Building the Horizontal Stabilizer

Preparing the spar's. Every piece of metal needs to be 'prepared'. This is done by smoothing the edges with a lot of elbow grease and emery paper. I did one spar and Jan did one spar. After my second spar I decided it was time to get a dremel tool. Way too much elbow was required.

Jan's working on the spar prep as well.

Ok I finished prepping the spars (HS-902 & HS-903) and spar doubler plates (HS-907 & HS-906). I bought the dremel tool but decided to just use the elbow grease for now - I liked the results better. We decided to study the plans and instructions first and then watch that part of the Empennage Tape.

We started the cleco-ing of the forward spar (HS-902).

We realized that after studying the plans, reading the instructions and watching the video tape that there was no mention of drilling holes in the spar to match the ones in the doubler plate (HS-907).

The plans didn't mention anything about this process though they are very explicit about a similar requirement in the VS.

The video tape was a little thin in this area (though still an excellent resource - I wouldn't want to be without it). The tape shows about 8 cleco's being put in the outer edge of the doubler with the appropriate drilling. Then all of the holes are shown completed and cleco'd and ready to be riveted. George does mention deburring and priming here. I'm just not sure about what to do with those 6 holes in total that are drilled in the doubler but not the spar.

Here's the holes marked that we're talking about (red arrows pointing to them). I'd sure hate to drill into something I wasn't suppose too. I know George, sooner or later you just drill it! 8-)

Here's a picture of the plans on showing the attach angle brackets. Oh well, time to call it a night.

Here's the front HS spar laid across the kitchen nook table, awaiting the drilling.

Here's a closer shot of the front HS spar cleco'd.

Here's a closer shot of the front HS spar cleco'd. This also shows a better shot of three of the 6 holes that are not pre-punched on the spar but are on the doubler plate.

Here's a closer shot of the front HS spar cleco'd. This also shows the center of the doubler plate. Notice the X'd out holes which don't get drilled at this point.

Here's a closer shot of the front HS spar cleco'd. This also shows the other end of the doubler plate. Notice one of the alignment marks going from across the doubler and the spar. This should allow me to put everything back the same way after I'm done prep-ing the componets, priming, etc. I also have one on the other end of the doubler plate that did not come out in the picture above. I purposefully made the location markings in two distinctly different locations.

Jan used her sewing skills to make some patterns for the HS-908L & HS-908R attach angles. She used excess pattern paper to trace the cut-outs on. NOTE: These were not the sewing skills I referred to above but they came in handy anyway!

Another shot of the patterns. I should also mention here that the plans only say to fabricate these items (and in all honesty that's about all the verbage on it). There is a 5" length of aluminum angle in the kit and our best guess is, that this is what we use to fabricate the attach angles. Also, the Empennage vidoe tape only shows attach angles that have already been fabricated - so its not really much help on this either. No big deal really, I just thought I'd mention this for those that end up coming to the same point - you're not alone if you're doing a little head scratching.

We've taped the patterns that Jan created onto the angle. Notice there's a lot of cutting to do!

Here's another angle of the angle ! Note the two holes marked on the template on the bottom of each angle do not actually get drilled into the attach angle until the entire structure is mounted to the fuselage.

Alright time to move this puppy to the garage and get to work.

The front HS setting on one of the workbenches waiting for a good drilling.

Another shot with that Sioux waiting to take it's first bite out of the HS spar.

I'm drilling out the non-cleco'd holes. Yes including the six I wasn't sure of. Like George says sooner or later you got to quit thinking and just start drilling.

This goes rather quickly. There really isn't much drilling to speak of. You're just enlarging the holes that are already there. You don't even enlarge them much. Of course the six questionable ones took a little longer.

The 'first half' of the drilling is done. The copper colored cleco's are in the holes that I have just drilled out to a #30 size.

Another shot of the partially drilled HS-902 front spar.

A close up of the drilling.

Another close up of the drilling.

The drilling is completed - for now. The next step was to fabricate the attach angle. After taking a look at my bandsaw and deciding this really wasn't the tool I needed for this job, I discovered I didn't have a hack saw. Oh well, tomorrow it's time for Home Depot. I haven't been there since Monday anyway. I sure was wanting to get more done tonight. Oh well!

As it turns out...We decided to go ahead with the front spar and wait on the attach brackets at this point. A later call to Van's verified that this would be a good idea. Gus suggested waiting until you're ready to mount this part onto the fuselage before mounting the attach brackets to the spar. That way if you need to move them during the mating from where you thought they'd go...

Almost time to head out for our mini-vacation to San Antonio!

Drilling out the nine holes in the attach angle.

The hinge brackets mounted on the reat spar.

Close up of the hinge brackets on the rear spar.

The front spar prior to mating the attach angles.

Mounting the attach angles to the front spar.

Close up of the attach angle mounted on the front spar.

First fitting of the front/ rear spars and the ribs. Our friends Russ and Lynn Hall are helping us out!

Russ checking the quality of the preparation of the rib prior to fitting it.

Jan and Lynn fitting a rib.

Russ cleco-ing a rib and to the rear spar.

Main rib and nose rib attached to the front spar.

Completed with the first fitting.

Starting to look like an airplane part.

Deburring all of the parts after we drilled it all out.

I'm using a straight edge to provide a straight surface for dragging my soldering iron along. I've found that a 15 watt Radio Shack special works great for this.

The exterior holes are where the fibergalss fairings attach.

OK - What's this picture all about? This is my brother Dave that saved me $1000 by wiring 3 quad outlets and 2 high output florcent fixtures in my garage. Now when I turn on the lights it's time for 'da shades!! Not only that but I can actually use more than one tool at a time with the lights on!!!

And this is his lovely wife Deb that came along and loaned Dave out to help out in the garage! Thanks Deb (what a sister-in-law)!!!

With some of the ribs we noticed that some holes lined up easily but other holes on the same part would need some help to get aligned properly. By using an ice pick we could get all of the holes properly aligned with minimal effort.

If I was doing it by myself I'd probably only cleco everyother hole just so I wouldn't get worn out. We wanted to use the maximum amount of cleco's to ensure optimal alignment.

After reading through the archives, I decided to try using the deburring tools to countersink the skin. Here you can see a rivet just dropped in the countersink. We used this method to ensure we had enough material 'deburred' away for the countersink.

Use the electric deburring tool to countersink the spar.

The spar is clamped between two blocks of wood during the countersinking process.

Jan coutersinking using the manual deburring tool. About 12 turns does the trick.

A close-up of a countersunk hole.

We went to 'The Container Store' (a chain here in Dallas) and bought a 36"x20"x63" storage closet for $24.99. It became our painting rack. Here's Jan appling the first coat of our primer (zinc chromate). They've been usinig this stuff on B-52's for decades and tey've been in the air over 50 years so it should work for me!

The first parts getting primered. While all paint is toxic to one degree or another, standing upwind and outside is fairly hassle free. The rest of the primers that everyone else uses I feel like I'd need a bio-hazard suit for. In the future however we'll be using a minimum of a mask and eye protection.

Just a few more spar pieces to go.

Monday - March 4, 2002

Bob prep-ing the HS spar.