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Canopy build order (vs. hanging the engine)

iamtheari

Well Known Member
My engine is coming sometime in the next week or two. My finishing kit is coming sometime in mid-December. As is only natural, I want to hang the engine immediately. I'm building a tail dragger, if that matters...

Section 38 is canopy and window. At 42 pages and 407 steps, it is the longest section by a considerable margin. (The nearest competition comes from the cowl (219 steps), gear and wheel fairings (246 steps) and cowl baffle (243 steps).

Section 40B is the engine mount and landing gear. Section 43 is the engine installation.

Is there any compelling reason why the plane cannot be put on its wheels and the engine mounted before the canopy is built? My rational reason for wanting to get it on the wheels and the engine mounted is that my build buddy is probably going to be instrumental to getting the canopy build well as he has a lot of fiberglass experience and I have almost none, but I can put a lot of solo time into the plane working on things in front of the firewall.

Also, I built my own workbenches and used my imperfect basement floor as a flat place to build them top-down, so having the plane on its wheels in the basement is probably a better resemblance to the final overall way the plane will sit than having it on top of saw horses and/or workbenches.

All thoughts welcome. I'm 3-5 weeks away from having any of the parts to do any of these steps, but I want to plan ahead as always. Thanks!
 
If you hang the engine prior to all that other work, you'll be walking around it constantly while doing all that other work. If you put the plane on the gear now, you'll be climbing 3 feet up/down every time you need to get in/out of the plane.

My choice was to level the fuselage (without engine) on supports high enough to mount & align the gear/fairings/pants, then remove them and return the plane to the low dolly. I used tiny metric flat head screws to attach the forward top skin at the canopy intersection line (clecos elsewhere), finished the canopy work, then removed the forward top skin for electrical/plumbing work. I'm really glad I did it that way.

FWIW,

Charlie

edit: If you don't have the finish kit yet, there's no reason you couldn't hang the engine & do hookup planning/prep, then remove for the rest of the work. The remove/reinstall will take a lot less time than the time wasted walking around it during the rest of the work. :)
 
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If you hang the engine prior to all that other work, you'll be walking around it constantly while doing all that other work. If you put the plane on the gear now, you'll be climbing 3 feet up/down every time you need to get in/out of the plane.

My choice was to level the fuselage (without engine) on supports high enough to mount & align the gear/fairings/pants, then remove them and return the plane to the low dolly. I used tiny metric flat head screws to attach the forward top skin at the canopy intersection line (clecos elsewhere), finished the canopy work, then removed the forward top skin for electrical/plumbing work. I'm really glad I did it that way.

FWIW,

Charlie

edit: If you don't have the finish kit yet, there's no reason you couldn't hang the engine & do hookup planning/prep, then remove for the rest of the work. The remove/reinstall will take a lot less time than the time wasted walking around it during the rest of the work. :)
For the 14, the engine mount is in the finishing kit. So I can?t actually do much until the kit arrives. :)
 
I have received the finish kit before the fuselage QB kit. I am in the process of cleco-ing the Canopy together.

I have not heard of anyone putting the canopy ahead of the fuselage. I hope that it works. I believe it should as all is riveted together and it will be the same no matter if I had the fuselage or not. Providing that I put it together square and level.

I built a 7A and I did not put the engine or gear on until I had most if not all the interior of the fuselage done. You want to keep it low to the ground to make it easier to get in and out. Doing panel, brakes, install seats, controls, floor, wiring, etc.

Just my 2 cents and it won't buy much.:)
 
FWIW, I resisted installing the gear leg as long as possible, specially for the canopy work. While most of the work for canopy is done on the bench, you will need to put it on & off and the added height does make it a bit harder and create opportunities for mishap. On the other hand, you want the warmest weather for the canopy if you can wait or just heat up your workspace. Drilling and cutting the canopy in cold raises the risks.

I thought the engine work was one of the easiest part of the build and it does not take long.

Good luck.
 
FWIW, I resisted installing the gear leg as long as possible, specially for the canopy work. While most of the work for canopy is done on the bench, you will need to put it on & off and the added height does make it a bit harder and create opportunities for mishap. On the other hand, you want the warmest weather for the canopy if you can wait or just heat up your workspace. Drilling and cutting the canopy in cold raises the risks.

I thought the engine work was one of the easiest part of the build and it does not take long.

Good luck.
I'm building in my basement. It has its own furnace. With the heat off it runs 65F but I can easily turn that up and/or add some localized heat to the canopy area on days I work on it. Question for everyone who is saying that having the fuselage lower is better: How low? Is there an ideal height? Mine is probably 30" off the ground as it sits right now (short sawhorses under spar carry-through and normal sawhorse with a cushion under the tail) but I can lower it to the floor, optionally on furniture dollies, if that's better. I still have to paint the interior, do the rudder/brake systems, aileron/elevator, flap, etc. And I can't lift the thing solo anymore. So wherever I put it, it will have a lot of work done at that height.
 
I had not thought of opening the canopy. :eek: My basement has a 9-foot ceiling height so I will have to measure and see if that is a constraint. I'm very glad I posted this thread!
 
I don't recall the exact height but the fuselage was around 20 inches off the floor. The same height as the finish kit crate.

I have a 9' ceiling in my garage and it just cleared when opened. Worked out nice. It doesn't fit when on the gear. The canopy came off before I put it on the gear and didn't go back on until I got it ready to move to the hanger. I had to put the canopy back on outside the garage.

picture-58.jpg


picture-67.jpg
 
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I had not thought of opening the canopy. :eek: My basement has a 9-foot ceiling height so I will have to measure and see if that is a constraint. I'm very glad I posted this thread!

Save the tape; it is a constraint. My work space has 2x10 joists (on 5' centers) sitting on 8' studs. when I open my RV-7 canopy, it goes up between the ceiling joists with the belly about 10-15" off the floor. i'd bet your -14 canopy is at least as big as a -7's.

Charlie
 
I don't recall the exact height but the fuselage was around 20 inches off the floor. The same height as the finish kit crate.

I have a 9' ceiling in my garage and it just cleared when opened. Worked out nice. It doesn't fit when on the gear. The canopy came off before I put it on the gear and didn't go back on until I got it ready to move to the hanger. I had to put the canopy back on outside the garage.

picture-58.jpg


picture-67.jpg

I like using the crates for my QB fuse, easy access to the tub. Would I be able to join the tailcone down that low?
 
My fuselage had a couple configurations during the build. For some of the time, I took advantage of the through spar and used 2x4 legs bolted into the through spar and the wing attach bolt holes (be careful not to mar the holes). These legs had the bottom skin about 12-18" off the floor. This was the configuration during a lot of the interior work including avionics, canopy fitting, etc.
2w5k38z.jpg


At other times, I used a rotisserie - such as for installing panels and interior painting.
25zh35h.jpg


I had the fuselage in each configuration at least twice.
 
Are those engine stands on both ends of your rotisserie setup? How did you attach the tail to the stand? The firewall end is pretty obvious from the picture and I like your ideas.
 
Yes, indeed, those are engine stands - Harbor Freight, and I think about $50-60 each on sale. The only modification is to remove (don't install) the wheels on the legs and instead use a 2x2 board (to get the rotational axis horizontal). I make no claim for this design - I got the ideas from others posts on VAF.

Here are the modified stands:
2z8vo6e.jpg


Here is the firewall mount and stand (2x4s, deck screws, engine mount holes and some custom shaping to fit the outer skins):
140hhdf.jpg


Here is the tail mount off and on stand (a custom fitted 2x4 bolted to the tail/fuselage bulkhead, more 2x4, deck screws). Note: this first attempt shown without the stand did NOT work.
9a6cgo.jpg


Look at this second picture closely - an additional 2x4 has been added to lower the rotational axis below the bottom of the fuselage at the tail:
sb7erm.jpg


The key is to have the center of rotation at each end aligned and in the right place to maintain rough balance (not too top heavy), yet high enough to clear the stand and floor. The HF stands have pins to lock the rotation so that even though the balance is not perfect, you can secure at 45 and 90 degree rotations.

I would go through the effort of a rotisserie again - it was worth it. YMMV
 
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