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Scooter's 8

RVScooter

Member
Welcome to my factory...

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Wait, that's not right. Let's try that again. Welcome to my factory.

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That's better. On one side, we have two EAA 100 work tables and on the other side is a 2x6x8 set of shelves with my HF tool chest and drawings in between. Those last two pics were from about 2 weeks ago. The building of the factory was expedited by what has been one of the happiest days of my life.

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Inventory went without a problem and I was giddy for the rest of the week.
 
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Greg, looking good.

The bed is a nice touch:rolleyes:

Have you considered putting the build tables on wheels??
 
I like it too, Greg. But definitely the second photo, not the first, :D

I remember that giddy feeling like it was yesterday. That's awesome!
 
Hey scooter, nice.. very nice. Is that a one and a half garage? I currently have a single car garage and was wondering if I should even attempt to start a build. I think I could at least get the empen and the wings done, and would have room for the fuse but would have to go outside or a hangar for mounting wings. But then yet again, I'm in Hawaii for the next 2 1/2 years and then I'll be mainland bound, that's where the real fun wil begin.

I do like your setup. Kinda what I need. Looks great! Keep us posted!
 
Mike, I actually did put caster wheels on the tables after I took the picture. I have found the desire to burn them has completely disappeared. Also that bed was going to be for those really late nights but I had to make room so work could happen.

Just last week, construction began with the building up of my cleco army.

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Rear spar assembly.

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Obligatory pic of the first rivet.

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Still catching up with the images. Should be caught up soon.
 
Hey scooter, nice.. very nice. Is that a one and a half garage? I currently have a single car garage and was wondering if I should even attempt to start a build. I think I could at least get the empen and the wings done, and would have room for the fuse but would have to go outside or a hangar for mounting wings. But then yet again, I'm in Hawaii for the next 2 1/2 years and then I'll be mainland bound, that's where the real fun wil begin.

I do like your setup. Kinda what I need. Looks great! Keep us posted!

This is just a one car garage. I have the same mindset for getting the emp and wings done here then moving. It'll be a bit cramped but I think I could also get the fuse done here as well with a significant amount of rearranging. In my down time, I'm trying to come up with a way to mount the emp and wings when they're done to get them out of the way. Best idea so far is to build something to suspend them from the ceiling above the garage lift door rails. Either that or somewhere on the walls. How far along are you on your build so far?
 
well I bought the preview plans for the 7 about two months ago. Oh man I was like a kid in a candy store when they arrived. And that's where I'm at.

The biggest problem for me is when I leave Hawaii in June of 2016, how am I gonna get my plane parts to where I am moving to. So I got a quote from POD, using one of their containers would cost me like somewhere in the range of $4-8K. Which I could do, because I will be gettin reimbursed for shipping my stuff (military). It's still a choice I'm gonna have to make now.

-Start the build and only do Empen for the next 2.5 years (Which could be shipped with my household stuff)
-Do the Empen, continue onto the Wings/Fuse. Which I will need to get a container of my own and out of my pocket expenses which will be reimbursed.
-OR just save as much as I can now, and go ape **** when I get to the mainland.
 
Haven't made an update in a while mostly because I've been building.

Rear spar assembly.

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Bending the parts was a scary step but unnecessarily so. I marked out a 6 degree angle on a piece of cardboard to measure the angles in bent parts.

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For bending HS-810 and HS-814 I stuck one end in a vise between two pieces of wood.

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I pulled with my hands to bend instead of using a mallet as suggested in the instructions. I feel like using my hands gave me more control than if I whacked the part with a hammer.

Bending the forward spars was pretty simple with a hand seamer.

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Front and aft spars.

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Ready to attach the skin.

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For some reason, the tip rib was not aligning correctly with the holes in the skin.

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5 points for anyone who can find the issue with it before getting to the next photo.

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Yes, it was backwards. Unlike the rest of the ribs the flanges should point outboard not inboard.

Assembled ready for drilling.

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Skipping past all the drilling the pre-priming assembly of the left horizontal stabilizer was finished. About a day later we have the right side caught up.

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Next up is to disassemble everything to dimple and prime to get ready for riveting.
 
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Hey Don,

Thanks for the heads up. I did miss that in the plans especially since it wasn't mentioned at all in the instructions. However, after looking at it for a while, I decided not to go back and add the relief cuts.

The main purpose for relief cuts is to prevent flaring when bending the sheet. When making a bend so shallow there isn't enough flaring to be significant. There is no structural advantage to the cuts and since the spars are already bent, it's not worth going back and fixing it.

Again thanks for pointing it out to me. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
 
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