Big Steve

I am moving right along on my future ride. I am now in the process of carving the bottom to a "pleasing shape" I did my bottom a little different than the plans. I am doing mine similar to Wayne Hicks but with my own twist. I shaped the aft end of the plane and got the naca duct all sanded down to. I put foam in the area of the gear leg bulkhead space and shaped it to. I just finished glassing that. I am going to put some boards on top with bondo to hold its shape then cut it out and hang it on the wall until I build the gear legs. Then I will carve out the foam and make a shelf then I will turn the fuselage right side up and make a nice little shelf all the way around the gear leg area like Wayne hicks has done. I do not have to worry about making the little joggles that Nat has in the plans. I have enclosed a photo of what it looks like today.

Magnum: Send me your email address I can send you some pdf files. STeve sharmon32@juno.com

A couple of different builders sent me pdf's of the flush rudder belhorn plans. I wont mention names to protect the inocent. I hope that we can get permission from raf to post them here. It seems only fair if they will not sell them anymore. Steve:(

Today I jigged up the fuselage and floxed in the front seat insrument panel and f-22 took a little longer than it should of mainly because I started to do it upside down like Wayne Hicks. I decided I did not want a hole in my table so I did it like the plans except I did it on the table. I have to stand on a bucket to get to the bottom inside parts but that is not to tough. I will hopefully get it all taped in Monday. I have been a little under the weather lately I think this has also slowed me down. Here is a pic. of the front top view. Build on!

I scored another cheap tool deal. Costco has this tool that looks just like a dremel it comes with a host of cutting, grinding and sanding bits. It cost a grand total of 19.99 I should have bought 2 but I think there are enough tools with this one to build a whole plane. I have used it to sand some corners on my bulkheads works pretty good. It does not drill very good though it has to much run out. This could be a bad drill bit though. I have enclosed a picture of the set. STeve

Phil: You must be using MGS epoxy. I was going to use Mgs but when I went to order my foam and stuff they held up my order for over a month waiting for epoxy. I decided to build with something made in america so they would not run out of it. It looks like wicks is out of ez poxy and spruce only had a gallon kit in Ca. I wonder if we are going to all have to change to some other epoxy to build these planes. I found some stuff called system 2000 very similar to ez epoxy. It is a bit stronger acording to there web site. http://www.fibreglast.com/showproducts-category-Epoxy+Resins-5.html It is not an appoved epoxy but now that no one is designing or activly promoting these planes anymore I wonder if any new epoxyies will be approved. I just hope I can get enough of what ever epoxy to finish my project. STeve

I have a new cheap building idea. Instead of using masonite to build my fixture for my fuselage sides I used some sheet metal it was a scrap piece that was a cover sheet for sheet metal siding. I got it at the local siding place for only 5 dollars They sheared it to size width wise. It was plenty long so I did not have to splice in a longer piece. It was pretty easy to cut with some tin snips to size and formed a really nice side mold for my fuselage sides. That is my tip for the day. STeve

Well I finished Chapt. 5 today cleaned and trimmed all the bulkheads getting read to put the fuselage together next week. I am getting low on epoxy Wicks says they will have some ez epoxy in the 29 of this month. If not I will be forced to buy from ACS. Still struggling to keep my shop warm it has not got above 20 degrees for over a week. I have burned a lot of wood. STeve http://websites.expercraft.com/bigsteve/index.php?q=log_entry&log_id=14600

I built and flew a long back in the middle 80's it had a 0235 c2c just like the proto type Burt built. It was fun to fly and really cheap It was a pain to get 2 people out of a high altitude aiport. If I would have kept it I would have put in a 0320 I am now building a cozy IV the fuselage is much more complicated than the longeze and twice as big I like what nat has done with the motor mounts though. I think the landing gear is way beefier. I was a brand new pilot when I finished my long it was super easy to fly. Just had to get used to landing it properly, air speed was everything on final. When I finish this Cozy I will fly it for a while and if I dont like it. I will sell it and build another Longeze. Man do I miss that plane on a clear day. STeve

Just wanted to make a quick report about my new to me Fein tool. I bought the tool on ebay it was in good shape came with a nice carring case and a worn out wood blade. After Purchasing the recommended cutter (2 of them from Coastal tool) I used them for the first time today Trimming out my newly layed up fuselage sides. Wow is all I can say. Jon was right I dont know how I lived without this tool for trimming fiberglass. I highly recommend this to all builders bite the bullet and buy the complete kit though the way I bought mine actually cost more in the long run. STeve

Have another cheaper than acs (Always comes slow) Instead of buying the longerons from spruce (always comes slow) I bought a #1 grade 2 x 8" X16' board from a local lumber yard It was Douglas fir and had just a couple of knots that were small and I could work around. It had a really tight ring count and pretty straight grain. I have a little planer so I ripped all the longerons over size and then planed them down to with in .005 inchs They look pretty good. Total cost $17.00 for the board and a couple of dollars for diesel for my truck. It would have cost me over $100.00 for acs to ship them. I traded a little weight for a big dollar saving and Douglas fir is stronger than Aircraft grade sitka spruce. STeve

Delta Mike: Your welcome. Unlike some of the builders on this forum I really cannot afford to own or build an airplane. Unfortunatly for my wife it is my main passion (dont take that wrong) I am doing this because it got me out of a funk I had been in since I sold may last project. Now I cant wait to get up and go work on or study about my cozy project. I do all kinds of welding, mechanical, machine shop jobs that is how I pay for my Habit. I could not afford the first aiplane I built but it flew great. Paid for my machine shop when I sold it. That is why I am always looking for a less exspensive way to do things. By the way Thayercraft ind. http://www.thayercraft.com/Style%207725.htm now has uni fiberglass at a killer price I will try some as soon as I run out of the acs uni I bought with my last order. I also figured out that if you by eze poxy from wicks in the 5 gal drums not counting freight and hazard fee it is by far the cheapest epoxy around. I also think eze poxy makes the best fuel tanks by far. Enclosed is a picture of my nose retract mech. I am working on. Think cheap STeve

Here is a cheap tool update. I think I would have been better off to just buy a brand new fein tool with the accessory kit. I just ordered cutting blades and a sanding tool for my new fein. They cost as much as the tool. I gotta figure out a way to make my own blades they are way to exspensive. I do know that this set up trims like a demon. I used the old saw blade that came with the saw and it trimmed so nicely that I know a brand new blade is going to do even better. STeve

My local home depot sells a foam by dupont that is very similar to the foam that we hot wire for the wings. I think the only difference is the size of the blocks. That should give you something to play with your hot wire saw. I to am probably going to build and open ez someday. STeve

I recieved my Ebay Fein tool today. A quick out to the shop to try it out. It only came with one blade a saw type thin blade. I just layed up the instrument reinforcements last night so I had a lot to trim. It does pretty good much better than trying to hack it out with a box knive. I think it would do even better if I get one of those smoothe carbid or high speed steel blades. I will now be looking for some of those. After it is all done I think I would have done better to buy the whole kit from the hardware store I save 40 bucks but have to buy that much in blades. The machine is in good shape though. I think I am going to be very happy with this purchase. STeve

Phil: I hate to bust your bubble but back in early Oct. I ordered MGS from spruce they back ordered it and told me it would come in the 20th of that month. Then when they did not ship my order I called. They told me the MGS was back ordered until Nov. 20. That is when I told them to send me ezy poxy. I guess what I am trying to say is that I do not trust acs to tell the truth about when the mgs is comming in so you can take your chances. STeve

When I first ordered my chapt. 4-7 materials a couple of months ago Acs told me they would have MGS by the end of Nov. I did not want to wait so I ordered ez-poxy It is a bit cheaper and that is what my pump was designed for. I have not checked back with ACS. I would like to try some MGS I hear it wetts out really easy. If anyone out there gets a line on some MGS let us all know. STeve:D

Jon: I will let you know how it works when I get it. STeve

I just scored a non variable speed fein on ebay. I will probably get it in a week or so. What kind of blades do I need? I hope I like this tool I could have bought a lot of fiberglass for what I paid for it. STeve:rolleyes:

I am a ex tool and die maker working as a mechanic in a sugar factory. (Keeps me in Idaho) I also do a lot of side work welding machininng and farm machinery repair. Gotta pay for the plane somehow. Here is a pic. of my first project.

It could be extra layers of glass?? Hard to tell with out being able to feel it or look at it closely. I used eze poxy on my long it did get a bunch darker as the hardner aged. STeve

Jason: It is truly a sin to build a plane in a shop that has that much room. You make us all sick. I trip over stuff and nock things off the wall all the time. I am trying to figure out where I can install a cutting board for my fiberglass I need the other end of my table. Steve

I found really thick plastic at Joannes fabric for 2.99 a linear yard it is 60" wide. It comes on a roll so it does not have creases or bends. I bought 20 yards of peelply from a guy on the internet for 48.50 that included shipping it is good stuff I reccomend it. He sells regularly just go to Ebay and type in peelply. Another cheap trick I have used before with great success is to not clean the paint brushes when you are done with a lay-up throw the paintbrush in a baggy and put it in the freezer. I remember reading that in a CP. about 20 years ago. I finished glassing f-28 and f-22 today the instrument panel is next. STeve

Jon: It does not hurt the pages as bad as you would think. I did not want to cut them up they keep a lot better if I can keep them all the same. Finished my front seat bulkhead today and got f-22 and f-28 glassed on the aft side. I am loving these dritz scissors. When I built my longeze back in the old days I did all my trimming with the big scissors recommend by the plans it took forever. I bet if I tried the fein tool I would have to have one of those two. STeve

Maybe some one had done this but I have not read about it. I wanted to not ruin my full size M-drawings that I bought from acs. So I bought some carbon paper from office Max. ($7.00) Kind of spendy I thought. Then I bought a little serrated patern wheel from JoAnnes Fabrics. It has a serated edges on the blade they are not very sharp. Put the M drawing over the foam to be cut with the carbon paper in between used a couple of tacks to keep it from moving around just went around the drawing with the little wheel. It leaves an easy to read line on the foam. It also works on a glassed surface but not as dark. I also found that JoAnnes sell heavy clear plastic on rolls. It is 50" wide and pretty heavy I dont know how many mills. I used it to cover my work table. Tried to use it as Poor mans vacumm bagging I did not like the way it turned out though so I wont do that again. http://websites.expercraft.com/bigsteve/ This is the Place where I am putting pictures it is a nice help for us non computer old guys. STeve