I finally managed to get the leadig edge skin drilled for my Zenith 650. I would say this is the most difficult challenge I have faced in this project so far.

I think the biggest feature of what was done was to figure out a way to hold the ribs steady so I can take measurements to transfer from the ribs to skin and also make sure the ribs do not move when trying to fit the skin and for drilling as well.  Some of this can be seen in the thumbnail for the video below.  The jig will…

I finished drilling the pilot holes to attach the bottom wingskin to the the left wing.

The video documents the setup that I used so when I am ready to do the right wing, I can

duplicate the same setup.

While preparing to drill the bottom wing skin to the ribs, I wanted to be sure that the center line of the ribs were straight.

When doing top wing skin I had used a metal strip with holes drilled in a straightline to be able to verify straightness.

The improved version uses a 1/8" acrylic strip about 2 inches wide with a line drawn to verify the center line of the rib flange  is straight.

In addtion, two red lines were added that would give me a warning if a drilled hole…

Video documenting my process for folding the nose skin for my Zenith 650.

After a lot of prep work on my lifting sling, I finally was able to flip my wing upside down.

Overall I am happy with the results. I had complete control of the wing at all times.

After I get a chance to use it few times and fine tune my process, I plan to make video showing it in action.…

In part 4 of making the flaps and ailerons, I finally bend the flap skins.

Also an additional video doing a detailed measurement and plot in CAD of

a bend radius

Parts 2 and 3 of making flap construction.

Part 2 is devoted to figuring out some problems with the test sections.

Part 3 covers making the rib forms.

Coming soon will be part 4 which will be bending the full size flaps.…

I recently purchased a Bosch GSC 12V-13 Cordless Sheet Metal Shear. After having a chance to use it a little bit, I decided to post a demonstration of its use online.

My short assessment is that the shear will have its uses, but because of the stretching caused by the shearing action it would not be suitable for cutting parts that need to remain as flat as possible.…

Scratch construction of the ailerons and flaps has been started. I decided to try to document as much of the construction of these as possible as this should be my last major set of parts to bend. There will be two or three parts to this. In the first part, I document the construction of test sections to verify my CAD drawings are correct.…

Drilling of the left wing skin is completed. Video shows final holes being drilled and description of jig to secure the ribs to improve alignment and prevent shifting.

After two or three months of weekends of checking and adjusting, I am finally ready to start drilling the top wingskin to the ribs.

A couple of concerns I have is holes not appearing where I expect to them and also the ribs shifting while drilling. To help catch any problems early, I have setup a video camera that I can place under the skin to watch the rib and hole.

A short video below demontrates the video setup and the drilling of my first hole into the left wing…

One thing that has often been a problem is trying to keep parts from getting lost as they wait to be added to larger assemblies. While I am scatchbuilding, the problem is no doubt worse for someone building from a kit because they get all their parts at once.

Something that has recently been quite useful for me is to use mini-stretch wrap.…

A panel hacksaw is a special type of saw for making long cuts in pieces of sheet metal. By using a piece of spring steel sheet to support the blade allows the saw to make unrestricted cuts.

A demonstration is made of trimming down a wing skin.

From what I have seen, moving a wing skin tends to be a two person operation. The video

below is a demonstration of a vacuum lifting frame I constructed to allow one person to

easily moving a wing skin between a worktable and the wing skeleton.

Several months back I had posted that I was experimenting with using a project management software package called Jira to help manage tasks in my scratch build. After about 6 months of use I think I can say it has been very helpful for tracking what I have done, what I am currently doing and what still remains.

While I am building my aircraft from plans, I think Jira would also be helpful for kit builders as well.

The video below is a demonstration of how Jira…

A few weeks ago in a prior blog post I had posted a picture of using a modified camera friction arm as a flexible workholder. I have added a youtube video showing some examples of its use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmRu5991VGU

It was back in June that I finally finished the wing spar. However there were numerous little details I found myself having to work through before I was able to finally start laying out the wing skins. While I wanted to  have both wings setup together, even with the size of shop I have there just was not quite enough space to have both wings plus an additional table to work on the skins. The first wing I will work on is the left side.

One issue I had to figure out was how was I going…

One of the problems I have run into in the course of this project is being able get an idea of how much

is left for me to do on my plane and what needs to be done next.I have various notes and spreadsheets scattered around, but nothing has ever seemed to really pull everything together for me into a coherent whole.

In my day job as a programmer I use a project management software package called Jira. I have found Jira to be a pretty flexible software package, so I…

I finally drill out the holes to final size for attaching the main and center spars together.

The video below describes the process I went through. Hopefully other scratch builders

will find a few useful tidbits of information when they get to a similar point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O-31YmQzhg

On to assembling some airplane sized parts!

Below is a link to a video of a small drill guide I constructed to help ensure I drill the wing bolt holes perpendicular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfXiJ0Kga6Y