What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

saving time after fuse

P

prkaye

Well Known Member
During the airframe construction, the big things that we can do to shave time off our builds are by going quick-build, or partially quick-build. I've been slow-building, but took advantage of pre-built tanks which saved me some time and grief.
Soon I will be finishing up with the fuse kit and moving on to the finish kit. In this second half of the project, what are some things we can do to speed things along, or save time? Any time-saver tips for the second half of the project from experienced builders would be great!
 
One thing that will save you many hours of headaches is to use stainless steel flexible hoses instead of bending aluminum tubing. See my post under REVIEWS.
 
Power Tools....

You are going to spend a LOT of time with fiberglass (an inordinate amount of time, considering these are metal airplanes...). If you want to save some time and speed up the work, go buy a disk sander, vibrating sander, and one of those little mouse sanders. And several boxes of media - The cowling, skirts, tips and pants will go a WHOLE lot faster this way....

Paul
 
>> You are going to spend a LOT of time with fiberglass

Doing what, exactly? Filling depressions with bondo or some kind of filler? Or are you talking about prepping the fiberglass for paint? Or something else..?
 
prkaye said:
>> You are going to spend a LOT of time with fiberglass

Doing what, exactly? Filling depressions with bondo or some kind of filler? Or are you talking about prepping the fiberglass for paint? Or something else..?
Click to expand...

Pinholes...and getting things to fit nicely...
 
pinholes... ah yes... i've heard about these mysterious pinhole things. Another skill yet to learn! I have avoided doing my fiberglass tips because I haven't the foggiest idea what to buy or what to do in this regard.

So, I have braided hoses and sanding gear on my list. Any other big time-savers??
 
Use the KISS idea...keep it simple stupid!! (Not that I'm in any way calling anyone stupid...)

Some ideas:

-Keep the panel simple
-If you don't keep the panel simple, have it done for you (hire out the work)
-Have someone else paint the plane
-Minimal interior

The list goes on. A lot of your future decisions will rest on how much of the work you acutally want to do yourself. If you want to save time hire out jobs like building your panel, paint, etc. It's going to cost more, but that's your call. Same thing with fiberglass work. If you want to shell out the money, I'm sure you can find someone else to do the work for you.

In the end, it's all up to you, but I think of it as this: If I want the project done faster, all it takes is more money. Which is more important? :)

Good luck. I like the paint scheme you have planned for your plane! :D
 
prkaye said:
So, I have braided hoses and sanding gear on my list. Any other big time-savers??
Click to expand...
FYI - Braided hoses have a life limit and should be replaced about every 10 years or so, maybe less.

Bondo is a no-no, there is aviation specific products, use those.
 
N941WR said:
FYI - Braided hoses have a life limit and should be replaced about every 10 years or so, maybe less.

Bondo is a no-no, there is aviation specific products, use those.
Click to expand...

Seems that was the way the old technology worked. The new Teflon is said to be unlimited.

Sam Buchanan said:
Brian, do some poking around on the Aeroquip site and other vendors for the final word, but all the homework I've done says teflon hoses have unlimited service life for use with fluids we have in planes. The rubber hoses have a suggested service life of 5-7 years, depending on who you ask.
Click to expand...
 
Wiring

Start thinking about your electrical system well in advance. I know this depends on your mission profile and equipment, but start thinking about this and getting it down on paper. Plan out your system before starting your electrical work and take into consideration where you're going to mount equipment and run bundles while you're doing airframe construction. This goes for the equipment that's located forward of the panel. Make sure it's accessable not only during the build, but make sure you can get to things for maintainablity purposes.

If possible, buy your electrical components at one time so they're on-hand as needed. This goes for various wire sizes. Nothing like running out of connectors, wire, BNCs, or what-ever when you really need it.

Keep as much open forward of the panel as you can, for as long as you can. Don't close anything out until you really need to. Simple parts like the firewall recess, and fresh-air inlet ducts fall in this category.

Per Paul's input, yes, look at doing pinholes early in the process when you can. You'll be glad you didn't wait until later. This is something that can be done in parallel with other tasks.

Anyhow,that's a couple of points I can think of.

Jim
 
Last edited:
One big thing you could do to save time is buy the quickbuild canopy kit.

Wait, that's right...there isn't one! :p Doh!!! That thing took 2.5 months of my life that I'll never get back. :eek:

If I become a repeat builder, I will loathe the day I have to start work on the canopy.
 
Bodyshop guys..

...would save you a lot of time if you take them the wheelpants, all the wing and aileron/elevator/rudder tips and let them fill and finish the surfaces with primer while you work on the finishing process. You'll need to install/glass the lower intersection fairings to the pants first....besides they're so much easier to fit before the wings go on so you don't have to crawl under them.

Regards,
 
Seems that was the way the old technology worked. The new Teflon is said to be unlimited
Click to expand...
That depends on how tight the bend radius is, the pressure of what you are moving, and the temp in the area where the hose is. Nothing man makes has an unlimited life. :D
 
stainless lines

What are the down sides to using SOME flex lines? If good quality stainless with teflon lines are used and properply fabbed by a quality shop other than a little weight is there a downside? I have already run mine, but due to some goofy rules in my country and the tri gear mounts in the way, i am having some issues figuring out how best to configure a gascolator on both wing roots, and the purge line back to the pre andair fuel selector point. Some of these spots are really tight and awkward, flex lines would be very nice. Why not?
 
High-build primer?

prkaye said:
pinholes... ah yes... i've heard about these mysterious pinhole things. Another skill yet to learn! I have avoided doing my fiberglass tips because I haven't the foggiest idea what to buy or what to do in this regard.
Click to expand...

On the pinhole issue, the idea of endless fill/sand/repeat on all that fiberglass on my 6 really put me off and when I talked to my painter about it, he told me not to bother because he'd probably just have to fix what ever I did anyway.

It only took him a week to paint it, so when I picked him up I asked him how he got all that fiberglass filling done so quick. He said he just used a high-build primer. I took that to mean he sprayed it with high-build and then just sanded the primer smooth instead of actually sanding through the pinholes and filling them, which is what the sand/fill/repeat thing does. Whatever he did worked. The paint was smooth as glass and had no pinholes, and still looked good when I sold the plane four years later. And it was probably a heck of a lot lighter without all that bondo on it.

So a couple of years ago, I did some bodywork on this Harley I rebuilt and instead of the endless put-it-on/sand-it-off routine, I just sanded the bondo down smooth once, then used a high-build rattlecan primer on it. I sanded the primer smooth but not off. It seemed to work great. But when I picked up the parts from the painter I asked if he had to straighten up any of my bodywork. He said "Yeah, after we sanded that cheap primer off, we had to work out a few pinholes, but it wasn't bad." Hmmm...

I don't know. Maybe there's a short cut there somewhere but I'm just not a good enough body man to make it work right.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top