Tell us what you did today on your Bearhawk Project

[Robertcropdust]

Gave it some sunshine

[Chewie]

I rejuvenated a Harbor Freight hand-me-down blast cabinet. LED, new gloves, dust collection and even a grounding wire. This paves the way to finally painting the bellcranks, pulley retainers, torque tube support and whatever other little steel bits I can find prior to skinning the wing.

[Bcone1381]

Boot Cowl
Some Boot cowl parts were fabricated three times. I was not real pleased with my first attempt from a few years ago but did not understand why. Then I saw Colin Campbell's work on the Five at OSH and understood that my Instrument Panel (Kit circa 2017) should have been trimmed down and that impacts how the sheetmetal rolls around the corner at the 10:00 and 2:00 position. It's a high visual impact area. Its right now. I can remove the side wall of each boot cowl with a phillips screw driver. I can remove the top and the windshield with the same.
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Windshield positioned
So, Boot cowl is done. I fit the windshield. I keep my wings on a set of stands, and I attached them to the fuselage so the line with the wing leading edge lined was good without needing to guess or measure or worry. Trimming the windshield with a 4 inch angle grinder bearing an abrasive pad worked great. I always had a line to reference when I trimmed it. Very little time was spent trimming it up, but I bet 30 times it went on and off. I bet not more than two minutes for each trim. After its all trimmed the raw edge got filed and sanded to prevent stress risers.

I use regular cellophane packaging tape for my release agent and applied artists clay to the fillet between the windshield and boot cowl (gray). There is lots going on in this area. I spent time and attention to learning how the windshield, and door and L/R windows interact when opening and closing them.
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Windshield Fairings
Windshield Fairing and Back-up Strip are fabricated, the Back-up strip is installed. I used 8.8oz bi-directional fiberglass fabric and AeroPoxy epoxy. The epoxy is mixed by weight rather than pumps, which saves a lot of waste and money. A qt is about $75. A scale is not expensive. I've never had a batch fail, even in 50-60F temperature.
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[Archer39J]

I'm jealous of that boot cowl, very nicely done.

[Bcone1381]

Thanks Archer. I think data shows that I am a slow builder. I don't have a time based goal...at all. When I started this project I would get angry. Something in my shop culture had to change. I need an error tolerant culture in order to be resilient when I am learning. Self judgment and condemnation are destructive.

Now I have a quality based goal, and educate myself often times through experience (aka errors). It cost money and time to get any education, and I suspect that my costly "lets make it over again" shop culture is faster and cheaper then a class room. I work alone at my home. A mentorship is better, but there is no one at home. so here I am. Because I have structured an "Educational" and "Quality" based environment errors and re-doing tasks to get the job "done well" becomes encouraging. It just take me longer.

So this website. along with relationships I am building with you all, is a big part of my build.

[spinningwrench]

Made four simple bolt on fixtures today for drilling the wing attach points. The knurled items are removable hardened drill bushings that will allow me to creep up to the final reamed bolt hole.

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[Chewie]

For the Cessna for now - I dug out this DIY article and made some tie-downs.

https://eaavintage.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/aircraft_tiedown.pdf

[spinningwrench]

The new mid-wing Bearhawk takes shape. 346F5D1B-69FF-4245-AC20-F8F0415757E5.jpg

[Bcone1381]

Tell us more about your adjustable wing stands.

[Russellmn]

Those wing stands do look slick...

[Nev]

Refueling will be way easier for sure

[svyolo]

Fabric covering complete. Engine cowl and front seat fabric to go.

[spinningwrench]

A091152A-FC60-477D-A7FD-F2F4BB949B8A.jpg Several people have enquired about my wing stands so here are additional pictures. I used 1/2” black pipe mounted on four roll around stands. The pipes are braced with pieces cut from the wing crates and tack welded in position. The wings are held up by contoured wood boards that are held in position by adjustable pipe clamps. McMaster 6436K17. I lift the wings with a roll around hydraulic lift platform. I wanted a lot of ease in adjusting height rather than building to a fixed height and using a lot of shims. I’ll find out this week if it all works. BF448421-AEBF-4166-A036-EDB7B6F6F0DA.jpg
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[Russellmn]

I hadn't thought of it, but you could use the pipe clamp kits for woodworking to support the wing cribbing. Very slick and simple, thanks for that.

[alaskabearhawk]

Installed the instrument panel today.

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[rodsmith]

Looks great! I have always really liked the Electronics International engine gauges. What I would have used if I wasn't going all glass.

[Mark Dickens]

Very nice!

[Nikkeyf]

I had to put my project on hold for 3 months as I was busy changing avionics on my other airplane. It is done now. Back to my Bearhawk!

[spinningwrench]

Upper Wing Mounts drilled today. Lots of fussing with alignments but made it all work. Since the first hole drilled will probably not align with the 3/16" pilot holes a machinist's trick is to drill the first hole with an end mill since it will not have a tendancy to follow existing drilled holes. Best to use some type of drilling guide. Follow up with progressively larger bits and then finally a ream. I mounted the 1/4" bit on a 9" extension by brazing. Always best to braze as it will uniformly keep the bit aligned with the extension, welding will tend to pull to one side as it cools and you will end up with a wobbly bit.

End Mill.jpg

[Chewie]

I top coated the remaining wing steel. What a difference a real paint booth makes!

[rodsmith]

That looks very professional. Did you put that together or are you "borrowing" it. An auto body shop about 25 miles away went out of business. It had a great paint booth. I talked to the bank that repossessed it about renting it for a couple months, couldn't work out a deal with them unfortunately.

[Mark Dickens]

I am soooooooo jealous. I spent the weekend spraying Ekoprime on my tail feathers and making a huge mess with all the overspray. Ugh.

[Chewie]

I admit I sprayed ekoprime at home out in the open on my driveway (with a drop cloth). I didn't have any overspray issue. In the summer the primer dries very fast, I only did a few parts at a time, and I had a touch up gun dialed back a ways.

[Chewie]

Borrowing it, from my employer. Normally that booth is used for aerospace mil-spec whatever coatings. This Stewart's is probably the mildest stuff that booth has ever seen.

[RobinDeMarco]

It’s not exactly on a Bearhawk, but it is in preparation of getting started. I’ve never done driven rivets before so I purchased a wing practice kit and the tool box kit from Vans. Today I completed the wing section for the first time. Tomorrow I’m going to begin the task of drilling every rivet out and redoing it. My plan is to do that 3-4 times then do the tool box. Hopefully by then I’ll feel confident in my riveting skills to do it for real. On my first attempt I’d give myself a C+. I definitely need work on double flush riveting. 88F590DB-C144-4EDE-86E3-AB4CDF35BCE2.jpg

[jaredyates]

Edited, I stand corrected!

[spinningwrench]

It will be harder and harder to get good looking rivets that don't tend to smear to one side or the other the more you remove and replace. Sometimes it is best to leave a non-perfect rivet alone rather than risk getting a much worse rivet the 2nd time. If you use a very small pilot bit to center drill the rivet like a number 52 (not very deep) it makes following up with a number 40 much easier.

[RobinDeMarco]

Spinningwrench, since this it totally practice, I'm looking at the opportunity of drilling out the 100+ rivets as another form of practice since I'm positive I'm going to need that skill on my Bearhawk! I very well may end up upsizing the rivets when I do the rebuild. I am definitely going to keep your advice in mind when during the actual build.

[geraldmorrissey]

Please examine the spar drwg sht. Double flush rivets under the strut attach fittings. Model 5 may be different. The thing with riveting, be bold, full blat. No tap,tap.

[jaredyates]

I forgot about those!