Disclaimer

This blog is for entertainment purposes only, and is not meant to teach you how to build anything. The author is not responsible for any accident, injury, or loss that occurs as a result of reading this blog. Read this blog at your own risk.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Ch. 4 - Rear seat - Part 2


Rear seat (6.1 hrs)


The back side of the rear seat is the first real opportunity to work with an other-than-flat surface. 
Historically, builders have had their first head scratcher when laying the flat pieces of BID over this soon-to-be wavy surface. This is because the fiberglass tends to lift off the foam in many places, and introduce big air pockets under the weave, so the job becomes a little more complicated.
As on the front seat, the work began by shaping top and bottom at an angle, and since the table saw worked so well then, I decided to reenlist it for this job.

Top cut at 45˚


The foam is then removed from the outer 1.3”. Very carefully, I used the table saw again, staying away from the fiberglass. Then I sanded the last 1/8” or so of foam and slurry away by hand.

Bottom cut at 35˚, side foam removed


The hard foam corners were beveled inward 1.5”, and all corners rounded with sandpaper.
Because the seat is 2” wider than plans, I elongated the hole in the rear seat by that much. This hole will create access to a few items that will eventually go behind the back seat, like the main gear attachment points, and break lines fittings. 

A slightly bigger hole means slightly easier maintenance.

2" wider access hole


I cut vertically down to the fiberglass with a razor-knife...



... then I used my vibrating cutter to remove the foam. I was surprised at how difficult that was, and chose such gadget only after running out of better ways to do the job.



Next, I beveled the inside corner...



... and sanded everything smooth. A few chunks of foam bordering the fiberglass did not survive the process. The holes got filled later with dry micro.



Top and bottom of this piece needed a flox-corner, so I used my Dremel tool to remove the foam, then sanded the resulting channel to remove the micro-balloons from the back side of the fiberglass.

Slot ready for flox


I used a few leftover BID pieces with a minimum 1” overlap as the first ply, followed by a whole BID piece. This made laying the ply on the contoured shape a lot easier than it would have otherwise been.
While cutting the fiberglass, I marked the fibers orientation on the multiple BID pieces with a black marker, so that I would not get confused later.



The last step in the fabrication of the back seat, is cutting the access hole in the middle, while leaving 0.7” of glass-to-glass bond.



On the front side, I marked the places where the slots for cables and controls will go, but I will do the cutting later on.



Monday, November 28, 2011

Ch. 4 - Rear seat - Part 1


Gina's seat (3.1 hrs)


The rear seat, in my case, is what will make this project successful (or not), because “if mamma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy” or so I’m told. 
In an effort to sell the idea of this project, I might have slightly overstated the accommodation and comfort part of the story, especially for the GIB (Girl In Back), but I secretly promised myself to do everything in my power to approach first-class-like seating.
In my experience, what makes for a good passenger is either a busy one, or a sleeping one, so my improvements will be in the area of entertainment, and comfort.
As for the former, I am hoping that an iPad on a swivel mount might take care of most of the in-flight entertainment.
The latter will require a more substantial structural and logistical commitment. I am thinking Tempur foam seat wrapped in soft leather, 2” wider seat-back, thigh support, foot rests, and deeper elbow slots, to name a few.
We are going to start here with the wider seat-back.
Because it is easier to scribble on paper than on foam, I again laid down some paper tape, took careful measurements, and drew the external shape of the seat.



Next, I cut the foam to size with my Japanese saw, ...



... I then mixed up some micro-slurry, and applied it to the foam, ...



... spread it out with a squeegee, ...



... and removed the excess.



Because I started accumulating pieces of scrap BID, I decided to use a few here, with the usual 1” overlap.



On top of those pieces I placed a full size BID ply, then peel-ply, and let it cure overnight.



Lastly, the next morning, I used my vibrating cutter to trim the edges of the piece.




Sunday, November 27, 2011

Shop preparation - Part 2

One of the reasons I’ve put off insulating the walls for so long is that it is, without a doubt, a two-man job (make that a dirty job), and it requires a truck. So, when my son announced he would be home for Thanksgiving with a rented pickup truck, unbeknownst to him, I seized the opportunity.
Following a tip, I settled on the idea of blowing cellulose insulation into the walls, from cuts I made near the ceiling. Home Depot sells the stuff for about $11 a bale, but requires you to buy a minimum of 20 bales in order to use the hopper/blower for free.
I figured I’d fill up the walls, then shoot the rest above the ceiling as additional insulation. The walls ended up swallowing 9 bales.



If I knew then what I know now, I would have paid somebody to do it, but in this case ignorance was absolutely bliss, and we dove headfirst into the trap.

Alessandro breaking up the cellulose bale before feeding it to the hopper


While the system is designed and works well for blowing insulation 10 to 15 feet away, it really sucks (no pun intended) at blowing it into a 4 inch deep wall space. The cellulose comes out with such force that most of it blows right out of the wall into your face, and onto everything else, including walls, ceiling, furniture, tools, you name it. The mess is total!





Premature gray hair


Needing to improvise, I sacrificed the flat fiberglass piece I built in chapter 3, cut a hole and ran the hose through it.



This worked much better, even though the air coming out of the hose would now pressurize the channels in the wall. This tended to lift the plate off the wall every so often, gracing us with an instantaneous dirt shower. At least I could see right through the semi-transparent fiberglass, and stop blowing when the wall filled up.
Being on the top rung of a shaky ladder, in zero visibility, while fighting a bucking bronco of a fiberglass plate, over and over for 37 times, is just not the kind of fun I had in mind, and it will be just fine by me if I never have to do this job ever again. 
After two full days of cleaning, vacuuming, and blowing, the shop had finally returned to normality, even though I was still digging lint out of places where the “sun don’t shine”. 
Time will tell how well the insulation holds up to the heat, and the cold, but I have the feeling the shop has just become the most comfortable place in the entire house.



UPDATE: It took an entire roll of fiberglass insulation cut in small pieces to fill the gap left near the ceiling.

A little trim and it will be done.





Monday, November 21, 2011

Ch. 4 - Front seat - Part 2


Back side (7.2 hrs)


The backside of the front seat was a little more involved. There was a 90˚ glass-to-glass bond to be made around the whole perimeter, and as we now know that means “flox corner”.
After trying different size saws and butcher knives to tackle the flox corner issue, I eventually got some sense into me and dusted off a never before used attachment to my Dremel.



This turned out to be the ideal solution I had been looking for to make quick, easy, fast, and uniform grooves in the foam to contain the flox.



This job hardly took any time, and looks much better than any previous attempt made with other cutting tools. Definitely the way to go here.



Grooves ready, the next step was to remove the dry micro-slurry behind the fiberglass, so I dug deeper into my decade old Dremel box, and found another attachment that, once thought ridiculous, finally redeemed itself by proving quite practical.

Flexible sanding disk attachment


To prevent the epoxy from dripping underneath the piece, and onto the already glassed surface, I tried using duct tape all around the edges.



This worked quite well at isolating the surface, but unfortunately it proved difficult to remove in one piece. A better brand of tape might be necessary next time.
Again, micro-slurry was applied ...



... pure epoxy painted into the groove ...



... which was then filled with flox.



Having previously rounded the foam edges, the part was now ready for glassing. Note: in retrospect, I should have rounded them to a bigger radius.



Here’s where I slightly departed from the plans once again. 
To reduce the chances of the landing speed-brake actuator mount  (later glassed to the seat-back) breaking through the seat during a particular crash landing scenario, there have been a few revisions to the plans in this area. 
Because these changes apply to the manual speed-brake, and I plan on using an electric actuator, the issue isn’t really germane, but I figured a little extra protection wouldn’t hurt, and because I still had kevlar lying around, I decided to add a bit to the seat-back. Weight be damned!

Kevlar (yellow) and BID


The now usual sequence of events unfolded. 



Worthy of notice is the fact that even warm, the pure epoxy had a tough time wetting the kevlar, and it took a lot of squeegeeing, and heat from a heat gun, to show it who’s the boss.
Peel-ply applied, and a day later, here’s what it looked like.

Note: the kevlar does not reach the sides, and it's contained within the fiberglass. This is to avoid ending up with ragged, unsandable kevlar edges.


A few cuts and holes in strategic places, and voilà ... a Long EZ front seat is born.




Sunday, November 20, 2011

Ch. 4 - Front seat - Part 1

Getting started (4.6 hrs)



Toward the end of July, I joined my good friend Mike Beasley (also Long EZ builder) on a pilgrimage to Oshkosh, to attend Air Venture 2011 for my very first time. 

Mike and me in his Long EZ


I mention it only because this marks the “Point of No-Return” in my project. 
Up until now I have spent few dollars, and a considerable amount of free time, educating myself in the art of “Long EZ building”, but July 26th will record my first substantial order from Aircraft Spruce, and the first tangible commitment to the cause.
All kinds of foam, wood, epoxy, BID, UNI, paintbrushes, rollers, squeegees, and the like, were ordered at the show, benefitting from a 10% air-show discount. A couple of weeks later, all these items showed up at my door much to my disbelief. 

Here's how little $2000 will get you.


That was it! There would be no more going back now!
It took a few more weeks before I could get started, due to my work schedule, but soon enough the time finally arrived.
You might recall my decision to widen the fuselage by two inches. Because of this, one of the first issues I faced was the need to check and revise all measurements and plan dimensions. My friend Mike warned me I would be facing an uphill battle because of this decision, and finally all his admonitions started to ring true.
I decided to study the plans and stay at least one chapter ahead of the parts being worked on, all the while trying to determine what would need changing, and by how much. Once the decision was made on a change, I’d commit it to the plans by way of a red pen.

Changes in red ink


End of planning, start of building!

Enough foam to finish the fuselage


Chapter #4 begins with shaping the pilot seat-back, and glassing the flat surface. Nothing unusual except for the size of the piece, especially since mine is even wider.
After the new dimensions were transferred onto the foam, I used a saw to cut the first rectangular piece of foam.

First cut of many to come


A quick calculation revealed that the sharp bottom-end of the seat should measure approximately 49˚ ( atan (0.8/0.7) ), so I set my table saw for 41˚ (90˚- 49˚), and shaped the bottom edge.

Surely an overkill, but also fast


I used the foam as reference to cut the fiberglass I needed, two layers of UNI at 45˚.

Cutting glass with razor pizza cutter


Like I had done before, I prepared a batch of micro-slurry... 


Warm hardener and resin straight off the pump


After stirring for 2 minutes it's now "pure epoxy"


Adding micro-balloons...


... to make micro-slurry


... and applied it to the foam.

Note that the edge has been rounded


Then laid the fiberglass in the correct orientation and used pure epoxy on it. 



After the first ply, on went the second at 90˚ to the first one, then more epoxy. After squeegeeing the excess out of the fiber, this is what the part looked like.



With all the excitement of doing my first piece, I forgot to peel-ply the edges of it, and I was comfortably watching television, when the horrifying thought occurred. Luckily, after running back to the shop, I found the part to be still wet, and I promptly rectified the issue. 



The next day I used my vibrating cutting tool (a must have, as far as I'm concerned) to effortlessly trim the edges with a minimum of fiberglass dust. Unfortunately, I could not resist the allure of removing the peel-ply (it comes off with a satisfying ripping sound), so I peeled it off with the excuse of educating my neighbor Lou in composite construction.



As enjoyable as it was, this just created more work for me, as I will have to sand it later to make sure I can get a good secondary bonding there, so I resolved to do no more such testing in the future.

Edge detail