RV-7 "After-Midnight Aircraft Factory"

[rvbuilder2002]

Taylor,
Quit wasting time with trivial stuff like building airplanes and get your school work done so you can get back to work.........

Looking good by the way, but it looks like a few of those skin stiffener rivets are under set

[jcarne]

Originally Posted by Tdeman

I've been scuffing lightly with scotchbrite, then using a damp rag, followed by a rubbing alcohol-soaked rag to remove debris/grease. The alcohol doesn't seem to cut the red lettering as hard as acetone would, however an extra pass or two does in fact remove it.
Perhaps I should switch from alcohol to acetone?

I'm sure an alcohol wipe is good, I think the point is mainly to remove oil residue from anywhere on the skin. I use acetone as it is superior at this (and because that's what everyone else does) I am surprised that alcohol doesn't remove the lettering, interesting...

[Bill Boyd]

Working in the kitchen - good job! I hope that continues to work well for you!

Our biggest regret rebuilding after the house fire 2 years ago is not putting the shop "off-campus" out in the yard. I can't run any tools or even accidentally drop a wrench without waking the wife sleeping overhead in our first-floor master. And the fiberglass dust and aluminum shavings that get tracked upstairs despite the doormat and the carpeted stairs drives us both crazy - mostly her. I make a lot of runs up and down the stairs in a typical work-session evening, so taking my shoes off as she suggests would gobble up a lot of work time, which as for many of us, must be carefully regulated and apportioned so as not to neglect wife and children.

Despite the downside to a backyard shop (long walk in the dark, need to run power and water, the big air conditioned and heated basement was already there needing only interior finish) I do wish I had done it - my useable work hours would be so much greater. There was the psychological perception that being right downstairs was not as far-removed from the family hearth when everyone else wanted to veg and watch TV, but that's an empty premise in retrospect.

[Tdeman]

Originally Posted by Bill Boyd

Working in the kitchen - good job! I hope that continues to work well for you!

Our biggest regret rebuilding after the house fire 2 years ago is not putting the shop "off-campus" out in the yard. I can't run any tools or even accidentally drop a wrench without waking the wife sleeping overhead in our first-floor master. And the fiberglass dust and aluminum shavings that get tracked upstairs despite the doormat and the carpeted stairs drives us both crazy - mostly her. I make a lot of runs up and down the stairs in a typical work-session evening, so taking my shoes off as she suggests would gobble up a lot of work time, which as for many of us, must be carefully regulated and apportioned so as not to neglect wife and children.

Despite the downside to a backyard shop (long walk in the dark, need to run power and water, the big air conditioned and heated basement was already there needing only interior finish) I do wish I had done it - my useable work hours would be so much greater. There was the psychological perception that being right downstairs was not as for removed from the family hearth when everyone else wanted to veg and watch TV, but that's an empty premise in retrospect.

Only work done in the house is the photowork! Everything else is either done in the hangar or the garage. (Except for leading edge rolling. I chose to wrestle those on the carpet where any sliding around of the rudder would not result in scratches on the skin.)

[Tdeman]

Originally Posted by rvbuilder2002

Taylor,
Quit wasting time with trivial stuff like building airplanes and get your school work done so you can get back to work.........

Looking good by the way, but it looks like a few of those skin stiffener rivets are under set

Thanks Scott!
One of my early rivets cracked on a 45* shear plane literally minutes after analyzing a similar compressive failure in class... I considered that build session "further research of in-class topics."

[Tdeman]

While browsing the VAF classifieds in January (for one last time before pulling the trigger on a factory QB 7 Fuse), an RV-6 project popped up at a near-quick build stage. A few phone conversations and a week later, a good friend of mine and I made a morning of flying out to Orcas Island to check it out. After looking it over, I decided it was a project I wanted to take on and ideally, be the one to finish.

Checking out rv-6 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

Checking out rv-6 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

It was an early 90?s shipped RV-6 that had changed ownership a couple of times, had relatively good workmanship, and was out of all (the big) jigs.

Checking out rv-6 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

Checking out rv-6 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

After arranging a truck for pickup, checking the ferry schedule and regulations to the island, and getting the space ready at home, I finally made the trip to pick it up.

RV-6 Pickup by Taylor de Man, on Flickr



The shared garage at home accommodated an empennage build previously, but I decided this project was ready for the hangar. With the hangar just 5 minutes from the house, and right on my way home from work, I?m hoping the whole ?offsite build? doesn?t slow things down too much.

RV-6 Pickup by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

The first week of evenings was spent organizing and inventorying parts, as well as making the hangar a build-friendly (see: lights) environment.

IMG_7816 by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

With all things in place, yesterday was the first day I was really able to get some work done on the project?

[Tdeman]

While there are some things I’ll need to go back and correct (possibly the firewall recess for example), I had just recently put together the sub panel structure on my dad’s RV-9, and decided to tackle that first while it was fresh in my mind.


With no prepunched holes, it was a series of careful measurements, double-checking measurements, cutting/drilling, checking fit, adjusting, repeat. I first fit the sub panel for height, level, and straightness. Drilled through the two halves and side mounts so it could be cleco’d in and out of place easily.

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr


From there, marked and drilled the holes for the ribs on the firewall, then transferred the holes to the ribs themselves. after some measuring, the sub panel notches were cut to allow the ribs to pass through.

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

Some more lining things up, checking for straightness etc, and the angle brackets were made and drilled in place for the outboard ribs.

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

Still need to make the center rib bracing and roll-bar brace mount, but it felt like a productive first day, and was nice to see some progress made on the project.

First day by Taylor de Man, on Flickr

[RV7ForMe]

Nice shop and looks like you found a nice kit! Keep the pics coming.

[kentlik]

Nice workspace! I can only dream of such things...

[Doug]

Well that acquisition just kicked you town the track by a year or four. Great workspace.