killerb1971

I still am undecided on what hardware I will use. I have seen many different styles and they all seem to work for the builders. I am leaning toward Click Bonds though. The Cozy Girrls highly recomend them and I trust their great reputation and high respect from fellow builders regarding their ideas and great quality products.

Well.....have to cut the temp firewall still, but all bulkheads were completed at the end of Feb. I have taken a month off to do some mechanic side work. My good friend Gene (and fellow builder of a quickie q1 and cozy MKIV) had a transmission go out on his honda accord, so we changed it out and did several other things including timing belt, axles, etc. I also sold my Geo metro, and purchased a Mitsubishi eclipse that needed an engine rebuild. So I got all that knocked out, and ended up taking on 2 other engine projects. One is still in process. All of this side work (other than Gene's which I did for free, but he gave me 2 gal of MGS 285) is "COZY MONEY". I have dedicated myself to this Cozy as a "Noha's Ark" kind of project. Its as if I must build it no matter what........and I WILL! I ran out of BID somehow durring the CH4 process. I think its because I made some wrong direction cuts when I first started out. I learned to be conservative when cutting cloth to maximize the efficeincy. It also could be that I was shorted on my BID from ACS.....I don't know. Anyways I have no BID left but I have the entire roll of uni for my chapter 5 kit. next week I will go to ACS and get more resin and hardener, and also pickup my ch 6,7, and 8 kits if the are available. I am going through withdrawls from not building so bad that I am starting to twitch! This stuff is like a drug, its SO addicting. I cant wait to get started on CH 5. I have been keeping up with everyones progress and it (as always) is a HUGE inspiration. My hope is to have ch 7 completed by end of summer, and the plane on its main gear for Christmass this year. If I live in the dark......eat nothing but rice.........get no sleep whatsoever.......YEP, I'm sure I can do it!!! Everyone keep up the great work. I will be posting regularly again soon. Here are my CH 4 pics from Feb.

HEY HK!!!! Welcome to the family! I am a newbie myself. I am wrapping up CH4 this week. I didn't have the chance to go to a workshop before I started, so I was taught by the plans, along with all of the wonderful and knowledgable people of the canard communities through the forums. I am using MGS 285 and slow hardener for everything so far. It is the most expensive unfortunately, but it seems to have the best performance characteristics of all of the other approved systems. I never experienced working with any other system at this point, so I have no comparison. Many people have switched several times to see which one they like best. One bit of advice from my small experience so far is to read the plans fully at least once before starting each section. I missed some things that I had to fix in the middle of a layup. Another piece of advice is to check out other people's web pages and learn from their mishaps, tips, and tricks before starting a section. Its a BIG help!! Sometimes the plans can be somewhat unclear on certain details, and the other builders can clear it up for you. The Cozy builders and the canard community as a whole are a wealth of knowledge, full of great people. They are always willing to help. Keep us posted with your progress. Look forward to hearing more from you soon! HAPPY BUILDING!

Great. Thanks for the advice guys. I can see the light at the end of the ch4 tunnel.

OUTSTANDING!!!!! I bet that is quite a feeling! We are all looking forward to that day. I hope you have blue skies and calm wind on your first flight!!!!

I am just about to wrap up chapter 4, but by reading the plans and looking at the drawings, it leaves me with a few questions. First, does the temporary firewall need the blind screws or hard points installed as well? Second, the plans say to make the hardpoints 1"x1.25", when the drawing has a 1" square hole. Which is it? And if it is 1"x1.25", which part of the square on the drawing is my point of reference for the rectangle? Does the longer part go vertically or horizontally, and from which end of the square? Also do the hardpoints need any treatment before install? Do they get 5min epoxied in or floxed? Sorry about all the questions, but the plans don't seem to be clear on this, and I am VERY particular on how this plane is put together. Thanks in advance for all your help and advice.

I can only hope that one day mine will be near as beautiful! Excelent work!!!! Have a safe first flight.

Well.....the project is on hold for a week or so. My friend Gene (who introduced me to this plane and is a great source of help and info) had the transmission go out on his Honda Accord. I offered to help him out, so My past week and through this weekend will be dedicated to pulling a transmission and swapping it with another. Turns out there is ALOT of other stuff needed in the process, like CV axles, ball joints, radiator, hoses, timing belt, front and rear main seals, water pump, all motor mounts, and the list goes on. Well I got the trans in and most of the car put back together last night, and found out I left an oring off of the new torque converter! So guess what I have to do. YUP! I have to tear the entire thing back down again and pull the trans back out to put this simple oring back on the torque converter!!! At least I know I'll be getting alot of help on my plane. He did give me 2 gallons of MGS 285 as well, which I thought was nice, seing how I'm running low. I know it seems like alot of work, but it is his only transportation and he is a fellow Cozy builder. Well...he has plans #0002 from Nat, and has NEVER started it yet! I'm trying to get him motivated but he wants to finish his Quickie project first. I am really anxious to start back on my Cozy. I'm going through withdrawls from not building!

I've been doing plenty of beating myself up over this one, trust me!! I just want to make sure that a repair on such a piece would be acceptable. I'll do the plans recomended patch. Thanks Steve!

I did the first layup on F22 and F28 yesterday afternoon. Everything went great. Then I went to move the parts this morning, less than 20HRS after layup and snagged the dry (non epoxied overhang) edge of the glass hanging off the bottom side of F22 on something as I was walking and it ripped about 4" of the top layer of BID from the lower layer on the bottom right corner. The glass was hard, but not fully cured yet obviously. I am using MGS 285 with slow hardener and my shop stays between 70-80 degrees constantly. My friend Gene told me that we could peel both layers of glass back and expose the foam, sand the epoxy from the foam and redo a layup as a patch with a 1" overlap on the previous layup. I used peel ply on the whole layup, so it will bond to the other glass. We have already peeled the layers back and cut them at an angle where the layup still has a good bond. I'm just concerned about the integrity of the part. Is this method safe, or do I scrap the part? All of my other layups are hard as a rock and cured great. This one would have been the same if I wasn't so careless in moving it. I don't want to cut any corners in constructing my plane, but if this repair is safe and acceptable, I will do it this one time and HOPEFULLY learn from my mistake. One other option.... can I cut the exposed foam out and 5min epoxy a new piece in and do a patch that way, so I can slurry some fresh foam? All adivce is GREATLY appreciated. Thanks

I'll do that then. I just want to make it go as smoothly as possible. I just got finished with the first layup on the F22 and F28 today. I will finish them up tomorrow. I cut the lower cutouts from the IP today as well and preped it for slurry. I brought my hard point layup for the landing gear bulkheads to work tonight and cut them out on the bandsaw. It was so easy. Its nice to be able to use the equipment at work. Thats a great job perk! I used a hand file to get the sides and corners right down to the traced line for a smooth flush outline. It seemed to work faster than the big belt sander, and it didnt try to melt the part from friction : ). They look great. At this rate I might have CH4 done next weekend!! : ) I love making progress. It keeps me fired up!

I 5min epoxied the doubler and F28 together, staged the glass for all 3 pieces and will continue tomorrow with the glassing. I also traced out the hardpoints and have to figure out how I will cut them out now.

My first complete part. Is it recomended to do the rough cutouts now, or as it is being installed? I have read that many people recomend to wait until installation to do them, but is that for all of them or just some? I was going to work on the other bulkheads today, but I'll wait till tomorrow. I could use a break. I've been working on this every day. Things seem to be flowing smoothly. I'm getting more and more fired up as more progress is made. I'll keep posting as I go. As always I thank everyone for their help and advice.

Today I completed the first layup on the seat back. It went great. I had to wait unil today to start it because I didn't get my peel ply tapes until this morning. I made the hardpoint layup last night. It ended up using 25 layers to make the 1/4" thickness. I used the scrap foam from the landing gear cutouts as my gauge, covered it in plastic, smoothed out all the air bubbles between the plastic and the layup, placed a smooth board over it and weighted it down with a heavy flywheel from a big block chevy. It came out great except for one small wrinkle in the very bottom corner from the fold in the plastic. The overall dimensions of the usable smooth part is 10" X 12", so I am ok. It feels great to be making progress! : )

Thanks Kraig! I appreciate the info. I'll make it a point to do more research before I get started from now on. I'll post more when I make more progress.

I looked at chapter 2 pg 5 and it looks as if the IP is supposed to be cut up into 3 sections to fit F28 on the same foam. I didn't notice this untill I had the entire IP traced onto the 2 pieces of foam I glued together. Is it necessary to flip the foam over and re cut the M drawing and trace it that way, or can I just buy an extra piece of foam for F28? The IP just barely fits on the 2 pieces of foam, but it is all there. I have also heard about people needing to add 1/4" to the bottom of the IP to make it fit the fuselage, is this a necessary modification? I don't mind re doing anything, I just want it to be right.

Well....It wasn't much of a start, but its still a start. I got as far as trimming the front seat back and cutting the glass for the first layup before I went to work. I realized I did not have any peel ply!!! Here I thought I was prepared. So I ordered some 1" and 2" from Spruce and it should be here Sat. This is where it all begins. The clock has officialy started!!!! I have 1.5hrs logged so far. Just 4998.5 hrs to go!! : ) Isn't this FUN!

Hey everyone. I am too new here to get involved in this situation and have no two cents to offer on it. I HATE politics. I don't get involved in drama. I am a VERY proud private pilot who LOVES flying, and wants to embark on the life changing journey of building his own plane. I have been posting on this site since I first purchased my plans and will continue to do so. I have recieved SO MUCH valuable information and advice so far, and I haven't even started ch4 yet. I value all of the great information and advice from builders of ALL stages. The canard community as a whole seems to be like a big family. People are so friendly and are always willing to help. I enjoy reading peoples web pages and postings in ALL of the forums. I hope that after the smoke clears from all this, that we all can continue to share the knowledge and encouragement that the beginners like me need to keep moving on. It means alot......at least to me anyway.

I recalibrated my pump for the 100:40 ratio for the 285 resin and 287 slow hardener. The 2nd practice layup is complete and curing. The practice kit I purchased from Wicks didn't come with any 1/2" foam which was required for the layup, so I used the 1" thick x 12" square block that it did come with. It was 12" long instead of the 14" per instructions and was 1" thick instead of 1/2". For all intensive purposes it will work for what the practice project is intended to teach. It seemed to go well. I will begin the last practice project (picture frame) tomorrow. I anticipate starting chapter 4 the first week of Feb. I took inventory of all parts in the chapter 4 and 5 kits, went down the bill of materials in the plans, and checked off everything as I went. Everything is accounted for and is in perfect condition. This is a good start.

One quick question about the materials list. The list calls for 5 gal of epoxy for ch4-ch7. Do they mean total volume including hardener, or just resin content? From what other people have been saying it sounds like resin content only. I have just the one gal of resin right now for the practice stuff, but I just went to ACS and picked up 8qts of H287S hardener yesterday. I'll be ordering more resin in Feb when I am truly ready to start chapter 4.

I just came back from ACS with my CORRECT hardener. I bought 8qts of 287s. Tim was VERY helpful and appologised repeatedly for the mistake and inconvenience. I will inventory all the parts of my chapter kits 4 and 5 this weekend. I'm going to buy more resin next month. My budget for Jan is SHOT! Its a very good point about buying extra hardware and in various sizes just in case. I have read in several archives about people getting hardware per plans and it ends up not actually fitting correctly. I'll be on the lookout for that as well.

That is great information to know. I'd feel alot more comfortable about buying in bulk knowing that. Thanks for the tip!!!! 7 homebuits!? Geeze most people spend their lives building just one! : ) I wish I had that kind of time and money....I'd probably build a few myself. One day I'll win that lottery and..............

Not a bad point! I completely forgot about the materials list. : )

Chapter 4 and 5 arrived this afternoon!!!!!!! It was VERY well packaged. I will be running to Spruce tomorrow morning to get the hardener and maybe some other stuff.

My friend Gene recomended mostly slow as well. I might get one or two fast, and the rest slow. How much resin should I have on hand thru ch7 aproximately? I figured on 2-3 gal. Does that sound right?