Oct. 22, 2001 -  5 hours

The empennage kit arrived at 1:30 this afternoon.  I had taken a late lunch to wait for the UPS delivery.  Two boxes  that appear to be no worse for the travel between Oregon and Iowa. 

The project started when I returned home from work.  Linda helped me inventory everything and we managed to find all the pieces.  I'm not sure how I'll organize the many small bags of rivets and small miscellaneous parts.  Linda was going to look  for some kind of a small organizer.  I sorted the larger pieces by major section.  I put them all on the rolling shelf that I made and under the work bench they went.

Like a kid at Christmas, I couldn't wait to get started.  I've read so many web pages about assembly (thanks folks for all the great sites that are out there) that as I was inventorying the parts, I was putting them together in my head.

I started out by clecoing the HS skin to the rear spar.  Then I drilled all the holes through the skin and the spar.  Here's me drilling the first of many holes.  This was a great move by Vans.  Give the anxious builder something to do right away that isn't complicated.  

Next on the agenda was preparing the reinforcing plates to mate to the rear spar.  I used a vixen file and broke the edges, then hit them with the Scotch Brite wheel and finally a finishing touch with the Scotch Brite emery cloth.

I finished up the evening by deburring and then dimpling the rear spar.

A good first evening. 

Oct. 23, 2001 - 3.5 hours

I inspected my work on the HS rear spar reinforcing plates (HS 409 flange strips) and decided to take a little more off the edge that lays against the corner of the HS spar.  Out came the Vixen file and then back to the Scotch Brite wheel.

I laid everything out on the HS spar and final drilled the holes including the different brackets, clecoing in place as I went.  I followed some other builders' trails and bought a hollow core door, ~$15.  This is a good investment.  It's straight and as you are laying parts out on the door, you can actually take a cleco and push it through the door without drilling a hole to hold it in place.

Drilled the HS-411 bracket and bearing flange, deburred the holes and squeezed the first of many rivets.  I couldn't adjust the ram down far enough to not over squeeze the rivets.  The shop head is a little flat.  The body of the 1/8 cupped die that I have is too long to work on the -6 rivet.  I attempted to lower the pressure on the air line and "feather squeeze" the trigger but decided that it would be impossible to have consistent results with this process.  Off to the computer to look for another die.  I found one on both Avery and Cleaveland tools web sites.  It is a 1/8" cupped set with a 1/8" body (made for pneumatic squeezers to squeeze -6 & -7 rivets).  I ordered this from Cleaveland as they are located in Iowa, about 3 hours away.  I can usually get stuff delivered next day without having to pay next day freight on their shipments.

Oct. 24, 2001 - 4.5 hours

I spent a lot of time trying to understand how to read a blueprint to build the HS-610.  I knew what it was supposed to look like, but I couldn't find the measurements of where to make the cuts.  I was beginning to get frustrated with myself.  I knew the measurements had to be called out on the drawing that I was staring at but I couldn't see them.  I finally went and grabbed my laptop and brought it to the basement.  (Great thing about having RF in the house.  I can carry my laptop with me and get the connection to the internet without all the wiring!) I opened up Phil Birkelbach site to look at how he had laid out the HS-610. I actually looked at the picture of Phil's layout and counted where the holes were and where the angle of his cut came out.  Geez... not very comfortable with this approach!  I'd had enough and wasn't going to cut aluminum based upon looking at a picture without measurements.  Back upstairs and grabbed the pre-plans, reading again how to follow the blueprints. I finally stumbled upon the correct drawing (C-C) on the smaller pre-plan drawings that showed EXACTLY how to make the HS-610.  Talk about feeling stupid!  Back down the stairs and laid out the HS-610. Measure, mark, cut, file and finish. Actually, it was pretty easy but time consuming.  First piece that you fabricate and you want to make sure that it is correct so you spend lots of time re-checking everything.

Drilled the holes in HS-610 & HS-611. Remember not to drill the holes called out in the plan drawing.

Aligned HS-602 with a string.  Aligned HS-610 & HS-611 onto the HS-602.  3-1/4" outside dimensions between 610 & 611, centered around the string. Drilled and clecoed together.

Enough for the night.  I guess it's obvious that I decided to work on the HS front spar before priming and riveting the HS rear spar.  I'll be able to prime more at once (less cleanup).

Lesson learned.  It's on the plans somewhere.  Usually right under your nose.  I need to plan ahead more.  Read, re-read, look at the next step, picture in my head what it is going to look like and what the next step is going to be.