December 16, 2005
Toady was very productive.
First I bevelled the sounterbalance skin as it shows in the plans. I just used the scotchbrite wheel in the bench grinder for this.
Metal prepped and primed everything.
Incidentally, here's the iron I use to cut the blue plastic off the pieces. It's a Radio Shack propane soldering iron. I crank it up to the the hightest setting, and it cuts the plastic like butter. WAY better than a corded iron. $20, I think.
I masked off the counterbalance skin so I was only priming where the skins overlap. You don't want to put AKZO (or any primer, really) over anything that's going to be exposed. It'll just cause headaches for you painter later on.
All the parts are primed and ready to go. I have some time before Ellen comes home so...
Finished dimpling the skins...
And started rivetting the frame.
You need about 10 hands to assemble this rudder horn/brace/shim monstronsity.
I wussed out and used blind rivets on the bottom. Why? Because the plans say I can, that's why. Why make it harder than it needs to be?
Installed the counterweight and torqued it down. This will be permanently sealed up so there's absolutely no way to ever get to these nute again short of popping the tip and tip ribs off. BIG job.
So I mixed up some epoxy and microballons to make a slurry. I use West Systems. It's the best epoxy I've used to date. Even in warm weather, you get the full working time, and usually a whole lot longer than that.
I dabbed it over the bolt heads. These suckers are going NOWHERE anytime soon.
Ellen's back with the tree. Jommi approves.
Ellen made these cute little wheat stalk things. Very festive.
Now the first argument of the night. Do we use my colored lights or her clear lights?
I won round one...
She won round two...we ended up using both :)
Next we put up all these weird ornaments she got from her weird Finnish relatives over the years. There's still something missing though.
A yes...the tree topper. Snoopy will be keeping us safe from the Red Baron this year.
Ellen and Jommi "helping" me build the rudder...
Everyone have a very Merry Christmas!!!