2008 - Page 1

January 1st, 2008 - 4.5 hrs - 86.5 hrs total. Took the stab rear spar out of the clamps - turned out perfect. Cleaned up the joint and sanded. Made the scarf joint in the stab front spar, glued it, let it dry, took it out, cleaned it up - turned out even better than the last one! Finished up one of the stab tip clamping forms. Cut out and sanded the other, still need to cut the clamp holes in it. Ripped some long fir stock into appropriate dimensions for flanges. One of the pieces of stock was in pretty bad shape so I was only able to get one flange out of it. Means I'll need to make a visit to the hardwood shop again. Sorted and laid out the ribs on the spars. Did some trail fitting. Should be able to glue the flanges in place next.

January 2nd, 2008 1.5hrs - 88.0 hrs total - To get the flange to follow the curve of the spar I put finishing nails through the spar slots into the jig. Put down blue masking ape to keep epoxy from sticking to jig. You can never have too many clamps! Went nd got some more wood for last flange. Still need to rip it to size. Talked to guys at EAA meeting about warped plywood. Used steam iron on 1/2 inch plywood trim tab par to try tor straighten it out. Looks like it worked. Have it clamped to a table and will let it dry for a day or so to see if it stays fixed.

January 3rd, 2008 2.0 hrs - 90.0 hrs total. Removed spar from clamps, cleaned up, sanded. Its surprisingly light and strong. No wonder they make spars like this! Cut and glued other flange onto spar.
January 4th, 2007 2.5 hrs - 92.5 hrs total. Removed main spar from jig, cleaned up jig, covered with wax paper, aligned and clamped trailing spar down, drilled nail holes, installed jig nails, glued first flange in place. Finished cutting out 2nd tip form/clamping guide.
January 5th, 2007 4.5 hrs - 97.0 hrs total. Glued second flange onto trailing edge rib. Traced, cut out, cut lightning holes, and sanded last remaining ribs for stab and elevator from 3/8 in plywood. Still need to try to straighten elevator spar - or remake it, then glue flanges on it. I now have everything ready to start assembling the stab. Since I'm so anxious to get something made that looks like part of an airplane I'll probably go ahead and make the stab and finish up the elevator when the stab is done.

January 6th, 2007 6 hrs - 103 hrs total. Mounted jig on sawhorses, braced to wall, made extra floor braces to allow shimming and further bracing. Leveled it out and braced. Put down wax paper, clamped trailing spar in place and aligned. Trial fit the middle section ribs and was shocked to find the tabs are too narrow AND too short. The full size plans clearly show the tabs at 7/8" long, but the flanges themselves are 7/8" so its impossible for them to rest on the flanges and still protrude into the spar slots? Also the plans say to spread the flanges on the spar webs slightly to allow for contouring to match the rib profiles. I spread them about 1/16" to 1/8" on each side. This causes the ribs to not fit! I will Call Terry in the morning and ask him if I have to re-make all 10 center section ribs or if I can use some blocking to make the existing ribs work. Either way it looks like the plans have a mistake in them! Very Frustrating!!!

January 7th, 2008 4.5 hrs - 107.5 hrs total. Got Terry on the phone for about an hour this morning. The two separate issues have two separate solutions. The flanges are shown with the wrong dimensions on the plans. This is good news as I've glued 7/8" strips that should be 3/4". Easy enough to run through the table saw and then sand down to size - even though they're already glued to the spar webs. I couldn't have made the notches in the ribs bigger because the lightning holes are too close to the notches to allow them to be enlarged. I thought about notching the spars or shaving down just that area too. Terry reminded me that the stab is covered with plywood and is primarily stressed skin, so most of the stresses encountered in flight are carried by the skin, not the spars. All of the flanges in the stab are supposed to be 3/4". However, in the elevator, which is mostly fabric covered, except for the leading edge, the stresses are more significant so the flanges are 7/8" there. It appears the flange size for the elevator somehow got transposed onto the stab trailing spar drawing. So, problem 1 fixed.
For problem 2, slop from side to side (up and down really) in the tab to flange fittings, Terry said it needs a good positive fit. He suggested I use a strip of plywood glued to the side of the tab, after it's been installed into the spar slot, which fits snuggly between the flanges. We discussed various fillets and blocking options and decided this would be the lightest.
Removed everything from the jig. Ran the trailing edge spar - complete with flanges - through the table saw to trim the flanges to size. Worked extremely well. Added some more center lines and attach points to the jig. Clamped the trailing edge and main stab spars securely in place in the jig precisely lined up. Took a while to get this all set up properly! Mixed up a batch of epoxy and started gluing in ribs. Only got through two ribs when the epoxy started to cook off. Once it started I had about 30 seconds until the remaining epoxy was unusable. Noticed a very slight twist in the main spar when pressed down onto the ribs. Decided to stop gluing and work on getting the ribs to fit
just a little better to get the twist out of the spar.
January 8th, 2008 2.5 hrs - 110 hrs total. Re-aligned main spar and checked spacing on all ribs. Sanded the flange notches on several of the ribs to tweak the fit. Sits much better now. Glued in the mid section ribs 1 - 5 on both port and starboard sides. To prevent epoxy from "baking off" before I could apply it, I poured half of the batch into another cup. Didn't heat up at all this way and gave me almost 20 minutes of working time. Cut some 3/4 in strips from 1/8" plywood to make rib tab reinforcement pieces as discussed with Terry yesterday. Made first two pieces for ribs glued last night, but need to wait for glue to dry to make the rest. Kind of sad to think that all this work is going to be covered up by the plywood skin.
January 9th,2008 2.0 hrs - 112 hrs total. Finished making the tab reinforcement strips. Got 9 out of the 10 glued in before the epoxy baked off. I thought I'd use it fast enough to prevent it from having a chance to heat up - but not this time! Dry fit all the nose ribs. Cleaned up the spar slots and did a little fine sanding in the nose ribs to get them all to fit exactly and ready to glue. Am ready now except for putting some bracing in the jig to allow clamping of all the ribs in two planes of motion. Still not positive about which way to do it. Several options available.
January 10th, 2008 3.0 hrs - 115 hrs total. Figured out how to brace the nose ribs when they are being glued. Cut and fit these bracing pieces into the jig. Marked all nose ribs and inboard jack ribs with centerlines for alignment when gluing. Should be able to align and glue all the nose ribs tomorrow night. Will post pictures of the bracing then - if it works!

January 11th, 2008 4hrs - 119.0 hrs total. Decided to use popsicle sticks on the bracing to hold and align the nose ribs in the jig. Found I could staple them in place with a staple gun and mark the other axis to align with centerlines. Easy to slide the ribs out to apply the glue, then slide back into accurate position. Even after splitting the glue batch into two cups, it still baked off in about 10 minutes. I made another batch to finish up, left it all in one cup, and in about 5 minutes it baked off so fast I burnt my thumb on the cup before I could put it down!

January 12th, 2008 4.5 hrs - 123.5 hrs total. The next step in the plans is to add the blocking to the trailing spar at each of the hinge points and to the main and trailing spars at the center section. Spent about an hour going over and over in the plans and photos trying to figure out what "center spruce filler block" meant. Finally decided that the little arrow is pointing to the lightning hole - not the block itself. Photos on the web site are of two different prototypes - and neither of them are very close to the plans. Had to cut down a large block of spruce to make the needed stock for the blocks. Finished the trailing center block and have rough cut the hinge point blocks. Very time consuming to fit.

January 13, 2008 3.5 hrs - 127 hrs total. Cut and sanded trailing spar hinge point blocking to size. Glued in center section blocking and all but one of the hinge point blocks. Still need to make the main spar center blocking. Noticed one of the jack rib center sections is warped. Need to try to flatten it with steam before gluing it in place.
January 15th, 2008 1.5 hrs - 128.5 hrs total. Ripped some stock spruce down to 3/4" slabs and made main spar center section blocking piece. Fits very nicely. Drew lightening holes on piece to cut them out and noticed they are 1" deeper than the trailing spar lightening holes. If I cut them they way they are shown on the plans, the jack rub will be spanning the hole. If I cut the hole the same as the trailing spar blocking, the jack rib will but flush onto the blocking piece. You can see the difference in the drawings above. Both spar drawings are to the same scale. I'm not sure which way to go? Guess I'll have to call Terry again?
January 16th, 2008 1.5 hrs - 130hrs total. Talked to Terry. Verified the jack rib should NOT span a lightening hole. Cut filler block with smaller cut out - like the one on the trailing spar. Will wait to glue in place until I can turn the tail over so glue won't drip out. That means the trailing jack ribs will need to wait too. I might change my mind on this? Aligned one of the #6 ribs. Need to block it, and the other #6 rib in place. Also verified I need to put 1/16 backing full span behind spruce blocking on trailing edge spar.
January 17th, 2008 2.5 hrs - 132.5 hrs total. Glued in last trailing spar filler block. Ripped some spruce strips to 1/4 X 1/4 and sanded down to 1/4" fillet strips. Made enough for all the jack rib joints. Glued fillet strips on front of main spar at butt joints of nose jack ribs. Aligned port stab rib #6, made blocking devices and blocked it in place. Don't have enough clamps to do the starboard one. Need to buy a couple more. Plans say to block all the nose ribs in place before removing the tail from the ribs. Still planning a way to this without having to make up 10 custom clamp jigs and use about 20 clamps. Talked to Rick with the machine shop today - he is starting to work on the metal parts again.
January 19th, 2008 3.0 hrs - 135.5 hrs total. Bought some clamps. Clamped in 2nd #6 rib. Started making blocking and clamping in nose ribs so I can remove the stab from the jig. Blocking goes very slowly, am going to need even more clamps!

January 21st, 2008 1.5 hrs - 137.0 hrs total. Bought some more clamps yesterday. Made two more clamping braces and fit them in place. Have about 6 more to do on the nose ribs, and 4 on the mid section before I can remove the stab from the jig.
January 24th, 2008 4.0 hrs - 141.0 hrs total. Made four more clamping braces and clamped in place on nose ribs. Still have four more to make for the nose ribs and either two or four for the mid section. Very time consuming as each one has to be made to fit exactly, and be exactly square. Have to cut to close shape and sand to final fit.

January 25th, 2008 3.5hrs - 144.5 hrs total. Bought about 15 or 20 more clamps. Made and installed two more clamp braces for the nose ribs. Started on the last two.
January 26th, 2008 5.0 hrs - 149.5 hrs total. Finished last two nose rib clamp braces and clamped in place. Made all four mid section clamping braces. Clamped in one pair. Cut some stock to make the 1/16 backing plates for the blocking on the trailing spar. Removed all the temporary bracing from the jig.
January 27th, 2008 4.5hrs - 154.0 hrs total. Made all six 1/16" ful span backing plates for hing point blocking. Sanded flanges down slightly to make them flush with back of blocking so backing plates would sit flush. Glued them all in place.
January 28th, 2008 2.5 hrs - 156.5 hrs total. Removed clamps from last nights glue job. Sanded down some excess epoxy. Clamped last two clamping brackets in place. Clamped #6 ribs back in place - had to remove them to glue in backing covers yesterday. Marked trailing spar for location of mid section jack ribs. Removed stab from jig and hung upside down above jig. Will be able to glue in main spar blocking without glue dripping out now.
February 1st, 2008 1.5 hrs - 158 hrs total. Glued in main spar blocking. Used a new steam iron and steamed one of the mid section jack ribs that was warped as well as one of the trim tab hinge plates. Clamped them flat and will let them dry for a couple of days and see if it worked. Picked up the elevator and rudder hinge plates, elevator pushrod, and some other parts from the machine shop today.
February 2nd, 2008 1.0hrs - 159 hrs total. Aligned elevator spar web in jig. Looks like I'll be able to use it as is. Dry fit elevator ribs to plan width for flanges. Will cut them 7/8ths X 5/8 in stead of X 1/2. Will recommend to Terry he change the plans. Rather than spreading the flanges out on the web - just use 1/8" wider stock to allow sanding to shape.

February 5th, 2008 0.5hrs - 159.5 hrs total. Clamped elevator spar web into jig. Drilled holes, and installed guide nails in rib notches for aligning flanges on the web during the gluing process.

February 8th, 2008 0.5 hrs - 160.0 hrs total. Cut one flange to size and dry fit. Picked up some more clamps. Laid out clamping blocks and prepped for gluing.

February 8th thru 10th - Took a three day class on fabric covering and painting using the Stewart System. Now I know how to cover and paint the control surfaces.

February 11th, 2008 1.5 hrs - 161.5 hrs total. Ripped some stock into correct dimensions for second elevator flange (7/8th X 1/2). Glued in first elevator flange and clamped down to dry. Flanges have pretty tight bend at the tip of the spar. Only glued to last rib location. After glue dries I'll go back and glue tips down. I didn't think I would be able to get the bend in without bending the rest of the flange out of shape. Once the
glue dries, it shouldn't be a problem to bend the last part. You can see the tight bend in the picture below. That part is not glued in yet.

February 16th, 2008 1.0hrs - 162.5 hrs total. Steamed the warped mid-section jac rib and elevator trim tab hinge plate again to see if I could get them flattened out. Seems to have worked better this time. Started to set up for gluing of elevator spar flange tip.

February 17th, 2008 4.0 hrs - 166.5 hrs total. Glued in jack rib mid section ribs. After they dried cleaned up glue joints and made half of the needed 1/4in rounded fillets. Not glued in yet. Made up clamping systems and dry fit them all for the elevator tip gluing job. Went ahead and glued the tip down with the necessary bends. Looks good! Am ready to shape and glue the other flange on now.

February18th, 2008 3.0hrs - 169.5hrs total. Formed 2nd elevator flange to shape. Glued in place. Found small pitch pocket in first flange. Cleaned out and filled with glue. Glued on the 4 fillets I made last night on the forward end of the mid-section jack ribs. Let all glue dry and removed clamps.

February 19th, 2008 1.0hrs - 170.5 hrs total. Pulled pins from spar web rib slots. Dry fit elevator ribs, tab hinge plates and tabs. Planned best way to jig for rib placement. Reviewed plans for placement of second #3 ribs.
April 19th, 2008 3.0 hrs - 173.5 hrs total. Had a long break due to some minor flooding in the shop. Had to move a lot of stuff around. Cleaned up tools and jig. Re-leveled, plumbed and squared jig. Cleaned and sanded jig working surface. Marked new center line. Looked at existing elevator spar from every angle and can't find a way
to convince myself its usable. There's still about 1/2" of dihedral in the spar - so I'm going to scrap it and make a new one.
April 26th, 2008 2.5 hrs - 176 hrs total. Traced elevator spar patterns onto new sheet of 1/8 birch ply. Rough cut out with jig saw, trimmed with band saw and finished down to line with disc sander. Left a little extra material on the spar web to be final sanded after the flanges are in place. Marked all rib slots. Started cutting out rib slots with scroll saw.
May 3rd, 2008 3.5 hrs - 179.5 hrs total. Finished cutting out all rib slots in elevator spar web. Marked center line and scarf joint area. Scarfed overlap area by hand on disc sander. Glued scarf joint and clamped in place to dry.
May 4th, 2008 1.5 hrs - 181.0 hrs. Removed clamps. Drilled holes for nails that act as gluing guides for flanges. Hammered in nails, tweaked them a little to insure they are straight. Now need to rip some new flange strips. Measured stock on hand - have what I need, just need to rip it.
May 9th, 2008 3.0hrs - 184.0 hrs total. Ripped new flanges from stock. Glued lower flange onto spar web except at tips where they curve quite a bit. Will do them later.
May 10th, 2008 1.5 hrs - 185.5 hrs total. Removed clamps and cleaned up from previous glue job. Glued bottom flange ends in position with curves.
May 14th, 2008, 2.0 hrs - 187.5 hrs total. Dry fit second flange. Cut ends to shape, ground epoxy out of previous flange glue joint were new flange needs to be flush on old. Set up blocking to hold new flange in shape. Made up some internal blocks to help form flange to correct bend. Ready to glue.
May 15th, 2008, 1.5 hrs - 189.0 hrs total. Vacuumed up shavings and dust, cleaned surfaces to be glued. Set up clamps, glued in flange. Glued the whole side including the bends. Clamped in place to set. Once this is dry I'll be back to where I was before I decided to trash the original elevator spar. From this point I'll be making forward progress again! I'll start putting in pictures again once I start doing something new.
May 16th, 2008 3.0 hrs - 192.0 hrs total. Removed completed spar from jig. Cleaned up nail holes in jig, Sanded jig surface, put down new wax paper, re-leveled and plumbed jig. Cleaned and sanded all excess epoxy from spar, cleaned out rib notches. Clamped spar in place.
May 17th, 2008 2.0 hrs - 194.0 total. Installed extra members in jig to allow for aligning ribs. Remeasured and marked centerlines on all ribs.
May 18th, 2008 4.0 hrs - 198.0 total. Marked and cut out slots in elevator ribs for trim tab spar and hinge plates. Dry fit trim tab parts and secondary #3 ribs. Sanded and formed all pieces to fit. Installed popsicle sticks as guides for positioning all ribs.
May 19th, 2008 1.5 hrs - 199.5 total. Re-leveled and squared jig (again). Marked center line alignment points on popsicle sticks. Started making reinforcing tabs for rib to spar joints out of 1/16th ply. These aren't called for in the plans, but I ended up using them on the stabilizer because the ribs didn't make contact with both flanges. The elevator ribs are the same way and they need to be very strong as there is so much force transferred from the spar to the surface area of the elevator through these joints I don't want to take any chances. The 1/16th ply is very light, but still very strong in this application, I figure its worth the small extra weight in the tail to do it.
May 21st, 2008 2.0 hrs - 201.5 total. Finished making reinforcing tabs. Glued in all elevator ribs except primary and secondary #3 ribs that tie into trim tab spar. Also glued in reinforcing tabs.
May 22nd, 2008 2.0 hrs - 203.5 total. Glued in all four #3 ribs with reinforcing tabs (glued two of the tabs to the wrong side of the ribs, but it doesn't really matter). Glued in elevator trim tab plates and trim tab hinge plates on port and starboard sides. The trim tab ribs aren't installed till later.
May 23rd, 2008 1.5 hrs - 205 total. Went and purchased another batch of clamps and some wood to make clamping forms. Started making clamping forms.
May 24th, 2008 4.5 hrs - 209.5 total. Finished making clamping forms and got them all clamped in place. Removed elevator from jig. Cleaned up and sanded under side of glue joints. Set up a table in the garage and moved the stabilizer and elevator into the garage and clamped them to the table. Made up three clamping spacers to go between the elevator spar and stabilizer spar. Instructions called for 4" X 4" X 1 & 15/16" blocks. Couldn't find any stock so went and bought a 4X6 beam and chopped the end off to use for stock to make the blocks. Now that they are clamped in place its clear that the only dimension that matters is the 1 & 15/16. The others are arbitrary. Could have just glued some 2x4s together instead of buying a beam!

Bruce's Spitfire

2008 - Page 1

Dry fitting horizontal stab ribs

Completed Trim Tab Horn (Port side)

Elevator endcap and horn ribs - last four ribs needed to finish the empennage

Issue with the rib length on the plans

Nose rib bracing added to jig - some scrap 1x2s

Popsicle sticks stapled to braces

Alignment marks on sticks to match centerline

Alignment marks on sticks to match centerline

Alignment marks on sticks to match centerline

Rib tab reinforcement strips in place

Alignment marks on sticks to match centerline

Alignment marks on sticks to match centerline

"Center Spruce Filler Block" arrow is actually pointing to the lightning hole - not the block itself. The missing dotted lines on the upper spar drawing (see above) where the flanges extend over the scarf joint add to the confusion!

Trailing spar center section blocking

Blocking in place on trailing spar between flanges

Most of the clamping braces in place

Detail of typical clamping brace

Control pushrod, 3 rudder and 7 elevator hinges, control horn bracket

Horiz stab out of jig

Reinforcement plates welded in place

First Elevator flange glued and clamped to spar web.

Tight angle on tip of elevator spar. Not glued in yet, just blocked in place for now while the rest of the flange glue dries

Completed Elevator Spar

Jack rib 1/4 round fillets.