Jim's XL build D-25

[Jlwright]

Thanks. It took 15 days to get the fuselage tacked to this point. I tried to work some every day and some on the weekends too.

[grdev]

Nice job Jim. I think, with the exception of the wing mounts and the fairlead holders I'm finally done welding all the joints. Every time I think I'm done I see another spot that needs a little welding. Sure would like to be trying this thing out late summer or early fall.

[Jlwright]

It will be a while longer for me. I haven't done any of the other stuff yet like wing or tail parts.

[grdev]

I still have to order some steel for the 3/4 real braces on the landing gear. I have what is called a B tank for my acetylene  , wow is that stuff expensive. Cost me 42.00 per refill. Oxygen isn't to bad, it is only 18.00

[Bob S.]

I barely used one tank of each for my welding...

[grdev]

I sill have some left, but the gage is going down. A  B tank isn't very large, maybe 6" dia 24" tall.

[Bob S.]

OK... I used I guess FULL_SIZE tanks... Oxy was 3.5' or so tall, Acetylene was maybe 3' tall, 8" dia. and both were HEAVY!!

[Jlwright]

I have about 6 hours in welding up the fuselage. My welds have graduated from gorilla welds to orangutan. Boy this is gonna take awhile.

[Jlwright]

Hillbilly engineering!  Too lazy to drive 150 miles round trip to Harbor Freight so I made my own. 1-1/2 inch PVC floor drain, 1-1/2 PVC coupling, some 1-1/2 PVC pipe and I have a rotisserie. It swivels and I can lock it down by tightening the coupling. It is mounted on the electric lift so I can raise and lower to suit.  It actually works pretty good but the engine stand would have been better. Note to self, leave the corners of the station 1 open for welding.

[Poorman2]

Jim, how much 1/2 and 5/8 tubing did it take to build the fuesalage? I know you ordered 140 feet of 5/8. How much did you have left over? Have you made anymore progress or are you on spring break? This forum goes dead at times. Where is every body?

[Jlwright]

I do have some left but I still have to make the landing gear. I'll look when I get out to the shop and get back. One thing I didn't get enough of was the .090 sheet. A 6 by 12 is not enough. I ordered a 12 by 12. Another problem is the 1/2 inch square tube to make the wing mounts out of. I can't find .062 wall any where. I may just use 5/8.

[Poorman2]

Jim, I think the 5/8 .065 square tubeing will work better for the wing mounts anyway.

[scottiniowa]

Did you built your top bar with the 1" drop per plans or did you make it level? The drawings have 2 degree of incidence built in, if you make the bar level, then you will have to build in the incidence into your wing brackets. Back when the wings attached to a single tube in the center I built  a similar attachment for my wings much like the one in common use today. The reason I change my DE was I thought this is going to be pretty difficult for one person install two wings at a time when you must align  two sets of brackets for one bolt! anyway  I think some thought can be put to use here. I would not weld on the rear bracket until I'm positive where centers will be. You wont really know that until you build a rib. After I found out today I don't have the stock called for in the drawings, I was thinking about forming my own brackets in a brake and instead of drilling holes in a 1/2" sq tube and then having to weld bushings in the thing, it would be for simpler to form the brackets the proper width  and use the bushings just as spacers to hold the sides of the wider bracket apart.  I will also build the bracket with the lower portion that welds to the cabanes so I don't have to weld that to the brackets ether.

Jim to further simply-outline this part of the build  as per grdev and Sam has stated... you would have to talk along time to convince me you should be welding in these two attach points before your wings are done. NO matter how much you want to.

Simply stated, if you build your wings and end up with your attach straps (built on your wings) to say 29.125" instead of 29"- and that would be ok for your plane but would not me ok if you have your wing attach points already in place.

as far as angle of incidence, that is built into the plane by the way of the plans.  in other words, your two attach points would be built at the same point or level to the top bar, front and back. I would tie the two attach points into the top bar of your aircraft via tie plates. simple but effective to bring it all together. 

the bushings in the two little cross bars can be all made to exactly fit your aircraft and if you reverse build your wings (right and left being equal) these bushing should be exactly the same, if not that would cause concern as what did you do to one wing that you did not do to the other. That would hardly be a problem for any builder though.

Best of success.  I got a few photos of this tie plate shown on the photo files section under my name.
thanks
Scott

[Jlwright]

I won't weld the rear mount in until the ribs are done. I may try to use Sam's method to get the spacing for the rear mount. There are a lot of places that seem to be made to fit by using the mating part a a jig and that's ok with me. I'm not going to weld the landing gear up until I have the brackets welded to the fuselage.

[Jlwright]

Finished cutting all the rib gussets yesterday. I never thought about how many there are but I made a total of 812 gussets for all 26 ribs. I started with a 4 X 4 foot piece of.8 MM plywood and only had about a 12 X 48 inch piece left.
A pair of sharp scissors and a paper cutter did the trick.