[NovaBandit]

As part of my 10 build, I wanted to attempt to capture a good portion of the build in time-lapse video.

Last night, I was assembling the vertical stab for the first time, and final drilling the skins. I had clecos in every other hole or so, and I would drill all open holes. Then I would move each cleco over one, and drill all the open holes again.

This works great, as long as you remember to move all the clecos! I managed to forget to move a line of clecos, and those holes never got drilled. I wouldn't have caught it until riveting, except after I was done building for the night, I put the time lapse together, and was watching the video while tweaking the speed. That's when I saw my mistake.

I had already taken the skin off, but it only took a few minutes to pop it back on and final drill the missed holes.

The moral of the story, when you're working in the shop alone at night, an electronic eye can be a good build buddy!

You can check out the video in question here:
http://www.edandcolleen.com/?p=111

 

[bkthomps]

careful with dogs around aluminum shavings and steel shavings

ask me how i know

 

[ppilotmike]

Cleco every hole

That's why i cleco every hole when match drilling. I start by removing one and then move them right to left as I drill down the line. This way, I never miss a hole. If I have to stop in the middle of a long line, I mark my stopping point with a circle around the hole and an arrow in the direction I was drilling. Now before some of you call "bah, humbug" on clecoing every hole, you should look into a pneumatic cleco runner. It looks like a pistol with part of the barrel missing. It makes clecoing / unclecoing a non-issue. Hands don't wear out and it's fast. IMHO, it's worth $100 when you realize how many times you'll be clecoing and unclecoing in a build. I still use my hand pliers when there's not many of them, but for long runs, nothing beats a cleco runner! My $0.02..

 

[Jamie Aust]

what worked for me, i would cleco every other hole when match drilling.

The hole with the cleco in it would would get a black mark next to the cleco, so I would know,
1) if a cleco was still in the hole,with a black mark ,I had not moved it to match drill.
2) i could leave the project, when I got back to it, I could see what still needed to be done.

Another thing I would do before riveting, is run my finger over the rivet line slowly, this would help me see if I have missed to dimple any holes.

 

[randyintejas]

I use a blue sharpie and mark where all the cleco's are and then move them. Missed a lot of holes until I started doing this and now never. I also celco every 3rd hole

 

[Flyin'Bryan]

What is your cleco and drill method??

That's why i cleco every hole when match drilling. I start by removing one and then move them right to left as I drill down the line. This way, I never miss a hole.

He he. There is always the first time Mikey!

Ed -very interesting how you put this together. By using this method there will be no question from a DAR or the FAA that you are the one that built your airplane.

I can even see other extended uses for this technique such as helping to remember which side of the part was the top or bottom, or the left or right, after priming everything and forgetting which side is which. Ask me how I know.....

Now, where is that darn camera instruction manual so I can figure out how to setup the time lapse....

 

[longranger]

My (anal?) method:

1. Cleco every other hole.
2. Drill unclecoed holes.
3. Mark drilled holes.
4. Move clecoes to marked holes
5. Drill unmarked holes
6. Mark unmarked holes

This leaves a mark on every drilled hole so I don't have to remember whether or not I finished a side...

 

[diamond]

Not only are these time lapse videos entertaining, but they are of great educational value as well. I plan on doing this when I start my build this summer. I have a half dozen motion activated game cams I built years ago and can adjust the photo interval. I think one of those would work well, but would love to hear how others accomplish this.

 

[fehdxl]

I had already taken the skin off, but it only took a few minutes to pop it back on and final drill the missed holes.

The match hole technology in this case is so precise, I would have just opened up the missed holes with a #40 separately and then proceeded to debur. The downside is you have to do twice as many holes since the two pieces aren't cleco'd together. There's enough variation in applying the skin the second time and especially once dimpled, that you would not be able to tell any difference.

Just another person's viewpoint.

-Jim

 

[Caummisar]

Loose the TV

If I can be so bold as to offer a suggestion gained from experience. Loose the TV. It takes your eyes off your project. Listen to the radio (Sirius radio etc.), you can listen and keep your eyes and hands on your work....TV will significantly extend your build time! Watch your own video and see how much time you look up at the TV. BTW, does that Firebird have a snow plow on it?!

 

[Flying Scotsman]

Second that suggestion to mark drilled holes as you go with a Sharpie. Still, I had maybe a half-dozen random holes that for whatever reason I missed and didn't match-drill when working through a particular assembly or another. I knew they weren't match-drilled when I went to dimple them, and the die wouldn't fit the undersized punched hole...I'd just run a reamer through both holes, deburr and dimple as needed.

So if you run into a hole that a die doesn't seem to fit into easily, might have been missed during match-drilling...

Just my observation...

 

[NovaBandit]

He he. There is always the first time Mikey!

Ed -very interesting how you put this together. By using this method there will be no question from a DAR or the FAA that you are the one that built your airplane.

I can even see other extended uses for this technique such as helping to remember which side of the part was the top or bottom, or the left or right, after priming everything and forgetting which side is which. Ask me how I know.....

Now, where is that darn camera instruction manual so I can figure out how to setup the time lapse....

Not only are these time lapse videos entertaining, but they are of great educational value as well. I plan on doing this when I start my build this summer. I have a half dozen motion activated game cams I built years ago and can adjust the photo interval. I think one of those would work well, but would love to hear how others accomplish this.

I make the time lapse videos with a webcam attached to a 30' USB cable, and a little piece of (free) software that takes a picture every 5 seconds. Once the night is done, I drop all those pictures into Windows Live Movie Maker (also free) and it spits out the movie with about 1 minute of effort.

If I can be so bold as to offer a suggestion gained from experience. Loose the TV. It takes your eyes off your project. Listen to the radio (Sirius radio etc.), you can listen and keep your eyes and hands on your work....TV will significantly extend your build time! Watch your own video and see how much time you look up at the TV. BTW, does that Firebird have a snow plow on it?!

On your first point, the TV is also the monitor for the garage computer. The part of the video where I'm spending a lot of time looking at the TV, I was actually looking up on the forums how much I needed to cut back the nose ribs to keep the skins from denting. I LOVE having the computer out there for quick lookups, as well as time lapse videos, loading the nights pictures, and updating the blog.

As to the second point... it does kinda look like the Trans Am has a plow! It's actually the plow for the ATV that's just pushed under the TA's nose to keep it out of the way... although you've given me an idea...

 

[diamond]

I make the time lapse videos with a webcam attached to a 30' USB cable, and a little piece of (free) software that takes a picture every 5 seconds. Once the night is done, I drop all those pictures into Windows Live Movie Maker (also free) and it spits out the movie with about 1 minute of effort.
...

Cool ! I wonder if there is an iphone app that allows one to simply prop and aim the iphone camera, take a photo every __ minutes, and then produce a video. I'll have to look in to that.

 

[VETE76]

I took a sharpie and taped it to my drill. So everytime I drilled out a hole the sharpie would draw a small circle around each hole! Never missed match drilling a hole! and it was fun and looked kinda neat! lol