Again, covering the last couple days in my blog post here, where I focused on machining a modified C4 canopy latch bracket as I start the slow journey to finalize the cowling, wings and strakes finishing and move forward to the final canopy fit, finish and install onto this bird.

After drilling holes and machining the C4 bracket at the top of a piece of 1/2″ x 2.5″ 6061 aluminum stock, I then simply cut the bracket off the top of the aluminum stock using my band saw.

Here’s the bracket, with a fairly rough cut edge, that I just lopped off the aluminum stock (the band saw blade was a little dull for this thick piece of aluminum, but not wanting to change it out, I pressed forward) .

And here is the final modified C4 canopy latch bracket after I cleaned it up.

For those that may have any interest in how I machined this part, I whipped a fairly quick video covering the creation of this modified canopy latch bracket.  Enjoy!

Continuing to slowly press forward!

Once again, this post covers the last couple of days… and yes, it IS cold.  My above ground pool (currently in “pond” mode) is frozen over solid, and has been for a few days.  I can certainly work in the shop and get it heated up to a decent temp, but that incurs the cost of essentially having 2 jet engines blaring away near full time to do it.  Although not overwhelming, the smell of Kerosene and constant jet noise clearly is not the most pleasant working environment.

That all being said, and “whining” aside, I still need to get this bird done, and specifically prepped for primer and paint.

So I finished what is a close-to-final task on the wing leading edge lights by taping up the respective lenses with thin Tyvek tape around the perimeter edges (taking over 20 minutes per lens), and then secured the lenses in place on the leading edge light flanges with duct tape around the center of the lenses.  Here we have the inside of the taped-up right wing lens, with the left wing lens taped into place.

And then the right wing lens taped into place.

After mixing up some West epoxy with 205 (fast) hardener, I then whipped up some micro/West 410 to fill the gaps around the wing light lenses as they were firmly in place on their respective wing light flange.  Here we have the right wing light lens with micro around the perimeter (pic 1) and the left wing light lens as well (pic 2).

After stuffing the left winglet top edge video camera threaded inserts with saran wrap plastic to protect the threads, I also filled some divots, rough spots and inserts’ edges with micro/West 410.

While the micro that I had just applied cured I set about to do some work on the lathe to knock out another three (3) 6061 aluminum threaded inserts for the bottom of wing-winglet video camera hardpoints —which I’ll install when I finish the bottom of the wing-winglet intersection fairing on each side.

Once the micro had cured around the perimeter of each light lens: right (pic 1) and left (pic 2), I pulled the lenses off the wing leading edge light flanges.  Now, note the top center edge of the flange where the tape was securing the light lenses in place.  Clearly no micro was applied here (or on the bottom side of the flange either), so round 2 was to fill in these minor gaps.

For round 2, I taped the lenses in place on the outboard sides of each lens to expose the center gap that did not get micro’d during round one.

I then whipped up a very small amount of micro and applied it to the top and bottom edges of the lens on both the right wing (pic 1) and the left wing (pic 2).

Another task I finally got around to was pulling the top cowling off the bird to expose the front right corner of the cowling interface (aka aft inboard edge of strake) to sand that down a decent bit to check if I could finally get the top cowling secured in place at this corner.  Finally… success!  Here the top cowling is secured on the right front corner and ready to have the micro sanded down even across the cowling, strake and wing at this junction (I plan to do that tomorrow).

After all my sideline shenanigans were complete, I pulled the lens off the right wing leading edge light flange (pic 1) and did the same on the left side (pic 2).  Yes, there’s some minor cleanup I need to do to the micro, and after that I plan on epoxy-wiping the flange perimeter edges where I just added the micro and also the filled cleco holes.

Then after a final sanding of the epoxy wipe (and paint) the light lenses will be ready for install with silicone RTV.  Again, I’m waiting until I get the bird to the airport to dial in the aiming of the lights before I do the final light lens install.

And with that, I called it a night.  More tidbits to follow as I hack my way through this quite chilly weather spell.

As par usual, after our wonderful New Year’s trip to Asheville, NC it’s taking me a bit to get back into the swing of things on the build.

One reason, again, is the rather chilly weather we’re having here.  I missed getting to the primary place I go to for Kerosene, so that delayed me a whole day since my shop is just too cold to do anything other than very focalized tasks involving epoxy, obviously using heat lamps to keep the generalized area warm enough to cure.  Moreover, my normal shop heating just can’t do much without those torpedo heaters fired up since the insulation on my shop’s ceiling is now no longer (due to squirrels).

I did get the threaded inserts on the top of the left winglet cleaned up, and tested them with a couple of screws.  The next step on these will be to fill them with saran wrap to protect the threads as I add a minor bit of micro fill around them, and then re-epoxy wipe the winglet top with a few coats.

I also spent a good hour carefully removing all the wires I ran for the wing leading edge lights operational test (and video), and getting all the wiring put back away and labeled for the wire I actually cut for the lights.

I then removed the lights from the brackets, and removed the brackets from the wing leading edge light pockets.  Instead of painting the brackets this time around, I simply covered them with carbon fiber vinyl and cut out the the screw holes for access.

Instead of fancy hex-drive button head screws to secure the lights to the brackets, I had some stainless steel Phillips-head screws that I decided to paint black.  I did a round of 4 of these screws before Jess and I left for Ashville, but the other 4 were installed on the right wing light.  I then swapped the screws and painted the next 4 as I installed the now black headed screws to secure the right leading edge light to its bracket.  Here’s a couple of shots of that.

My plan is to keep the heaters fired up a good bit during this cold spell and get back to work to knock out the numerous items I have on my list to get all the micro finishing complete and this bird ready for paint.

Pressing forward… again!