Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers
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Building Hints, Tips and Tricks
Building Hints, Tips and Tricks. We invite you to share you "building tips, hints, and tricks" in this new discussion forum.
Note: This is non model specific forum: If you have a building tip, hint, and trick that is specific to a model please post to model specific forums.
Note: This is non model specific forum: If you have a building tip, hint, and trick that is specific to a model please post to model specific forums.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Porter on
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Workbenches are always very personal, but here is Ghana we have to think a little bit laterally to achieve our concepts.
We can get hold of plywood and the design shown here was completed using 5 and a half pieces of 8'x4' plywood some scraps of pine from our kit crate (thanks Zenith for using great wood, well dried and straight) and 3 pieces of 2" (50mm) square section each 18' long, not to forget a few screws left over from a roofing job (self tapping) and some screws from the Zenith crate (thanks again Sebastien).
Our finished 20' x 4' bench is great. It gives us space to lay out parts and to work at the same time, and because it is set out from the wall we can walk all around it, which was a problem on our first bench.
I realize that we could have put storage inside each of the three plinths, but that is not a major issue, at this time. The two trainee aircraft technicians (Jennifer and Patricia) that made this bench with Jonathan wondered about using their new skills on making a new set of Kitchen cabinets for Elizabeth!!! Jonathan objected.on the grounds that getting the medical aircraft built and operational must come before the Kitchen cupboards (Elizabeth understands, as always!)
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Permalink Reply by German Serrano on
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Good idea, agree about the storage space. How do you adjust it to make it level??
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Firstly, try to make sure the the floor is level (we built the workshop - including casting all of the blocks ourselves from sand and cement) then, make sure that all of the plinths are the same, small adjustments can be made on the inserted 2"x4" and a good eye+level. If on installation there are adjustments to be done use some 2"x2" scraps of sheet aluminum or other shims under the steel bars, then if your plywood surface is wonky after that shim it where you bolt it down. If necessary add a simple 6" x 6" ply joint with similar packing.
Total time to build with me and two girls - 4 hours. (we have a power saw). The steel tubes were painted by Matthew (our son) during the build and were dry ready to install by the time everything was in place in the workshop. Installation and finishing about 1 hour. It really is good to have 20' to work on - but do draw a center line down the middle and mark off each meter length along the sides..
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Permalink Reply by Zenith.Aero on
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Jonathan and Elizabeth Porter - Thanks for using photos in your posts - this helps to illustrate your points well!
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Radiator installations: I am not sure about all of the range but I know that on the 701 Rotax installation the piece of radiator hose we are supposed to 'discard' has a good use. It can effectively route away from the gear box when suitably cut and joined with an appropriate aluminum tube and two clips...
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Permalink Reply by Ben Schaefer on
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Any Hints/Tricks/Tips on keeping the upper skin of the wing from buckling/Tin-canning?? I called the factory yesterday, they recommended adding stiffeners between the ribs...I did that and it inproved the appearance.....any of ya all had any similiar problems? I still have the right wing to cover.
Ben
(PS I LOVE my sharpies...I'm especially fond of the short stubby ones...they are sooo cute!!!)
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Permalink Reply by Chumphol Sirinavin on
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A friend uses .020 inch skin in place of .016 in rebuilding. He has not flown it yet, so I do not know the result. The 701 I bought is of and earlier light weight version. It flies alright, with heavy buckling noise in any cross wind. It does not have any of those stiffener installed between wing ribs. On rebuilding, I glue thick styrofoam wing ribs between 6061-T6 ones. Foam sheets are cheap and foam ribs are easy to make, plus lighter than the 6061-T6 stiffeners doing the same job. The only down side I foresee is that if I have to rework the wing I have to fight my way through foam and glue.
For fuselage. my 701 has strips of light wood glued in a couple of X shapes across the rear fuselage section. But they are not enough to resist buckling. I will replace wood with aluminum angle.
You may get expert advice from an EAA chapter near you.
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Ben,
Another novice opinion.
After the above comment, I thought about foam core sandwiching and went ahead for a small experiment by gluing a piece of 10 m.m. styrofoam to a piece of .016" wing skin sheet, with 10 m.m. spacing between glue lines. Leaving it overnight to dry, the composite skin becomes a little more difficult to flex inward, and much more difficult to flex outward.
I have yet to find some simple tool and technique to apply glue evenly between foam sheet and aluminum sheet before trying it with my wings still under rebuilding. - Attachments:
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Picture 3.png, 734 KB
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Sounds like a reasonable idea (look at the Sherwood Ranger) - but what about fire risk, what if it comes unstuck, etc - Also, just check that you do not have ants that like the kind of foam you use. We have an aircraft with foam in the wings (not a CH) and the ants come and carry it off like snow flakes or bits of dandruff to their nest to make toys for the other ants!! Consequently, on soundproofing and cushions we try to only use foams we know are not attractive to the local insects!
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Permalink Reply by Paul Saccani on
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G'day Champ,
3M Trim adhesive works a treat. You spray it on both surfaces, let it dry, then push them together.
Cheers,
Paul.
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Thank you, Paul.
I have got a can of 3M spray adhesive. I will try it tomorrow for the bottom of my battery box.
Champ
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All right. There is another safety issue on airplane versus other life forms (plus fire hazard issue) that we have to consider. Most of the problems can be prevented with TLC toward your airplane, plus good head work. None requires any construction change, but I also have a few yarns to tell:
-Ants and flying insects
I wipe my airplane structure with Corrosion X before closing with skin sheet to keep rust away. That should work against most if not all ants.
On a larger airplane, once, on preflight, I saw a flying insect around one of the static ports, may be 3/32-1/4 in. of inside diameter. On the succeeding flight, I had an incident of pitot-static malfunction while IFR. Hanging my necklace from the overhead hatch handle and kind of keeping the dangling chain pointing toward the imaginary center of the cockpit floor did help me out of the soup, shaking! Back on the ground, a ball of dried mud was found plugging inside the static tube. The airplane manufacturer never anticipated this problem in the tropic. It was very difficult, but I managed to cover both of the static ports while parking, until I parted with that airplane type.
-Birds
One time, after leaving my airplane too long in storage with wing folded, I found sparrow nests with two eggs, between Root Ribs and Wing Rib Ones. So, plugging all the lightening holes on the root ribs with empty plastic water bottles, when park with wing folded, is an added number on my securing checklist. A more fashionable way can be wing root cover bags.
I needed to wash bird droppings off the elevator and horizontal stabilizer every time I left my airplane out in the open. The top of the rudder seemed the favorite perch. I thought about making a round fiberglass rudder tip to make it more difficult for the visiting birds, but when I taped the male mold on top the rudder tip, it showed no problem for the birds at all. A piece of thin and strong angle attached to the top of the flat rudder tip might work.
Anybody knows of a particular color or paint scheme to keep the bird off the rudder tip?
Have a happy flight.
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