Chapter 23 – Pipe monster returns!

Last night I got my air compressor oil change and maintenance tasks finally completed, with some test runs to ensure the pressure valve was working correctly.  All looked good.

I also took out the oil heat sump street fitting with standpipe to do some “spot welds” on it just to ensure it’s physically fit for duty in the engine.

Today I got back to work on the aft/lower engine baffles by putting the thick paper templates back in place.  I made notes and trimmed the templates in various spots as I worked to dial in the final configuration of the lower baffle “skirt.”

After removing the aft/lower baffle templates, I figured it was time to add in the last reinforcement piece to the “Melvill” baffle bracket that mounts to the aft right side of the engine.

I scrounged around for the best piece of scrap left over from the VANs baffle kit, made up my tape template on the bracket and then transferred it to the scrap aluminum piece.  I then cut out the reinforcement plate and bent the tabs on the metal brake.

Here we have the reinforcement tab riveted to the Melvill baffle bracket, with the bracket reinstalled on the engine.

And yet another lower view of it.  Another task, of a myriad left to do, completed.

I then mounted the top cowling to capture all the tasks I need to finish on that, and take a hard look at the final exhaust pipes configuration.  Assessing my exhaust pipes once again, I’m still convinced that these are the wrong pipes for my setup: a case where I (the layman) am correct, and the vendor is plain wrong.  Which at this point means nothing now other than working the problems out.

After analyzing the exit positioning of all the exhaust pipes, I came to the painful conclusion that I’m going to have to once again cut the left outboard pipe to angle it both inboard and down a hair —so that it nestles in very close to the inboard pipe in its position below.

The right side exhaust pipes will be workable, with the only drawback being the position of the aft final bend in the pipe… which happens to be right where I need to trim them. The cut will either have to be a bit further in than I want (~2″ inside the cowling), or I’ll have to live with the aft pipe openings pointing outboard much more than desired.

Pressing forward…

Chapter 25 – Fixing Guy’s Long-EZ

Over the past week I’ve been involved helping my local Canardian buddy, Guy Williams, fix his Long-EZ that was damaged during its annual condition inspection, when the A&P pulled the batteries out of the nose without it being lowered first… Oops!  And yep, up it went on its backside.

The nearly horizontal prop got a ding on one end, which Guy removed, boxed up to send to Joe Person for repair, and replaced with a spare wooden prop.

The lower aft winglets were next on the list of damage, with the right getting off fairly easy while the left took the brunt of the impact: cracking the tubular taillight housing, these being added to the bottom of the lower winglets by original builder Frank Tifft.

Here’s the right lower winglet with some minor cracks, which I filled both internally and externally with micro and flox.

Again, the damage to the left lower winglet was much more extensive and required sanding off the paint to expose all the damage.

Apparently neither Guy nor I got a shot of the left winglet’s damage, but my first task was to get all the cracked “jigsaw puzzle” pieces micro’d/floxed back into place and the original shape reestablished.  I then did a 1-ply UNI wrap layup to secure the reassembled structure to the existing lower winglet.  That did the trick and it was plenty strong with minimal added weight.

Also not shown was the remaking of half the top and the complete bottom taillight standoffs that are located at the upper and lower side of the light bracket at the screw mounting positions.  After creating templates of the right light assembly, I made the new taillight mounting standoffs out of 1/8″ thick G10 phenolic and floxed them into place.

After an overnight cure on mounting standoffs, I slathered up the lower left winglet with micro, and cheese grated it about 3-1/2 hours later.

The following day I sanded down the micro to its final state, and then applied 5 epoxy wipes as per the Corey Bird finishing method.  We then let that cure overnight as well.

After sanding down the epoxy wipes and blending that into the existing winglet paint, I then hit the repaired area with a couple coats of primer.

I then shot the lower left winglet with some color-matched Nasson paint that we picked up at Napa Auto Parts.

The blending is always the hardest part when you’re repairing a smallish area on a much bigger painted surface.  Even though when I shot the paint I kept peeling back the tape to expose more of the original surface, there was a bit of a hard paint line that was distinct between the old and new paint.

I told Guy we could let it cure and see how the paint levels out, or try to blend it more.  He wasn’t too keen on the distinct line between old and new paint, so I very carefully went sanded the junction line, prepped the old and new paint surfaces and reshot the yellow paint to blend it in more.

Here’s the result.  It’s very difficult to see any difference on the inboard side of the winglet.

Admittedly, I am NOT a master painter, and the outboard side of the winglet looks really good, albeit the blending did leave a hair flatter surface towards the front lower side of the winglet that can be seen if you’re looking more critically at the paint.

In the pics above and below the taillights have been successfully reinstalled (note the light brackets were stripped, primed and repainted as well).

As both Guy and I quipped at the end of our repair effort: Good enough for government work.  Time to get this bird back in the air! … and for me to get back to getting my bird in the air.

 

Chapter 23 – Oil heat hose shortened

Today I spent a good chunk of the day repairing Guy Williams’ dinged up Long-EZ at the airport.  Upon returning home I wanted to get at least one task knocked out, and with the new 45° street elbow and 90° AN hose fitting looking promising, I rounded up my oil heat system feed oil hose and tested out the length.

I knew it would be too long with the new fitting situ as it is, so I pulled back the fire sleeve and marked the cut line.  In retrospect I should have cut it about 1/4″ shorter, but this dog will hunt.

I then installed the new 90° AN hose fitting, trimmed and safety wired the black fire sleeve in place, and finally added heat shrink over the exposed end to tighten it all up… Voila!  The oil heat feed hose from oil sump is remade and the configuration is looking pretty darn acceptable (clearance always could be better).

And better still I didn’t have to move the fitting on the firewall!

I then spent well over an hour doing some much needed maintenance on my shop’s air compressor, including an oil change.  I still need to check one of the main out lines to ensure there’s no leak… I’ll need this compressor soon for finishing the paint on the bird.

Back to inching forward on the build!

Chapter 22/23 – MiniUni EFIS panel prep

Yes, my friends, it’s been quite a few months since I was on this build.  Dealing with the cold weather I got into a couple of other projects, one of those being getting engaged to Jess.

Yada, yada… time to get back to building.

My first task was swapping out the desiccant in the plugs on the engine.  I broke yet another one so I taped it into place with green painters tape.  Hopefully this is sign that I won’t need them soon?! (wink)

I wanted to clear some “low hanging fruit” off the proverbial build tree before jumping back into some major tasks.  Over the last couple of days I modeled up an outline of my new 360 Avionics Mini-Uni 2 EFIS in Fusion 360 CAD to provide me a cutout template for the original composite panel.  I also verified fit and mounting screw hole size by checking the Mini-Uni 2 with the aluminum panel.

My first effort 3D printing the cutout template is the one on the right, which is a 1/2″ thick.  I then tweaked the corner chamfer sizes to match the actual EFIS unit’s, and then reprinted another version (left side) only 1/4″ thick.

As you can see, the dimensions of the 1/4″ thick 3D printed composite panel cutout template came out nicely.

I then did a general check of available spacing behind the panel for the EFIS.

And set the cutout template in space on the front to check I had enough clearance (barely, as par usual) to trim out the material.

I’ll remind ya’ll that I had surface mounted the MGL clock that was in this position, with #6 nutplates floxed onto the back side of the panel to thread the screws into.

I knocked the four #6 nutplate assemblies off the panel and then proceeded to cutout the area needed to fit the 360 Avionics Mini-Uni 2 EFIS.  To be clear —as I noted months ago— I wanted to ensure that not only with this instrument swap, but that in the future I could install virtually any 2-1/4″ instrument without having to remove all the instruments and aluminum panel to do what I’m doing now… making a lot of dust and mess!

I left the existing upper outboard screw hole tab of just the carbon fiber top skin of the original composite panel in place so I could verify fitting with the EFIS mounted to the aluminum panel (only), and having the required clearance with the composite panel.

The one fly in the ointment regarding clearance was my Autopilot “EFIS vs GPS” nav source switch.  Although this switch is a mini-switch, it has 9 posts on it and is fairly robust in size.

After some pondering and evaluation, I decided I’m not messing with moving the AP nav source switch on the panel, and that the EFIS was going to have to sacrifice a bit to make this work.

If you look closely, the case of the EFIS is actually 3D printed (not by me), and is actually fairly thick, about 0.075″.  I determined with the case thickness removed and about another 0.07″ shaved off the aluminum front bezel, I could reclaim the clearance required for the switch and press forward.

After I carefully removed the case and looked at the internal boards, and the screen components, I ascertained this could be fairly easily accomplished and set to work.

Here’s a test fit back in the panel after the surgery on the mini EFIS.

I then took the Mini-Uni 2 EFIS into the house and test fitted it into the panel with the actual switch… Voila!  The plan was successful.

Another couple of shots of the mini EFIS switch clearance notch with the switch in place.  Of course I’ll put some tape over the EFIS notched hole when I install everything to seal the case up.  I’m very pleased with how all this came out.

I then got to work draining the oil out of the engine.

My plan here was to get the oil sump oil preheater from Anti-Splat Aero installed and off the to-do list.

On the front right corner of my Superior Cold Air Induction oil sump is a horizontal port that had a threaded hex seal plug in place, from the factory.  I removed that steel seal plug and cleaned off the sealant and oil in the threads with acetone.

I then gooped up the threads on the oil sump oil preheater and installed it.  Voila!  Another task complete.

I then moved onto the bottom left side of the oil sump, where I had the rather robust steel 90° oil heat system outlet fitting installed.  Note that I do not have the hose bracket installed into the ram air induction can since I cannot mount the orange SCEET tube with this behemoth steel 90° fitting installed… it has to go.

Another reminder: welded to the 90° steel fitting is a standpipe to ensure that the oil heat system will never syphon too much and always leave the engine with at least 3 quarts of oil in the oil sump.  I removed the steel fitting and measured out the height of the standpipe (~4.5″) and then marked the new replacement brass 45° street elbow with to trim its attached standpipe to the same height.

I then installed the new brass 45° street elbow fitting into the engine oil sump port HAND TIGHT to check fitting and clearance with the orange SCEET tube (note mounting bracket back in place on the ram air induction can).  Again, although not optimal clearance, but once I torque the fitting into place I’ll have about a 1/4″ clearance.  As with all other components, this too will be monitored closely during the 40-hour test flight period.

A caveat on my being “back on the build”. . .  My local Long-EZ canardian buddy, Guy Williams, had a mishap during his annual CI last week when the A&P took the batteries out of the nose without his short-nosed EZ being in the grazing position… yep, popped right back on the winglets and crunched them a bit (not too bad).  That being said, starting tomorrow on I’ll be spending a few hours a day helping Guy get his bird fixed up.

Chapter 3/22 – New backup EFIS/clock!

I started off today by testing my removed lathe CNC control box KBSI-240D board’s MAX trimpot to see if it was working or not.  After all my machinations with it installed, I figured I was going to merely confirm that it was a dead potentiometer and set about ordering a replacement.

But, as things seem to be playing out in this new year… I was wrong.  I powered up the board with a homemade 120v plug and hooked up the VFD input to a 9V battery.  I then tested the output with my multimeter as I manipulated the set screw on the MAX trimpot… and it worked as designed!  Hmmm?  Interesting.  Now of course I’ll mount it back into the lathe CNC control box, double-check all the wiring, and see just what the heck is going on!

In other news, about a month or so back I reported doing some fairly in-depth research on a replacement for my MGL clock/timer on my panel.  I like the display and as a clock and timer it had all the functions I wanted.  But as I started pondering more and more, I wanted 2 backup functions on my panel in case either of my GRT EFIS screens went dark: a backup AI (or EFIS PFD) and an HSI/CDI to merely display ILS/LOC/GPS approaches from my GNS-480 GPS box.  In short, if I lost a screen I wanted extra data display points to help ease the load and mitigate the requirement of switching screens on a single EFIS display if it ever came to that.

If you remember, I looked heavily at the Kanardia HORIS EFIS and really thought it was a nifty little unit.  My initial thought/concern in replacing the MGL clock/timer —in some-what post haste fashion— is that due to space constraints in the upper left corner of my panel I have it surface mounted on the front of the panel, with #6 platenut assemblies on the backside of the panel structure to secure it.  This of course works better for added instrument panel bulkhead strength, but if I ever wanted to swap this out with a “proper” 2-1/4″ instrument in the future, I would have to remove the entire panel and then do a bunch of messy cutting on a flying airplane (ahem, it WILL be a flying airplane!).

Now, the HORIS looked good, but just as with the other viable 2-1/4″ AI/clock/timer candidates out there (read: uAvionix AV-20s), none of them were fitting the bill of really what I wanted: a clock/timer first, and a back-up AI/PFD second.  And while they had nice screen graphics, the timers were all in reality nothing more than simple count-up stop watch functions.  This is one thing that drew me to the MGL, it had really good clock displays, but also a good countdown timer to boot for use as reminder when to switch fuel tanks.

Me being an avowed Neanderthal, the same thing proves true in my flying: nearly all done in fixed gear high wing aircraft… I don’t want an engine quitting oops simply because I forget to switch the darn tank!

Enter Vlad and 360 Avionics…

I actually found the 360 Avionics ELM 200 (MiniUni 2) on the Aircraft Spruce site.  I then did a good bit more investigation.  Here is a stock photo of this diminutive 2-1/4″ power house (its big brother is the 3-1/8″ MiniUni 3).

I discovered that the MiniUni2 had 97% of what I was looking for in an instrument to replace the MGL clock/timer:

First, the AI/PFD screen has just about every bit of data you’d want in flying behind an EFIS.  With pitot/static, OAT and GPS inputs it gives you all the basic airspeed, GS, TAS info along with a V-speed tape.  It provides Alt, VS, D-Alt and Baro.  In flight it provides your standard rate turn markers, as well as slip skid indicator.  And finally it gives you True (GPS) heading (I would prefer Mag HDG as well, but this is a back-up AI/PFD).

This pic below is my ELM200/MiniUni 2 sitting on my coffee table literally within 30 seconds after I connected power.  I’m posting these pics in the default screen order in which they appear… I will change it up so that the clock/timer screen (shown further below) will be the first screen displayed.

Screen #2 is the “DG,” or technically called the Compass Mode.  It has a heading bug (lower right) and also displays airspeed (lower left).

As you can see, the clock/timer screen displays UTC/Zulu time, local time, flight time (initiated when aircraft reaches rotation speed), and a count-UP timer.

Whoa!! Wait a minute you say!  What about your precious COUNTDOWN timer that you prattled on about?  … well, wait.  There’s more!

Separate to the countdown timer on the clock/timer screen above, is a menu configurable (Ez-Pz btw) countdown timer specifically for fuel tanks.  Let’s be honest, you and I both know that pilots are crazed anal-retentive OCD types that tend to repeat the same processes over and over.  Once I dial in the frequency to switch tanks, I doubt it will rarely change.  In my book this is a fantastic little feature and fits the bill perfectly for what I was looking for.

It also has this handy little screen, although very redundant and not really required for my configuration.  But good nonetheless.

In addition, it does have this even more handy screen, which is a cumulative total of all the FLIGHT time to give you a good idea when your oil change is due.

Although I don’t see using this screen below for day to day flight ops, I could see where it could definitely be handy during initial test flights and for testing out different maneuvers.

I’ll note it has a few more individual screens to display altitude only data (including baro), airspeed only data, and local time with flight timer.

Now, I had a good bit of conversation back and forth with Vlad regarding features and quality on his EFIS units.  After I was thoroughly satisfied on the quality front, there was one area that I was not overly satisfied with: the MiniUni 2 lacked a key feature that the MinuUni 3 had… an ability to hook it up to your GPS navigator via a RS-232 connection to drive both a CDI, and a fair bit of GPS track info.

Well, Vlad’s a smart guy and apparently he saw this requirement being asked for in the future, so he had already been working in his lair adding those exact capabilities to the new version of the MiniUni 2.  Thus, I’m happy to report that he built my EFIS as a much more “mighty” MiniUni 2 by adding these cool features.

Another feature that may not seem overly important on the face of it (uh… literally!) is how these units are updated/upgraded.  Both the Kanardia HORIS and uAvionix AV-20s firmware update processes are (IMO) clunky and not elegant (i.e. a much bigger pain than desired).  Conversely, updating the MiniUni 2 is fairly straightforward… it may be a bit difficult to see in all the other pics other than the one immediately above, but just above the screen is a micro-SD card slot.  Simply download the firmware file from your computer to the micro-SD card, plug it into the MiniUni 2, power it up and follow the prompts.

Now, having an onboard storage device in the form of a micro-SD card allows for utilizing another cool feature that Vlad incorporated into this unit (I’ll note that Vlad created a whole line of EFISs that he personally flies in his RV-10) which is called the “Black Box” function.  Once enabled, this included option is a flight recorder that tracks all your flight data.  You can then easily export that data to your computer and open it up using Google Earth.

Finally, here’s a video of Vlad discussing his MiniUni EFISs:

Again, this EFIS/clock/timer is my replacement for the MGL CLT-2 clock/timer, and it will be installed prior to first flight.  I do have plans to replace my 3-1/8″ TruTrak ADI, which is in the works but won’t happen until quite a bit after first flight.

Ok, working to get back onto the actual build!

Chapter 3 – Lathe CNC squawks

No, this is not frontline airplane building, but there are a number of parts that I need to make with this lathe for this build.  I figure I would do a quick overview of a key issue I found, as well as my progress.  Probably as much for me as a future reference as for you as an update.

Analogous to a long airplane building project, since I did a my initial stint of CNC conversion on this lathe the January before last, I had to pick back up where I left off.  I completely failed to remember that I hadn’t even hooked up my spindle encoder to the Acorn CNC board.  Probably due to the overall lack of ability to do any spindle manipulation since I hadn’t done the right mod to the main control board that allows me to control the lathe spindle via the Acorn CNC control system (I did this a few weeks ago).

Now with basic spindle control “operational,” I need to refine it so that when I or a CNC g-code file commands a certain RPM, the lathe responds accordingly… which it is not currently doing.  So today I finished a task that I started about 3 years ago: terminating the ends of the 9 spindle encoder wires with D-sub pins to create a 9-pin D-Sub plug.  These 2 documents gave me the how-to on doing that.

Here we have the encoder wires cut and pinned (pic 1) and then terminated into the 9-pin D-Sub connector, which is plugged into the Acorn CNC-12 board (pic 2).  The red ring terminal is the shielded wire ground.

Notice the 2-post connector just to the left of the red ring terminal?  That is the Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) 0-10 volt output that controls spindle motors on much larger lathes and mills than most home shops have.  Most smaller hobby lathes and mills tend to use a 0-5 volt range to control spindle speed.  More on that in a minute…

With the spindle encoder now installed, I tested out its operational capability.  The good news is that it was spot-on and matched my external lathe RPM readout almost exactly as I cycled through RPM ranges by using the command line on the control screen.

The bad news is that the RPMs I was asking for on the command line screen were not being accurately produced at the lathe spindle.  Again, the no-kidding spindle speed was being reported correctly by both the encoder and the external RPM display, but it wasn’t what I was telling the system to do.

Remember the 0-10 volt VFD output from the Acorn board?  Well, for us home shop bubbas we tend to use a KBSI-240D signal isolator board to translate that 0-10 volt Acorn board output into a usable 0-5 voltage range to dictate lathe spindle speed.  Zero (0) volts translates to a stopped spindle.  5 volts is max RPM, which in the case of this lathe is 2500 rpm.

On the KBSI-240D are two (2) trimpots: one to dial in the max voltage, and the other to dial in the minimum voltage.  Taking voltage readouts while commanding various spindle RPMs has proven that the MAX trimpot ist kaput, TU, no muy bieno in that it won’t allow me to adjust the upper voltage down to 5 volts.  In fact, currently it’s stuck on a whopping 12.47 volts, which is clearly no good for this configuration.  Moreover, this sucker has been the hidden fly in the ointment over the last couple of weeks truly hindering my ability to get the spindle control dialed in.  It makes total sense now after finding it.

Now, a new feature in my new updated (note: not upgraded… yet) version 5.08 Acorn CNC software is that in the configuration is a menu item that allows the Acorn board to output 0-5 volts through the VFD port.  I thought this might be my get out of jail free card, but alas, it did not work either when I tried to hack the system.

Thus, I pulled the KBSI-240D board and will do a final test on the MAX trimpot to see if it is truly bad.  If so, I’ll order a new trimpot and solder it in at some future point.  Since the lathe is currently spotty, I finally just pulled the trigger on some stainless steel rod, a M8-1.0 tap and 7mm drill bit to create my own stainless steel bungs for the compression style EGT fittings.  Ones that won’t be so bulky and heavy.

Yes, during the colder weather I did want to get my lathe CNC conversion completed and get it online.  I’m clearly much closer, but with the weather temps inching up as we move towards spring, I need to get back onto the no-kidding airplane build.

 

Chapter 3/19/22 – Lights & Lathe

Just a quick post showing that I finally got the wing light mounting brackets painted and clear coated without any further incident.  After the couple coats of clear coat cured, I then baked the light brackets in the oven at 175° F for 2 hours to harden up the paint as best possible.

I of course then worked most of the day on trying to get this lathe CNC finalized.  Currently I’m back on the spindle control piece of the puzzle since there are some squawks there that need to be fixed.

Chapter 3/19/22 – The struggle is real!

The struggle against the shop critters that is….

Case in point: I primed and painted my wing light mounting brackets last evening and left them to cure overnight, and had planned on clear coating them after this good 24-hour cure.  However, upon entering the shop I saw some type of footprints and very visible scratches on the surface of one of the brackets (note bottom of pic).

So I cleaned up the scratches and prints off the brackets and hit them with another couple rounds of paint.  Tomorrow I plan on clear coating them… hopefully without issue.

I then did another big round of cleaning up the shop.  Alas, the squirrels, et al, really did do a number on my shop while I was gone on my Christmas/New Years adventures… there was downed insulation panels, tufts of pink fiberglass and poop pellets everywhere.  From here on out I really have no choice but to remove their primary objective: the ceiling fiberglass insulation.  They love this stuff as they burrow their way into it, pissing and pooping the whole way… and then shred it so that it comes down in a myriad of pieces vs the complete whole panels that I installed.

I’ll again remind ya’ll that the combination of the persistent colder weather along with significantly much less insulation on the ceiling of my shop is hampering my ability to keep the shop warm for composite work.  Thus my current meanderings on other tasks.

Speaking of which: back on the lathe, I did some facing and touch-off cuts on some scrap aluminum stock as per the Centroid Acorn CNC-12 Lathe manual in order to set up my CNC-12 tool library.  Below is a cut I made with a carbide insert tool with a fairly shallow depth of cut and a somewhat rapid feed.  I think it looks kinda cool so I threw the pic in here.

And here is a shot of the screen as I add all the tools to the Acorn CNC-12 tool library.

I’ll note that my initial smattering of lathe tooling is fine for hacking my way through some manual lathe ops and some basic CNC, but not —as I’m learning— for any refined or optimized CNC lathe operations.  Thus, I do now have a decent amount of tooling on order and am awaiting those to arrive as I strive to get seriously online with my ability to use the lathe to make serious parts.

Pressing forward.

Chapter 3/19/22 – More Lathe Stuff

Today I continued pressing forward with the lathe CNC conversion by updating the Acorn CNC control software from version 4.64 to 5.08.

As I was writing out my task to-do list for the day, I got a call from my good buddy and fellow canardian Marco.  We of course discussed Long-EZs and projects, but we mainly discussed machining… specifically lathe CNC operations.  The call was perfect timing since I had a number of questions regarding employing CNC on a lathe, which is a much different animal (a more hybrid blend of CNC using less Fusion 360 CAM and a whole lot more Acorn CNC macros, or “canned” lathe cycles) than CNC on the mill.

When setting up an Acorn CNC control computer, it must be a dedicated CNC computer.  The Dell laptop I have has not been connected to the outside world via Internet in years, to keep Microsoft from sneaking in software that may crash a CNC program.  However, the catch-22 is that when new Acorn software is released, it is based on the current Microsoft .NET framework, with all the latest updates.  Thus, the first step in updating the Acorn lathe CNC software is to “briefly” connect the computer to the Internet and do a controlled Microsoft Windows update.  As you can imagine, this took multiple hours (pic below from later at night after new Acorn CNC software update to v. 5.08… note column of white buttons at left on gray panel: these are new pre-set lathe cycles that require simple parameters to be inputted before executing, an upgrade over the older software that didn’t have these pre-programmed macro/canned cycles).

While my dedicated CNC laptop was getting all the security and Microsoft .NET framework updates, I pulled down about a half dozen panels of pink fiberglass insulation that were clearly in use by unwanted intruders.  Yes, I may have won some battles, but the squirrels and giant field rats won the war.  The ceiling insulation is on its way out.  Currently my shop smells like a bathroom in an inner city bus station… the ever-present smell of squirrel piss wafting through the air.

I loaded my truck with a bunch of the nasty removed insulation panels and took them to the dump.  Upon my return —as the CNC computer slowly did its update thing— I did a good round of cleaning in the shop.

The good news is that the fewer the insulation panels, the less places for the rodents to invade and occupy.  And yes, I’ve tried traps, poison, ultrasonic blasters, barriers, etc. to keep them at bay.  The bad news?  Did I mention, it’s still cold??  So no major epoxy-based tasks until it warms up.

During yet another phase of my CNC computer update (it took about half the day), I cleaned up the inside corners of the wing leading edge light brackets, tested their fit on the actual lights, then cleaned up the brackets for a round of primer, then a couple of rounds of black paint.   I’ll clear coat them in the next day or two.

With the Acorn CNC dedicated computer finally updated with the latest round of Microsoft junk, I once again took it offline and locked it down.  I then proceeded to backup my old 4.64 software version (in case the new one crashes) and then updated my Acorn Lathe CNC software to version 5.08 (see pic above).  I then spent about 45 minutes updating the operating parameters in the software that is specific to my system (I took screenshots earlier of all these screens).

I’m happy to report that the lathe CNC software is updated, now back to getting it configured to make some chips!