Here's the score - or - Into the scrap pile...

The score is CX4 1 - Greg 0

I was doing okay starting the riveting of the center spar.  Then - the novice (me) messed up.  The rivet gun got away from me.  And I total destroyed the spar web piece (.040 sheet)

See the total destruction in the pic below:

So it's in the trash it goes (actually I'll save the pieces for scrap - but D***MN I'm mad at myself!  This is probably the first of what may be other screw-ups.  But I am not a happy camper...

I'll try to learn from this and move forward.

Grrrrrr!

Thanks for listening....

Greg.

How do you eat an elephant??

One bite at a time.

Building an airplane is a big project.  Many small tasks that result in a complex machine.

So - I took a few small bites tonight.  Marked out and drilled a bunch of rivet holes in my center spar.

About 40 holes drilled - twenty more marked out to drill and de-burr.  Some progress is better than not doing anything.

Going to finish drilling tomorrow morning and rivet complete riveting this piece.

Stay tuned and thanks for checking in!

Greg.

Center Spar - More Drilling and Rivet Preparation - 2 Hrs

Spent some more time drilling, de-burring, and generally preparing to continue riveting on the center spar.  It was warm today so with the door is open in the garage it was quite comfortable.  Should be warm all week so I hope to get more done on the center spar and start the wing spars.

I am being critical regarding my quality of drilling and spacing for the rivets.  Some mis-alignments.  Expected I suppose while learning new skills.  Before starting my CX4 project I had zero experience working with metal or drill presses, grinders, clamping etc.  This truly is a learning experience.  Guess it fits with the FAA definition of amateur built aircraft as stated in their documents.  As stated:

"Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR), part 21, section 21.191(g), defines an amateur-built aircraft as an aircraft “the major portion of which has been fabricated and assembled by person(s) who undertook the construction project solely for their own education or recreation.”

Emphasis on those last two words - "education or recreation"  It is educational - I am learning all kinds of new skills.  As for recreation?  Yes - I find it to be very relaxing and rewarding.  Until I screw something up.  Mis-drill a hole off center, buck a bad rivet, etc.  

In the following picture you can see my drilled holes include a couple of off center holes:

But I think those slightly mis-aligned holes are okay.  After all - I'm "building and airplane not a swiss watch" as I have seen it said on some other amateur built sites and message boards.

Here I am in a self taken pic de-burring the drilled holes.  I read somewhere that you should have pictures of yourself performing the work during the build process to prove you did work on your project during the DAR or FAA inspection of your build log. (of which I intend this to be) 

So here you go - for the record I am working on my center spar

De-burring the drilled holes that I will rivet later.

And just to keep it interesting - here I am lining up the center spar for drilling - probably this is the one that I mis-aligned while I was taking the self pic.  :)

As I move forward with the center spar I am considering using this as a "training piece" and trashing it at the end.  I have spent a bunch of hours on this part - and have learned but not quite perfected the skills and techniques yet.  So - If I mess up some more rivets or something I may just trash this work and start from scratch.  The raw materials I would have to trash includes two 35" pieces of aluminum angle, one 35" x 5 1/2" piece of .040 6061-T6 sheet, and two 35" pieces of 2024-T4 bar.  I have enough stock to redo.  And the angles are all reusable.  I'll make the call on wether to trash this piece or not later.  I would appreciate any feedback.  Take a look at my work as it progresses and let me know if this thing is a keeper or should I just use it as a learning experience...

And - Thanks for checking in.

Greg.

Riveting the Center Spar

Started riveting the center spar this Saturday.  After a bunch of practice (probably not enough) we started to commit to the process.  My son Greg helped and tried a few rivets too.  We did okay.  Maybe one or two to drill-out and redo.  But we are beginners after all.

Here is Greg trying out his new skills:

And here is some of the results:

May need to remove and replace that bottom right rivet in the above picture.  

Quite a few more rivets to buck.  Will continue later today and post results.

Thanks for checking in!

Greg..

So - Where is Spring???

First full day of spring.  Weather still in the 40's during the day and high 20's at night.  Not good for working in the shop.  I is COLD in there.  Can't get much work done so things have slowed down a bit.  Hands and fingers get cold after a few minutes.  Not to mention the feet on the cold concrete.  Okay - Maybe I'm a wuss.  ;)  But I find it difficult to work in such an environment.  I have been practicing my riveting skills though.  I am ready to rivet my spar pieces.  A bit apprehensive on undertaking the riveting.   Don't want to mess up my work with bad rivets.  I asked a good friend about it (an experienced aircraft mechanic) and he said to practice, practice, practice.  Makes sense.  So I have been banging some rivets into scrap pieces of aluminum.  I think my touch is getting better.  Maybe a few more dozen practice rounds before committing to the real deal on the spars I've worked so hard on.

I will probably be in the shop later today or this evening to get some more practice.  I'll snap some pics and add to the blog here for documentation.

Till then -

As always -- thanks for checking in.

Greg.

BTW - you will see ads on my blog.  These are put there by Google (owners of blogger.com)  If you find them interesting click on them.  If not - click on them anyway.  The more clicks I get - the more $$ I get to offset the price of rivets and other trinkets that I need for my CX4!  Really - just kidding - I would appreciate it though.

Be safe -

** Update **  Here are two pics of my rivet practice...

I need to get a rivet gauge to see if I'm getting them set correctly

- Two of my practice rivets - 

More Center Spar Drilling

About 2 more hours spent on the center spar.  Placing and drilling another vertical angle.  Getting a bit better.   Only measured and cross checked five times before committing to the drill.  I have found that drilling up from 1/8" works best.  Here is the work done this evening.

Also spent some time cleaning my work table.  It was getting quite cluttered and messy and I was having a hard time locating tools and parts as I worked.  A congested work area is not conducive to efficient and accurate work I have found.

Tomorrow I will drill the rivet holes - if my rivet spacing tool gets delivered on time :)

Thanks for checking in.

Greg -

Center Spar Drilling

4.5 Hours.  Two holes, two bolts, and a lot of learning.

That should be the title of this post.

I checked each part of the center spar to be sure it was de-burred and smooth.  Clamped the pieces together.  And drilled two holes tonight.

Clamping

Drilling first hole

I used my high speed electric drill for the first hole.  Pilot drilled with a 1/8" first then up drilled to 3/32" for the bolt.  I used six clamps and still had some minor material shifting problems.  Lesson learned here - you can't use too many clamps when drilling important parts.

I went into the shop at about 10PM and next thing you know - it's 2AM...

Gonna call it a day now before I do something stupid and mess things up.

Good night.

- And thanks for checking in.

Greg. :)