LOL?

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 8:43 pm
by bobthebuilder
The metal workers have gone on strike and I've had to close up my workshop and send the staff home early. We have been forced out four working days in a row, so maybe it's time to head the warnings and stay away for a few days before things get violent. I had hoped that the cold weather today would make the strikers re-think their demands, but that wasn't the case. We don't have any union members, but the intimidation, and threat of violence is becoming intolerable. Thugs!

So! .... what now? I'm bored sitting at home.
Being able to have lunch each day with my lovely wife has been fantastic. I have even been able to pick the kids up from school which I never get to do. Seeing their smiles of surprise when they see dad at the fence each day has been truly wonderful!
There has even been time to work on my Sonerai.

The Main Spar Carry Though components were cut a few months ago, but were put aside because I had no idea of how to put the thing together accurately.
As always, it wasn't that difficult.
A small confession ... [blush] .... I cheated!
All of the parts were laser cut. The front and rear cap plates, the spacers, and the rear plate. Even though they were laser cut, and the finish was pretty good to start with, I still spent a few hours cleaning them up by blasting them with a fine glass bead. [brainless, but therapeutic in its own way]

Assembly of the cap plates ....
Some sort of jig .... thing .... spacer was required to keep the spacers parallel when welding.
I started by cutting a sheet of regular mild steel plate to the width of 6". I bent the ends up, you'll see why later.
Jig .... thing ... spacer done. (this was also laser cut ... [blush] - lazy guy with no skills!)

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The above plate was used for two things, firstly to tack the spacer plates to the cap plates and keep the spacers parallel to each other, and later to tack the square tubes to the plates.

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After tack welding, they looked like this:
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The square tubes were cut and blasted with a fine glass bead to remove the scale and prep them for welding.

I didn't think to take a picture of the jig .... thing .... spacer in position before welding, but it went inside, between the square tubes like this:
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The rear plate was welded to the square tubes first, the cap plates with the spacers already tacked went on afterward. I clamped the whole assemble together in a bench vice with blocks of wood to protect the parts. Each part was fitted one at a time in the vice. It took around six or seven hours of clamping and tapping with a small hammer to get things properly aligned and tack welded. I used a vernier to check after each tap with the hammer. A steel ruler was used to check that everything was straight too.
The two top square tubes were tacked together to within 0.2mm across the full length. This was before it was fully welded. I was sort of happy with that.
Stefan over at Kitplanes for Africa kindly helped to weld the entire assembly together. I explained that it was "almost parallel" but was rather concerned to hear that the heat from the welding would distort it anyway, so the level of accuracy I tried to achieve really wasn't required.

They did a FANTASTIC job!

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It actually didn't distort much at all after welding.
The square tubes are exactly parallel.
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Many thanks to Stefan from Kitplanes for Africa for his assistance.

Re: Sonerai One - Serial Number 012412-1179

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:52 pm
by bobthebuilder
The Main Spar Carry Through interrupted my progress with the fuselage, because I need to finish it first to determine the gap between two tubes on the fuselage.
Now that it's done, complete with with a sexy coat of green zinc chromate, I could focus on the fuselage again.

All of the tubes were previously cut and notched and have been on the jigging table waiting to be welded for months now.
The tubes still had to be drilled at each intersection to allow the hot gasses to escape during welding, and also to allow the linseed oil, which will eventually be poured into the structure, to flow between the tubes. Each tube was carefully centre punched, and was drilled with a 2mm drill bit.

To find the hole center, I turned up a pencil holder to the diameter of the truss tubing, and put a hole in it to clamp one of those silver welding pencils.
It was then fitted between the various table blocks and rubbed up against the corresponding tube.

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They came out looking like this:

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In terms of time, it took two evenings to mark, centre punch and drill one side truss.

Before tacking, all of the tubes were blasted with glass bead to remove the mill scale from the tubing.
Some of the tubes were too long to get into the blasting box, so I drilled a hole on either side to push the tubes through the side. They were later plugged with cap screws. (visible in the pic)

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Bits now look like this:
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Time to tack it all together ......

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