DavzLSA progress

[davzLSA]

Hey Guys, finally got a 3 day weekend away from work, so got some progress, I got a window frame made and the hinges made for it. so here are the pics. The tubes with the safety wire are how I build the hinges. I think I read about this in the experimenter or somewhere. I have the tubes safety wired to hold them together while I weld them. Once they are tacked the wire is removed and its finished welded. I have a hard time with these typed of hinges but I think this is going to work out good. I have them positioned on the window frame and the fuse are ready to weld them.

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys, more progress today, got another window and a door done. Still have to put the aluminum and plexiglass on them. Hope you like the pics.

[davzLSA]

Hey Guys, A little more progress to report today, I got the forms for the instrument panel and the fire wall made today. Fabricated the instrument panel and have the fire wall blank cut out so Ill fab it tomorrow. Ill have pics when I get the both done. I was in a vehicle accident as the end of July so Im just now getting back to building. Im all better now but was down for awhile. I hope all is well with everyone.
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[PaulSA]

Vehicle accident in South Africa? - shocker - hardly ever happens ...... Glad you've recovered

[davzLSA]

Thanks Paul. If you have 91 year old men driving around in 30ft motor homes at a high speed you better watch out!!!

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys got an update on some progress, I started welding on tabs. I think there are a million of them, I started making them and I think the tab elf is still making them at night because Im finding them every where on my shop floor. I have a picture of my fire wall blank with center lines on it. I had a hard time trying to figure out how to do that so I got my paper template I used to trace out the blank on the stainless and just folded it in half. and that got me my center line. I figured a center line would be useful is aligning the firewall with the rest of the plane. Hope this helps and may the shop elfs visit your shop as well!!!

[Chewie]

It does help, great idea. Did you do come up with an equally crafty method for the spars by chance? I ask because one night I spent an embarrassing amount of time drawing one line.

[davzLSA]

Hi Mark, The only crafty thing I could think of to do with the spars was to just buy them from Mark. Im trying to not take this scratch building thing too far plus im just lazy, ( that is what all my ex wives say anyway). As for the lines on the spar I dont think that will be too much of a problem since they have straight lines and square corners, And to be honest I sent several days trying to think of how to get a center line on a shape (firewall) with multiple radii curves, on the RV spars If I remember correctly when I built my them I took a measurement on the side opposite of the spar flanges and transferred it to the spar webs. Made a pretty nice straight line.

[davzLSA]

Hey Guys, Progress to report. OK I have welded on a million tabs already, I am almost done. however I wanted to ask you guys that have flying airplanes a question in regard to tabs. If you had it to do over where would you weld tabs that you didn't when you first built the plane? Welding tabs on a painted fuse could be a PITA. I would like to avoid that with your help. Here are some pix of my welding so don't be hatein.

[BTAZ]

My advice is to completely assemble everything before disassembling/sandblast/paint/covering as there are many things you might forget.

Some items:

Anything you end up mounting to the firewall(battery box, oil cooler, brake reservoir,etc.) you might want tabs on the tube for support.
All engine/heater, etc. controls.
ELT and antenna mount
Fuel line supports.
Other antennas
Headset plugs
Intercomm mount

and I'm sure there are more.

[davzLSA]

Hey Brad thanks for responding, I thought about giving you a call but I didn't want to pester you. Pester is an Alabama word for annoy. I thought about completely assembling the plane sans the covering and see what I needed. You have reinforced that thought, Thanks

[rodsmith]

Just a suggestion, I would take a grinder to the corners of the tabs, not to save weight, but to prevent catching things on the sharp corners.

[davzLSA]

Hi Rod, I agree, that is next on the agenda.

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys, I have a big mile stone to report. It the first fitting of my engine to my airframe. I know its not that big of a deal but it is to me. If you will notice in the pics I also have the instrument panel installed temporarily, I intend to temporarily install the nose bowl and strike a line between the nose bowl and the top of the instrument panel to get the measurement of the top of the fire wall. Hope you like the pics.

[svyolo]

That is a sharp looking engine.

[davzLSA]

Hi Guys, I have the nose bowl attached so I can get the height on the fire wall. Here are the pics.

[Russellmn]

What nose bowl are you using? I like the looks of it!