A little progress XL H-58

[Chuck in Indiana]

Back in the 70s (gasp) my old friend Ed Sterba carved his own prop for his Sonerai. He's been making props ever since, and I've been running one on Mouser since the 80s. Since this version of the Verner turns the same direction as a VW, I naturally thought of Ed and asked him if he wanted to make one for it. Gave him the engine specs and how fast  Bullet will go. 67 inch diameter, urethane leading edges, and remarkably inexpensive. Maybe he gave me the Sonerai discount..

[Tom H]

Bullet.  I like it.  It is important that our Eagles are given proper names.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Bullet.  I like it.  It is important that our Eagles are given proper names.

Absolutely. 
Here's the nose art..

[Chuck in Indiana]

"When you at first don't succeed, give up. There's really no reason to make a fool of yourself." 

I gave it the old college try, but decided I'd never get this thing TIG welded in my lifetime. Ordered new tips for my "Vintage" Victor aircraft torch.. with a struggle. I couldn't find any for my Antique    Purox. Looked at my hoses. Uh.. nope. Got some new ones. My gas welding hat had shrunk after Dorcia washed it, so I put on an old silkie motorcycle helmet liner. My goggles were scratched, etc. Fixed that. Started welding.. "Hmmm what's that smell?" I have no idea how that silkie caught on fire (!) but it took quite a bit of hair with it when I yanked it off.    Must have been polyester.. Ran to the welding shop and (cough cough) bought a new welding hat.
Repurposed some of the box the Aero Engine came in (Guzzi content for sure) and made a gizmo so I can turn the fuselage.

Continued welding.

No doubt, it will be smooth sailing now..

[Chuck in Indiana]

Back at it. The fuselage is finish welded other than where it's hooked to the rotisserie. Started looking at upper and lower wing mounts.The top should work nicely, but looking at Leonard's sketch for the lowers.. I'm thinking, "that won't work." 
Did some cad drawings that will be considerably closer and generated some code for the mill. With any luck at all, I'll make the 8 fittings tomorrow. It *is* sunny and warm, though..

[Chuck in Indiana]

I saw those, and thought there was no way a guy could make them from the dimensions given, so just decided to make my own. Yeah, they'll need a little tweaking with a die grinder, but I didn't have to draw every one. (shrug)
Oh, one other thing if you find this in the future.. the "materials kit" is pretty short on 3/32 material to make them. Fortunately, I have a good stash in my "good airplane junk" pile.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Just for S&Gs here's how I made the fittings.
First, I said in my best Captain Kirk voice, "Computer.. take a skin cut off that scrap piece of aluminum, and drill and tap holes in the proper locations."
"Certainly, Captain."
Seriously.. this stuff is Star Trek to this old manual machining tool and die maker..
Once that was done, I could rough saw the steel and clamp it down on the fixture. These are toolmaker's parallel clamps holding it down.

Then it was a simple matter of telling the computer to drill holes on location so I could bolt it down.
Once that was done, all I had to do was tell her to cut away everything that didn't look like a wing/landing gear fitting.

Nothin to it..

I could be burnt for a witch..

[jrbirdman47]

Man, that's beautiful! Since I don't dabble in the "dark arts"I will have to be happy with the hack saw and file. 

[Dan_]

Man, that's beautiful! Since I don't dabble in the "dark arts"I will have to be happy with the hack saw and file. 

And put them on a Harbor Freight grinder diet...

I never understood how the Machinists always end up with the lathes, mills and drills, and can weld to beat hell.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Man, that's beautiful! Since I don't dabble in the "dark arts"I will have to be happy with the hack saw and file. 

I may have mentioned before that a hacksaw works on the Ouija board principle for me. The more I try to control its destiny, the more dismal my future becomes..

[Chuck in Indiana]

Started the upper wing mounts this afternoon. Thought I'd show a useful tool if you haven't see it before. This is an expansion reamer.

Turn it with a tap wrench. There is a small screw in the end that when screwed in.. expands the middle of the flutes as much as .006". Let's say you used a conventional drill instead of grinding a sheet metal drill like I told you.. and it drilled an undersized triangular hole in the thin piece of square tubing, as they are prone to doing. The bushing stock won't go into the hole. Of course, you could take a rat tail file, or a small grinding wheel and open it up, but that is so gauche. Run the expansion reamer through it, and it will be round, and you can adjust it so the bushing is a light tap fit so it will stay located until you tack it.

Making the bushings on the toy lathe. 2 for the main spar and 2 for the rear. Of course they are slightly different..

[Chuck in Indiana]

Over the years I've tried various cutting fluids on hard materials. Anchorlube makes all the difference in the world when reaming these welded bushings. It gave a nice slip fit on an AN bolt.



I love it when a plan comes together.. The spars are 28 1/4" on center. When the 1/16" plate is welded to the inside of the cabanes, the mounts will be pretty much centered on them.

[Theodore]

One year and a day.
since this thread started...
WTG!
 i can see why this could take someone four years to build.
 ... waiting on John , waiting on Scott.
a couple weeks ago i witnessed a first fly Nicholas started at the age of 16, hes 20 now,
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipP7GVEw4tF08tG9kz3g0iYpvrDAdcTNdGD4Lmz-
https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipP7GVEw4tF08tG9kz3g0iYpvrDAdcTNdGD4Lmz-

[Chuck in Indiana]

Hi, Theodore.. I really thought I'd be able to fly it this Summer.  I *did* lose 12 weeks with the hand operation, but I was mistaken. As the saying goes, "this ain't my first rodeo.."    and I could see that it would be a difficult and time consuming airplane to build... but I was looking for something to do.
Obviously, I haven't been working full time on it, but it has filled that task admirably. Maybe next Summer? 

[Chuck in Indiana]

The Kid (Brad) came down to visit for the first time in over a year (!!)and I showed him Bullet. He's uhh, fairly knowledgeable  about airplanes.. runs one of the biggest GA shops in the midwest. He said, "I didn't know you were this far along. I knew you had the wings built, but didn't know the tail feathers were done, and the fuselage was welded."
To the point.. he started looking the fuselage over, laughed, and said, "do you think it's strong enough?" I told him I thought it might be a little over designed.. He said, "Well, I can stop worrying about you flying some flimsy ultralight..
Back at it this afternoon. Dummied up the wing attach..


Decided if it needed to be more accurate, the wrong guy was working on it, and welded up the mounts.