I started today by removing the canard from the jig.  I then cleaned up the jig & extended it from 108″ to 126″.

I then cleaned up & sanded the 9 each K-jigs, which will spaced out as per the Roncz canard (not Chap 10) plans to support the canard as it’s upside down getting glassed–which is the next step.

As you can see, I clamped the K-jigs together and sanded them as one piece so they would be the same shape all the way down the row.  This will remove nearly all the inconsistencies in the cuts since I had to cut each one individually on the band saw.

I then mounted the K-jigs to the canard jig base using a hot glue gun.  I used a string & my aluminum straight board to ensure they were all straight & level.

In the pic below there appears to be 2 extra K-jigs mounted to the end of the jig base, but those are there in preparation for the 11 inch canard tips that will get bonded to the end of the current canard structure.  Actually, the 11″ tips are more like extensions, because the actual TIPS of the canard will be shaped & glassed into place (with the ends flaring up) after the elevators are mounted.

I used the Canard Bottom Contour Checking Template to see how the bottom of the canard was measuring up before I mount the canard to the K-jigs.

I also took a minute to remove a big unsightly run of dead micro that needed to go away.

I then weighed down the canard after using 5-minute glue to bond the canard to the K-jigs.

I then grabbed the 11″ canard extensions & removed them from their foam encasements.

It was then that I had a total brain-fart, disregarding all my jedi-training, and grabbing the bottle of “Hot Stuff” glue (Superglue) to mount the 11″ foam extensions.  Right after I mounted the canard tips on the Outboard K-jigs, I realized in short order what I had done (luckily, most of Hot Stuff glue soaked into the particle board K-jigs, so the damage was minimal).  After my duh moment was over, I whipped up some flox to keep the canard tips mounted since I had already micro’d & nailed them into place.  I also double-checked that they were straight & level on the LE, TE, top & bottom.

As the canard tips and structure cured to whatever degree it had left to the K-jigs, I went down to the cutting table and spent a couple of hours cutting the glass for the canard skins.  I cut all the UNI for the top & bottom skins (5 pcs 12-1/2″ x 134″), and enough BID for the bottom skin (3 pcs 13-1/4″ @ 45°).

I pre-deployed the slow hardener, 3″ UNI tape, etc. to the garage.

I started out today by drilling a 1/4″ hole at each marked spot on the top/front of the canard (in the present configuration) for the 12 each 1/4″ sharpened wood dowels that will align the front part of the canard (or “nose” or LE) to the shear web section of the canard.  This is exactly the same process as the main wings, only on a smaller scale.  Of course the wings don’t use the wood dowels to line up the front part of the wing to the shear web (unfortunately … seams to be much easier).

I then reinstalled the metal mounting tab jigs & their wood supports, set up a stop on my 1/4″ drill bit and drilled the 6 bolt holes for the canard mounting tabs (NC-CLT) into the ~12 plies of glass over each nutplate.

Then came the real job . . . cleaning the Blue RTV out of the holes in the nutplates.  It was probably something akin to a cartoon in how the Blue RTV just did not want to be extricated from those bolt holes.  Needless to say, it took A WHILE to get all that rubbery, stubborn Blue RTV out of those holes.  My best tools in doing this were my scribe and a cheap set of dental picks I picked up from Harbor Freight.

After finally getting all the Blue RTV out of the bolt holes, I mixed up some flox and attached the canard mounting tabs onto the shear web permanently.

As I quite often do, I mixed up a little bit too much flox, so I used it to mount the 12 sharpened 1/4″ dowels into their holes.

After I got both of the canard mounting tabs installed, along with all the 1/4″ alignment dowels set into place, I took a break and ran to Stuttgart to pick up some more MGS 285 epoxy and slow hardener (Stuttgart is almost 2 hours away).

Now that I was reloaded on epoxy and hardener, and my canard mounting tabs & alignment dowels were cured, I set forth to attach the front leading edge (LE) of the canard.

First up on the order of battle was to notch the LE edge foam pieces at the mounting tab locations so they could fit around the mounting tab and also lie flat on the shear web surface.  As with many things in this build, it was a trial & error endeavor of taking a little foam out, then setting the foam LE back on, trimming a bit more foam, testing the fit, etc. Although the process may be a bit tedious, it really didn’t take that long… maybe 15 min for each side.

Of course this is where the alignment dowels play a huge role.  I can see where trying to do this without the dowels–which weren’t used as per plans in the original Chapter 10–could be a lot more difficult, because it’s not about just getting the foam cut out for the mounting tab, but aligning the front canard foam piece correctly front & back (technically top-to-bottom), and the Outboard & Center alignments correct as well.  The dowels made it very EZ to just slip the second half of the canard LE foam into place and have a nice flush fit at the CL between the two canard LE foam cores.

Once I got the notches set for the mounting tabs, and was sure the LE cores were aligned properly, I micro’d both foam LE cores into place.  As you can see, I used a fair amount of duct tape to ensure the LE cores had some decent pressure as they cured.

I checked to ensure the canard LE was straight.  I was using both my 6′ long level & my new long aluminum straight “board” that I picked up from Praktiker, when I realized I could place the aluminum straight board on the top of the LE without damaging it, which added a little bit more weight and when taped at equidistant points helped to ensure the LE stayed straight.

I started out by checking the cured micro sample in the cup.  It looked good.

Then I removed the nutplate mounting assemblies.

The nutplate installation into the foam looked good on both sides.  I cleaned up the edges a little bit from some micro squeezing out along the edges, but it only took about 5 min to have it all looking spiffy.

I forget where, but a canard builder had offered a builder’s tip to use Blue RTV to seal the bolt holes so they’d be preserved and no epoxy would get in and muck them up.  So I sealed all 6 of the bolt holes in the nutplates with the Blue RTV.  It was a little tricky to work with, and once it got on something, it didn’t want to come off.

I then grabbed my shear web glass that I cut last night and set it up for a pre-preg layup, just as I had done with the wing shear webs.

I then mixed up some epoxy, wet out the shear web UNI and transferred it over to the aluminum foil.  I then transferred the pre-pregged glass to the canard.

Once I glassed the shear web UNI layup, I dutifully added peel ply as per the stern note I left myself on the canard jig!

You can see in the picture below that each nutplate is covered by a pad that is made up of 9-plies of 1-1/2″ x 4″ BID covered by a single ply of 4″ x 8″ BID.  This makes for stout hard points to mount the canard mounting tabs to.  The plans call for using micro around the edges of the 9-ply BID pad as somewhat as a fillet for the top 1-ply piece of BID.  I cheated a little and used flox to give a little more oomph.  (Call me chicken, but this is one area that I don’t want to be weak in any way).

I measured some scrap wood & cut 4 pieces for the canard mounting tabs/nutplate mounting supports and then mounted them to the canard jig base.

I then took 2 pieces of scrap metal and drilled 3 holes into each using one of the NC-CLT mounting tabs as a template (so the 3 holes line up with the 3 bolt holes on the mounting tabs).

I then mounted the nutplate, canard mounting tab, bolts, and washers to the metal cross plate to mount to the nutplates.

I dug out foam in the canard face so that the mounting tab nutplate would sit flush in the hole.  Note: Standard distance from canard CL to nutplate is BL 6.5, but I went with BL 6.8 because my F22 is 0.6″ wider than stock (22.2″ vs 21.6″).

I did a dry run to ensure everything was lining up correctly and that my jig mounting posts were the correct height.  It all looked good.

I micro’d in the nutplates (which were mounted to the steel cross templates and the mounting tabs) into the canard foam and then weighed the entire assemble down to ensure the nutplates sat flush with the foam.

After I had everything situated for the mounting tab nutplate install, I went to my downstairs shop and cut the UNI glass for the shear web.  I then pre-deployed the shear web to the garage.

After dinner I checked the micro left over in the cup.  It was still just a tad spongy, and the temp had dropped a bit, so I cranked up a couple heaters to warm things up a tad.

I picked up some 4″ nails and another, longer straight aluminum straight edge “board” from Praktiker today.  Now I’m ready to start my Roncz Canard build in earnest.

After finalizing the Roncz Canard Jig prep, I pulled the foam canard cores out and started aligning them on the jig.

BTW, the Roncz Canard build uses a completely different set of plans than the original plans.  Now, that being said, the Roncz Canard Plans quite often refer back to the original plans Chapter 10 to accomplish many of the build steps.

I broke out my sharpened wooden 1/4″ dowels I made last September.

You may have noticed that I had pre-marked the centerline and then went 54″ out in each direction.  Obviously, added together the entire length of the middle core of the canard is 108″ total (these pics are of just the middle core so far).

After removing the front rounded nose of the canard from each side I taped up around the bottom lip of the canard (on the aft section of the foam core) for what will be yet another shear web layup (my last on this bird!).

I marked a line down the CL on the top of the shear web.  Technically this line is supposed to be at WL 19.4, but I have no idea where that is.  And reading what other builders have posted on the forums, neither do they!

I leveled out the foam canard core to ensure it was straight along the entire top edge and then held it in place with the 4″ nails stuck into the side of the core and into the protective tape . . . just below the edge of the tape (and the edge of the shear web).

I hot glued all the nails to the jig for just one half of the canard foam core.

I then whipped up some micro and bonded the 2 foam core sides together.  As you can see, this is much more easily accomplished when one of the core halves is held securely in place and immobilized.  Once I set the two halves in place (taping along each connecting edge to protect the foam) I then hot glued all the nails in place to the wood jig for the other foam core half.

I then marked up the locations of the NCT tab mounts to show where they will be situated (these are the tabs that will hold the canard to the fuselage, at/on bulkhead F22).

Before closing up for the evening I turned the HEATER ON!  (This definitely ain’t Tampa!)

Today I had to go pick up some more items at the BX on base & Praktiker to prep for the canard build.

It had been over 6 months since I stepped foot into my garage workshop, and this was what it looked like:

I was in a mad dash when I left here trying to get on with my deployment to Tampa, so I took a fair amount of time cleaning up the garage work shop to get it back into build shape.

My first order of business was glassing in the 1-ply BID corner tapes at the corner junction between the interior bulkheads and the interior surface of the front face of the spar.  The CS spar is of course a torque box in many respects, so it’s made to carry & handle twisting and other various loads, so I’m not trying to make these corners solid immovable forces, I just want to add another solid attach point to the front face of the spar, which is merely bonded on via micro to the foam edges of the top & bottom surfaces.  To be sure, there’s glass that wraps around the outside of it, but there’s no interior glass-to-glass attachment along the interior front face of the spar.

This is an interior shot looking towards the right side of the spar.  The inside front face of the spar is to the left.

← Front

This is an interior shot looking towards the left side of the spar.  The inside front face of the spar is to the right.

Front →

Again, the goal here is to glass a 1-ply BID tape layup into the corner of the bulkhead and front interior face (opposite the antenna & electrical cable conduit hole).  Also, this is not per plans.  Adding these two 1-ply BID corner tapes is an additional mod to the plans.

I cut 2 pieces of BID, set them up into 1-ply BID pre-pregs.  I then started by filleting the corners with a small amount of micro, that had just a dash of flox and Cab-o-sil mixed in to give it some umph.

The actual order went along like this: I mixed the micro first, holding back some epoxy to wet out the pre-preg setups. Once the micro was ready to go, I wet out the 2 separate plies of pre-pregged BID.  Then I filleted the corners, with my 1-ply BID tapes at the ready once the filets were in place.

Now, the challenging part of all this was that I couldn’t see anything that I was doing. These two layups were done completely in the blind & only by feel, having to reach my arm way up into the interior of the spar on each side.  One of the reasons I had the camera on hand was to use it to check my work.

I laid up a 1-1/4″ x 5-1/4″ 1-ply BID tape into each corner on the left & right side of the spar.

The first two pics above show the right side corner BID tape, while the pic immediately above shows the left side corner BID tape.

Once the interior corner BID tape layups were glassed, I set the spar aside and started building the jig for the Roncz Canard build.

To make the canard jig as straight as possible, I mounted the 2×4’s first in an “L” shape to each other (one “L” for the front, one “L” for the back).  I then mounted these 2-piece 2×4 “L” shapes to a straight panel of OSB flooring material.  This all worked to make a pretty darn straight jig for the canard build.