Airplane Project - Assembly

Oct 1-2, 2011
Almost ready for major assembly! Hopefully, if this all fits together well, I should be able to start doing major assembly to the tail section and fuselage by next weekend.

Attached wing supports

Wing supports & fuselage doublers on the fueslage.

Clamping the fuselage doublers (supports) to the fuselage

Pedal Plane

24SEP11,
Well I finally got back to the wood shop after 3 long weeks of work and tiring weekends. Fortunately, I was able to cross a major hurdle today.
The only thing I had time for was the bending of fuselage sections. This task is much easier said than done, but it was a great learning process.  I was able to use a standard clothes iron to steam the wood and help facilitate the bending of the sides.

Hopefully my next few postings will involve the assembly of the pedal plane. I am about a weeks behind schedule from where I'd like to be, but I think I can still have the plane completed shortly after Thanksgiving...

I made an order for the hardware kit, metals kit and decals about two weeks ago. I should be receiving those parts within the next 3-4 weeks (hopefully)...

Bending the fuselage. 10 pounds for constant weight on the board while steaming with iron - add any additional pressure with hand.

Two methods to steaming the wood: 1) hold iron about 1 inch above board to heat the section. 2) place a soaked rag on the section and iron directly on the rag.

Patience and extreme care will result in a beautiful bend without cracking or fraying. If you rush this process, the board will break and you will be back to Lowe's for a new sheet of plywood. 

As a reminder, this is the example for a finished product.  (I didn't want anyone loosing sight of the final deal.)

OUR NEW HOME!!!

OUR [soon to be] NEW HOME!!!
We will be living less than 700 feet from the Lake Shawnee flower gardens and walking trails!

We close in mid-October and, as you can see from the picture below, we are quite excited! (Yes, thats bethy in the car).
Feel free to volunteer for moving manpower.

Project #1 Complete!

September 3, 2011
Well I have finally completed "the other plane". This has been an on-going project for something between 10-11 years. I originally built this scooter plane for my youngest brother (Tim) back in 2000 or 2001. I was far too anxious to show off my then just completed project that I encouraged him to go for a test flight while the glue was still wet.  That didn't turn out so well.  After that disastrous ground-loop several years ago, this project set on the bottom shelf of the work bench collecting dust.

I can happily announce that this scooter plane was completed today and has successfully completed several test flights already. I was able to add a stabilizer block between the engine compartment and upper wing as well as two solid struts for the wings. As an added kicker, and since I had several oak scraps laying around, I quickly fashioned a propeller for looks and secured the prop with a coated deck screw so it can spin.

 Charles and his cousin James love this plane so far. Tomorrow we will see if cousin Christine would like to take it up for a test flight.

Side note: Isn't it amazing how such a little thing in life can pop up in your mind from time to time and cause completely unnecessary amounts of stress? I am amazed at how much of a burden has been lifted knowing that this little project is complete and my son can now enjoy his very first airplane.

The "Other Airplane"

Aug 27, 2011
After a lovely summer of being on vacation (aka unemployed), I finally went back to work this last week. So its taken me a few days to adjust and get back to the pedal plane project. Elisabeth, Charlie and I had the evening free and were able to jet back over to the parents place so Charlie could play with grandma & grandpa while I worked in the wood shop.
I spent a grand total of about 30 minutes drilling pilot holes in the two fuselage pieces and sanding the edges to match up the left and right sides. The rest of my time was spent working on the small scooter plane (about 45 min)

PEDAL PLANE:
As you can see from the pictures, I clamped the left and right fuselage sides together and continued work at the drill press. By clamping both sides together, I can guarantee an exact fit for all the bolts/screws during assembly. This whole process is rather simple and surprisingly quick if you have the correct drill bits ready to go.
Next, I used a basic palm sander to clean up the edges. Since I had used the table saw for my long cuts, there are a few burns & burrs in the wood. A palm sander, for the most part, cleaned this all up nicely. I decided to only "lightly" sand the edges at this time. I don't want to take too much off before the main assembly begins.

Time: 30 Min
Total Time: 4.5 Hrs

Project area

Drilling pilot holes

SCOOTER PLANE:
I don't know if its really called a scooter plane. I just call it that because its a foot powered toy -- much like the flinstones car.After several years of this plane collecting dust in the hangar (wood shop), my last project is to attach the upper wing. As you may have noted from previous posts, the upper wing came off after nasty ground loop by a very excited younger brother (Tim) about 10 years ago.  Since this plane is already very heavy (made from Oak), I used a pine 2X4 to cut a small block (rounded the front & back for aerodynamics) in order to connect the upper wing to the upper cowling. Its not really that glamorous, but I think it will do the trick. I used two 5/8"X2" dowel rods to connect the block to the cowling. Once that glue dries, I will connect the wing struts (Oak) to the lower wing & then slap on the upper.  Too easy, right?
My goal is to have the scooter plane complete for Charlie & his cousins by Labor Day weekend.

Marking the wing struts for dowels & screws

Woodshop #3

Aug 21, 2011
It may be a few days before I get back over to the wood shop so I wanted to get a little work in today and update the blog. Tomorrow, I start a new job and don't exactly know what my schedule will consist of.

As is typical with using a family wood shop, upon arrival I was greeted by yet another mess.  This is usually the plague you will deal with if you share a shop with messy people (or just several people in general).  Fortunately this pedal plane project was not touched by anyone else, but it sure was a dusty mess that consumed the majority of my time.

My progress today was a continuance of the past few days. I've been using the table saw to cut nice straight sections on the wings and fuselage. I have been mostly using the table saw free hand.  Unless you have a good amount of experience with a table saw, don't try this at home. Take the time to use the guards and guide handles. It's not worth loosing a finger or three to save 5 minutes.

After a while, I had almost all the sections cut out and realized I missed a pile of templates. I had, in my brilliance, saved the lower wing (about 15" X 47" piece) for the last.  Needless to say, I'd chopped up my sheet of plywood and am now forced to head back to Lowe's.  Definitely a "doh" moment.

Lesson learned: Cut the large sections first, then use your scraps for all the little pieces.
Time today: 45 min
Total project time: 4 hrs








Bonus note:  I have attached a picture of my "other" airplane project. This project has been sitting on the shelf for about 10 years. The day I completed the plane, I gave it to my little brother. Problem was, the glue was still wet... and I may not have used as many screws as I should have.  So it fell apart.  Anyhoo, I'm going to try to get it put back together and give to Charlie sometime this fall.  If nothing else, it will get him warmed up for his real pedal plane on his first birthday!

Woodshop #2

Aug 20, 2011
Back from a nice weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks and went right to the wood shop.  Main goal for the evening: finish rough cutting major components for the fuselage (body) & empennage (tail) sections. I will sand and shape the sections later. I was able to cut out the second fuselage piece and most of the other parts required for initial assembly. I found using the table saw for cuts any longer than 6" is considerably more beneficial than using the jig saw. The straighter cuts will make your life much easier when it comes to sanding and shaping the rough cut pieces.
I spent the rest of my time using the jig saw for the smaller sections (elevator, wing supports, landing gear covers, etc).  HELPFUL HINT: If you haven't used a jig saw in a while, do these 2 things first. 1) Put on a new blade. You don't want to have to chase the blade all over your project on the finish wood.  2) Take a piece of scrap wood and draw a wave (like a continuing "S" pattern) along the length. Then, use the jig saw to carefully cut right along your wave. Just a matter of a few minutes "practicing" with the jig saw will save you from having to re-cut pieces and save you a considerable amount of wasted time.

I'm not quite as far along as I would like, but I hope to catch up here in the next few evenings. The next major task's will involve cutting out the wings and to start making my angled dado cuts on specified sections.  I'll be honest, I don't have a clue how to make a dado cut.  I've seen dad do it in the past and he's promised to walk me through the process.

Stay tuned to see what kind of disaster comes from my attempt at the dado.

Time spent this visit: 60 min
Total project time: 3 hr, 15 min

Woodshop #1

Aug 17, 2011:
 I finally made it over to the woodshop this evening. When I first got there, I was pretty discouraged as the shop was a disaster. Not from neglect necessarily; mostly from lots of other projects.  My first hour or so was spent just cleaning up and clearing a spot on the work bench.  While I had it on my mind, I did some minor touch up repairs to a previous failed airplane I made about 10 years ago. Its just been sitting collecting dust since its first test flight when the top wing and tail collapsed. She was grounded ever sense.  With any luck, I should be able to do some minor repairs and have her up and flying in no time.

My main goal for tonight was to 1) clear my work space (check) and 2) get at least 1 piece of the pedal plane cut out (check). The main reason is to get my motivation level going and keep the project rolling along.
I know its not much, but I have the left fuselage section cut out so far. My next visit to the shop should yield the majority of my other components required for initial construction. I am also using 1/2" seven layer plywood rather than the recommended 3/8". I can't imagine this will cause too much of an issue other than minor tweaking here and there.
Lesson learned for the day: Don't have distracting people working around you while running the power tools.  Sure, its dangerous. But mostly because you wont be paying attention and over cut or bind the blade.  Yep, I'm going to have to work those blemishes out later. Thankfully, nothing too major of a problem today.

Total tonight: 60 min
Total time elapsed: 2 hr 15 min
13 days elapsed, 129 days to project completion 

Pedal Plane - Cutting & Snipping

August 15, 2011: Today, while Charlie was sleeping, I spent approximately 1 hr, 15 minutes cutting out all the necessary patterns from the blueprint. I will use these blueprint cut-out's for a pattern to trace with the jig & band saws. I also took Charlie on his first trip to Lowe's to price check our materials. We didn't find any 3/8" hardwood plywood (out of stock) but we did find the necessary 3/4" birch plywood and pine blocks necessary for the kit. Sadly, we may be looking at a total project cost of closer to $250 once this is all done. The golden ticket will be if we have any scrap lumber laying around in the wood shop that will work.

Next trip: over to the woodshop for set-up and start cutting out some of the basic pieces (rudder, stabilizer, wings, etc)

To date: 1 hr, 15 min involved.
11 days elapsed, 131 days to project completion

Plan(e)s are in the mail

August 11, 2011: I received the plans in the mail! I am not overly excited about the quality of the package as a whole, but I think I'm up to the challenge. There are only two pictures of the finished product. One drawing and one photograph. Otherwise, I'm on my own. On a good note, all the plans are copied to scale so I will be cutting the parts out and placing them on the wood for pattern cut-out. This will also be nice for making a template for future pedal planes? Judging from the plans, I am estimating this project will take somewhere between 30-50 hours of casual woodworking and run approximately $200 for total project materials cost.

Project Begins

August 4, 2011: I purchased plans for a Pedal Tiger Moth from the Experimental Aircraft Association online store (eaa.org) for $26.50 including tax and shipping. The plans are licensed through Aviation Products, Inc but are sold at only $20 through EAA rather than $30 at AP, inc.

Pedal Plane Project!

Pedal Planes!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I need projects to keep busy. Home improvement, car/motorcycle repair, woodworking, etc. Well, I've been thinking a lot over the last 2 minutes about blogging my new project. I figured posting pictures and updates will keep me motivated to complete the job on time. If you see a lack of posts & updates, feel free to let me know I have been slacking off and I will get to it.

Ok, whats the project? Well if you read the Blog title, its a pedal plane! I have decided to make a Pedal Plane for Charlie's 1st birthday (Dec 24th). I will be recruiting the help of my friendly Lowes Employees (for supplies) and my dad (for woodworking expertise). So I hope you enjoy the next few months worth of posts as I update you on the project.

-Stephen-