Dust Control

Been steadily cleaning out the basement.  We've disposed of dozens of bags of trash, recycle, and donations.  Dust has been a real problem, mostly due to the concrete floors slowly disintegrating.  I cleared half the basement and applied a concrete sealer to the floor.  It's been tricky to get it to stay down but a couple of coats seems to cover it.  It's not perfect, but it seems to be keeping the dust down.  We had some foam tiles laying around, so I put those down.

Another day and I'll be ready to start moving the bench and tools back in.

New Workbench Surface

I've been slowly organizing my tools and improving my workspace.  Doesn't make for very interesting blog posts, but it's getting me closer to resuming the project.

Tonight I finished resurfacing the workbench with some fresh MDF.  I cut the board to size and now I have a nice, level work surface.  Much better than the rough 2x6 planks that were there before.  I also added some cross-beams to stabilize the bench.  It's solid now.

Stacey was a trooper last week helping me carry the heavy sheets into the basement.

I think it would be a good idea to cover the surface with plastic.  I think MDF will soak up any liquids that spill on it, and that will ruin the surface.  Post a comment if you have any suggestions for what to use over the MDF!

Getting Organized

Well hello.  It's been quite a long time.  A lot has happened since my last post.  I've changed jobs twice, I now have two awesome boys, and I bought a '65 Cessna 172F with a couple of partners.

All the while my empennage has been collecting dust in the basement.

Recently, my younger son, now 7, has been asking if we can build the plane.  He loves building things and he's really good at it.  How can I say no?

In all this time my tools have become scattered throughout the house and it's been so long that I barely remember where I left off.

Harbor Freight had a sale this weekend, and I picked up some toolboxes.

They're not the biggest or the best, but I got a great deal and now I'm motivated to organize my tools, take inventory, and make progress.

Thankfully I took decent notes during my build.  I had checklists for each subassembly, and if there was anything I needed to come back to, I noted it.  After I get my workspace in order, I'll go through my logs and get reacquainted with where I left off.

Stay tuned!

Built painting/drying screen

It's time to prime. I spent some time tonight getting my garage ready for priming. I built what's essentially an oversized cooling rack - the kind of thing you'd put cookies on to cool. It's approx. a 4x8 frame with chicken wire attached. Nothing fancy, but it will be very handy when I'm prepping and priming parts. It can be used for drying parts after alumiprep and alodine, and it can be used to hold parts while spraying AZKO. The hardest part was finding the darn box of screws I purchased for this.

Time spent: 2 hours (76 total)

Cleaned the Basement

Not exactly the most exciting task for a new builder, but a necessary one. Over the two years we've lived here we have somehow amassed a treasure trove of junk - junk that has sprawled across the once spacious basement that will now serve as my workshop. Oh well, I'm sure this is just the first of many cleanup sessions over the coming years.

One thing I noticed tonight is that my basement stairs walk straight up to our back door. I had always expected to complete my empennage kit in the basement, and then I thought I would have to move up to the garage. However, I might just get away with building the wings in the basement too. I'd like to hold off on moving to the garage as long as I can for two reasons. First reason is we park our vehicles in there, and I am not anxious to go back to clearing eighteen inches of snow off of our cars. Second, though it's an attached garage, it gets mighty cold in the winter, and awfully hot in the summer.

Before I order the wing kit, I'll have to build a mock wing out of cardboard to see how easily I could extract it from the basement. Note to self: wings are not perfectly flat. I know a fellow who tried this same exercise and mistakenly concluded that his wings would fit through his bulkhead. Unfortunately his cardboard cutout was just flat cardboard and the thickness of the wing was enough to give him trouble. My mock wing should be shaped like a wing not only in length and width, but it should also have the right thickness.

After reading and rereading the plans, it looks like I neglected to pick up a couple of small tools. Unless I can find them at a local shop, I may have to wait for another order from Avery before I can get too far. Hopefully I'll be able to start some assembly this week.

It looks like my primer from Aircraft Spruce will be here tomorrow. Maybe I'll spend tomorrow evening getting familiar with the etching/priming process. In that area I'm as green as they come - I've never even used a sprayer. Luckily I still have a half-assembled practice project I can practice with.