I'm guesing that the axle is made out of 4130, but I cannot tell from the pictures-do the plans call for a solid round bar or is it a tube? If tube, what wall thickness? My weedhopper had a solid axle.
Why are there no washers specified for gear leg bolts? Washers /are/ specified for the other side of the hinge.
What bolts are supposed to hold diagonal tubes to the axle? I couldn't see a number in the plans. It looked like AN3-16A would be a good fit, but I didn't have any left in the kit. I used AN3-17A's. I wonder if they are needed somewhere else...
One of the purposes of a washer is to spread the pressure from the bolt head or nut over a larger area to prevent crushing/damaging the wood. Where the nut or bolt head is against metal (like the hinge that holds the landing gear on) a washer is not needed because the metal hinge itself does the job of the washer. When a nut is used against a piece of metal, sometimes a split lock-washer or star washer is used to keep the nut from coming loose and backing off. However, no lock-washer is needed here because you are using self locking (Nyloc) nuts.
hi there ari this is just a question i am currently in the process setting up my garrage to build my kit and i was just wondering how long your work bench is thanks
Hi Ari; This log of yours is a wonderfull thing for all of us. This is one of the most active BBS's I've seen so far. You are doing a nice job on your plane. Wait till you fly it, you will love it even more. As for hours, I quit counting at 700, LOL. The hours didn't matter anyway. I was enjoying the plane. Just another note, Wayne did a nice job on the plans. You should see what is out there. I am presently building a 7/8 scale Nieuport 11. The "plans" are terrible. I wish Wayne Ison had drawn them. Keep up the good work Ari, you are helping a lot of people. Fly safe, Bob
Looking good Ari!! I'm about to the point where your at in my rebuild, but with a bunch more hours in it than you (way to picky for my own good). I was wondering did you build your gear on the bench and transfer it or did you just build it directly on the fuselage? And on my plans the bolts holding the diagonal tubes to the axle are indeed AN3-17A's. My plans do not show any washers on the gear leg bolts also, but they are needed.
Once again Great Job! It is indeed a milestone that I am eagerly looking forward to myself. Rich
I built it right on the fuse. It seems to me that the main advantage of building it on the bench like the manual says is that you don't have to reach so far to work on some of the fittings, and it isn't as much of an issue for me--I'm 6'4"
There is a separate, unrelated problem that I ran into though: 2 of the 6 bolts on each side went too close to crossmembers to put nuts on them (right side shown; the same is true on the left.) What can I do? Do I need to plug these holes and drill new ones? Will this weaken the longeron? Suggestions appreciated.
Use a Dremel or similar tool and nibble away just enough of the crossmember to get a washer on the bolt end. If you're afraid of removing too much wood, grind the washer edge flat a bit.
Ater: Mike had this one place and mine did not??? just put a triangle corner block on the rear of the cross peice and grind the cross peice to get a washer and bolt on. Charlie
Larry & Charlie, thank you for your kind words. I'm glad that you guys find this useful. I received so much information and support from this forum, I'm happy to give back.
Made the 4 aluminum brackets that hold horizontal stabilizer to fuselage. In conjunction with Maker Faire where I'll exhibit my MAX project and my CNC art, our local broadsheet, San Jose Mercury News, interviewed me today and photographed me while I was working on the airplane. They said an article should appear a day or two before the show, which runs this Saturday and Sunday.
Installed stabilizer brackets on fuselage and drilled matching holes in stab. There isn't enough room in my garage to turn the fuse over and install the stab. I'm taking the project to Maker Faire tomorrow and I'll install the tail there for the first time. Hope it fits :=)
I just came back from Maker Faire where I exhibited my miniMAX and some of my CNC art. This was the first time I had the tail on the fuselage and it fir right on. I'm totally exhausted from two days of non-stop talking to people. Over the last 4 days I packed the airplane into a truck, put it together at the show, fought to keep some 60,000 people from fondling it too much, then taking it apart again and hauling it home.
Rick Coykendall stopped by this morning and we had a chat about my project and his v-max. This is the first time I met a member of this board in real life and that was very nice. Rick wisely came by early in the morning before the crowds rolled in. You can see some of my CNC art in the background. A couple more photos in Irene's photo bucket: http://s252.photobucket.com/albums/hh22/irina_krupnik/
Also, here's the Mercury News article that came out yesterday (amazingly, some of the stuff that got printed is actually related to what I said. not all of it though) http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_9141345
Since I did almost no work on the project in the last two months, I have to conclude that I can only do two of these three things at once: Work on airplanes, hold a job and be married. It looks like the project will go on a back burner for a while.
I know where your comming from, Held down my job, worked on my plane and put my wife on the back burner and she is still with me. It worked out but was not something I could get away with again. Your doing it right!!!
MiniMax, Hawk, GA (Tipacer), another Max to finish Ace
Posts: 375
Time Online: 7 days 7 hours 30 minutes
I have no idea how hard they work you out in CA, but here in podunk Michigan, we just mozy out to the garage and do one thing each day. Times can get very tough to try to balance all those parts of your life. But, if you can try to do just one small thing each day, and two the day after you miss one day, you'll get through it. Your plane may begin to collect a few cob webs while you get through the tough days. That's OK. It'll still fly just the same. You've worked so hard on this plane. It won't hurt to slow down a bit. After all, you won't be flying very fast in it... why not build the same way.
The trouble with building is that you think you need to spend many hours in order to accomplish things. Budd Davisson ( http://www.airbum.com ) developed what he calls the "Quik-Project Approach".
He writes: "First, I can’t change the way my life runs. There are too many deadlines, student’s schedules, financial stuff, etc., that form it into what it is. So, I’ll have to work within that framework and I happened upon the perfect solution last week during a particularly productive Commode Counseling Session (CCS). I’m calling it the Quik-Project Approach to Life. Under this approach, I change my outlook on shop time. Rather than thinking in hours, look at projects, no matter how large, in chucks of a half hour. I can manage a half hour here and there, but an entire hour will never happen.
To put this concept into action, I dedicated a big section of my ever-present commode notebook to first breaking the roadster down to half hour segments. Every time I’m in there meditating, I mentally break another section of the car into half hour projects and write them down.
For instance, I need to separate a fat bundle of wiring into three smaller ones and arrange them vertically in a squeezed-down Adel clamp to fit between the firewall and the fuse box. I can do that in a half hour easily. And it’ll be major progress on that particular project. I’ve almost finished the roadster list and it has less than 100 steps, 50 hours total. Piece of cake. Next I’ll do a list for The Accuracy Project. However, the desk knife is such an easy project, no more than three hours total, that it may move ahead in priority.
I feel so much better just having come up with the Quik-Project concept. And I’ve already done one of the steps on the knife (blanked out the handle). So life is good. And it’s moving ahead.
So, what about today? Screw it! Maybe I’ll just go back to bed."
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