First thing today I checked the layups on my longeron doubler extensions.  I pulled the peel ply and cleaned them up a bit.

The left side looked good as well.  The extension piece may look like it’s drooping a bit on the aft side, but this is due to my wanting a bit more wood to drill into since my 3/16″ upper alignment pin hole angles down slightly.

Well, as you can see here!

And it angles even more so on the right side (which I didn’t think it did) so I should have angled the extension piece just a tad more… oh well, it will definitely work.

I then started work on shaping the canard filler pieces to “wrap” around the elevator torque tube offsets.  To get a good idea of the alignment, I started by drilling a 1/8″ hole through the inboard hinge bracket, through the filler piece at nearly the exact spot the hinge pin would pass through.

I then hopped over to the outboard side and drilled a #10 hole through the filler piece using the 1/8″ hole as a pilot hole.

I then simply pressed the hinge pin through with Eze.

I then repeated the same process on the right side (which is the left side of the canard).

With a known center point on each filler piece, I then carved out a circular area around it as a starting point for fitting in the torque tube offset.

I then started the cycle of test fitting the tape-wrapped torque tube offset into the filler piece.  I would cut and sand some of the filler piece material off, then test the torque tube offset.  Repeat.

Here’s the first round, with the black mark showing more filler piece material that required extrication.

After a few cycles I got so that there was a very small gap around the tape-covered torque tube (which is exactly what the tape is for).

With a better idea of exactly how much material required removal from the left side, my first material-removing step out of the gate on the right-side canard was much more substantial.

Of course it still took a few cycles to get it dialed in.

Using my trusty round Perm-a-grit sanding tool along the way (still love these things!!).

And Voila!  Fini!

I then dug out the foam on both filler pieces in prep for some Flocro.

Since this is simply filler material to block air, I used my OLD MGS 335 epoxy that I bought years ago and whipped up some Flocro.  I applied it liberally into the freshly dug troughs in the filler pieces.

And then mounted both elevators in place.

Of course I had to scrape a lot of excess Flocro that oozed out, but afterwards it all looked nice & tidy.  I then left the elevators, filler pieces & canard alone to let the Flocro cure.

My next task was to widen the hole in the pilot’s seat where the flight controls transition through.  Due to my use of the Cozy Girrrl control sticks, and my subsequent remounting of CS109 & CS118 control mounts –to kick the control tubes 3/4″ inboard– I now have to deal with 2nd order affects in that the control tube transition hole in the front seat is too narrow.  To be fair, it was nearly too narrow from day 1, no matter how I configured the controls.

Regardless, it was time to enlarge the hole in the front seat.

As you can see, I marked it off using a very scientific method called “eyeballing it”.  I will state that my initial crazy pattern here is not my own, but one I plagiarized from my build buddy Dave B.  So if it looks weird, blame him!  ha!  (Love ya Man!)

I then used my Fein saw and a hack saw blade to make the initial cuts.

I had originally planned on working on my control system at this point, but since I had whipped up so much flocro for the canard filler pieces, I went ahead and dug out a small trough of seat foam along the sides of the freshly cut extended hole areas and filled in the edges with the flocro.

So, with two separate flocro-curing tasks in the “awaiting cure” stage, I had to make myself useful in the shop.  I decided to have a little fun and work on mounting my tool box in the nose battery compartment.

I had originally planned on using button head screws in four (4) places to mount the tool box to the front of the Napster bulkhead.  As I pondered the mounting though, I just didn’t want have to deal with “wasting” two K1000-3 nutplates for the bottom mounts… nor did I want to have to try to work at the bottom of the narrow channel immediately behind Napster (made up of the 2 NG30 “goal post” arms).

Since the bottom attach points for the tool box don’t need to be screwed in or out to mount the tool box, and will be essentially forever stagnant in purpose, I decided to simply use Clickbonds as my attach points and even more simply just flox them in place into holes drilled into Napster.  Now, the top two button head mounting screws will get K1000-3 nut plates and will be removable.

With my plan devised, I moved forward to set it in motion.  I marked off the perimeter of the Clickbonds on the aft lower side of the tool box.  I then drilled out the holes so that the Clickbonds could slide into the interior of the tool box.  I then took a small drill bit and made notches for each actual Clickbond threaded shaft (albeit not as straight as I wanted them!)… as symbolized by the small black dot looking things at the top of the circles in the pics below.

I then placed packing tape on the back side of the tool box to protect it from wayward flox. I also taped the Clickbonds into their respective notches using duct tape on the inside of the tool box.

I sprayed black spray paint onto a stick and while wet applied it to the tips of the Clickbonds.  I then carefully & gently lined up the tool box into its final mounting spot and pressed the lower tool box –and the Clickbonds– against the face of Napster.  I then had 2 marks to identify my drilling points.  I used the long 1/4″ drill bit to make my initial holes, but at an angle since space is tight in the nose.  I then cleaned up & straightened the holes using another bit, by hand.

I then whipped up some flox and filled in the 2 drilled mounting holes.  I also slathered some onto each Clickbond and set the tool box in place.  I taped it in place with duct tape and let it alone to cure.

With 3 separate build parts all in the curing stage, I decided to prep the foam for the fuselage side of the torque tube offsets, where it too will get some flocro.  When this flocro goes in, it will finalize the other half of the elevator torque tube mounting hole –of course the elevators with their taped-up torque tube offsets, as well as the canard, will have to mounted for this flocro to be shaped correctly.

Nonetheless, it gave me something to do for 5 minutes.

By this point, the flocro was slightly cured, so I covered the bottom of the pilot seat back control tube hole with packing tape and pressed on with the flight control system test fitting.

I quickly realized yet another 2nd/3rd/whatever order affect from moving the control tube inboard 3/4″, and that was now the hole in the Instrument Panel bulkhead was too narrow for the control tube that goes forward & links to the elevator torque tube.  Thus, I marked it for cutting as well.

Since this is really tough foam, I drilled small holes along the cut line.  I then disassembled my coping saw and put it back together with the blade on the inside of the hole that needed to be opened up.

[I opened up the hole, but apparently forgot to take any pics of it.  But you can see the widened hole to a degree in the pics of the control system below.]

I then mounted pretty much all of the flight control system in the cockpit.

Here’s the aft (GIB) control stick.

And the pilot’s control stick.

A close up of the pilot’s control stick assembly.

I then set the arm rest consoles in place.  Both the front seat . . .

and the back seat.  Of course I had to throw on the actual control stick grip as well!

And, with multiple items in the curing stage, here’s the grand finale shot of the evening!

Tomorrow will be a fairly light build day since I’m heading out tomorrow afternoon to have dinner with friends.  I’ll check on & clean up today’s tasks…  and I need to do some research on the control system as well.  But I’ll back on the build full tilt on Saturday.

Technically I started off today working on the engine mount extrusions, but for a better flow of this post I consolidated them towards the end.  So to make it EZ, I’ll say I started out by pulling out the Big Dog . . .  literally, my Big Dog router table from the outside shed.  I went through the trouble of pulling this sucker out since there’s simply no way to get the radius I want on the top armrest pieces (and to match the pre-existing radiused edge) without using a router table.

I set up the router table to route a small scrap piece of 3/8″ foam that was probably from the same originally piece as my side consoles since it has a ply of glass on one side.  I would have actually preferred to put the glassed side of this scrap piece on the inside of the left armrest and had fresh foam on the outside, but the way the scrap piece wass shaped I had to radius the side with the 1 ply of BID on it.

Here’s the end result.  Sooooo EZ with a router table!

Now, me being not one to waste a good power tool while I have it out, I pulled the front left armrest pieces out and raidused the top piece of that.

Here’s the long, narrow top piece of the front left armrest console.

And here’s after I rounded over the edge.

And a quick mock-up… looks good!

With nothing left to router, I put all my tools back in the shed and got busy glassing my newly rounded extension in place on the GIB left console.  I micro’d the piece in place & then used 1 ply of BID.  Remember, I’ll add a complete other ply of BID to all of this when I glass in place during its final install.

If you’re curious why I needed to add this piece back in place, it’s because I had originally thought I would put my GIB throttle quadrant right there.  Well, first off the position is way too far aft… so my estimated positioning was way off.  Secondly, after flying in Marco’s bird and having a few rounds of discussions at RR, I decided to forego installing an aft throttle quadrant to simplify my build and save weight & complexity.

Finally, if you’re wondering why I seem to be making the front of the left arm rest longer… I am.  Another benefit of having experienced flying in the back of Marco’s plane is that things that may seem like they’ll work in planning (like my original positioning of the throttle in the back) simply don’t.  In Marco’s Long-EZ he has a PTT button on the front face of the left side armrest.  I can’t use it because I just can’t reach it.  With the tight quarters in the back seat, I can’t bend my hand around to hit the button.  So, in my plane I’m going to extend the left side GIB armrest a few inches forward and see if that does the trick since I do think that’s a great place to locate the GIB’s PTT button.

Ok, earlier in the day I cleaned all my engine mount extrusions with Acetone, and then gave them a final wash in Simple Green.   Once dry, I painted just the ~1.6″ tips of the 2024 aluminum extrusions with a high end silver paint that my buddy –who is an auto body guy– let me borrow a while back.  I did this to protect the part of the extrusions that are firewall aft (engine compartment) and to simply make them look a little snazzier than the Alodine look.

Wth the 4130 engine mount extrusion, I primed all the individual parts and then hit the last ~1.6″ with that silver paint.  Clearly I’m not concerned about the firewall forward areas on any of these, because the top ones will get painted with the cockpit interior, and the bottom ones will be buried away in the hell hole.

I have to say I had a total brain fart and used packing tape on all the aluminum extrusions when I painted them.  What do you get for trying to be too snazzy?  An hour of using Goo-B-Gone to get baked on tape off your extrusions!!  What a waste of time, and a hard learned lesson in finding out what material in the known universe that packing tape actually sticks to!

I then took a few minutes to sand the Spruce WA16 wedges to their final shape and round over the top edges just a hair in prep for glassing these into place.  [I then spent a good 45 minutes cleaning all the bondo off the top of the CS spar.  I chiseled the bigger chunks away be hand, then sanded the remaining bondo remnants off].

It was too late to start working on the canard (since I would have to move the wings out of the shop) so I started back working on the tool box a bit.  First, I sanded the micro corners and then glass adjacent to the interior aft corners on both sides.  These corners will each get a 1-ply BID tape.  I also glassed a couple of spots in the middle areas of the inside on the back wall, since these will get reinforce layups to beef up some areas on the back side in order to mount it.

After taping up the tool box, I tried to use some urethane foam to make a rounded over top cover, or lid, but the foam wasn’t strong enough to handle what I needed it to do.

So I punted and simply taped up the top . . .

. . . and threw 4 plies of glass on it.  This should work fine, but if not i can always redo it. I set it up to cure upside down so gravity would pull the wet lid glass straight down against the tape on my melamine working board, thus giving me a straight lid (if it works!).

I then pulled the peel ply and knife trimmed the layup on the top extension for the GIB left side armrest.  I did note that there was one delam right at the junction of where the new foam was micro’d in, so I’ll have to inject it with some epoxy.

I’m getting the hint that when foam is set in place with micro, it appears that if I put it under the heat lamp it off-gasses and then causes a small dlelam right at the micro’d foam junctions.  That’s exactly what happened when I glassed in yet another piece of foam to the side of left side GIB armrest.  There’s another delam bubble that I’ll have to contend with…. I guess I’ll get my money’s worth out of the syringe tomorrow.

This is the last extension that I’m planning for the left side GIB armrest.  I will shape it and glass the exterior side, and then I should be pretty much done with it until later when I assess whether I’ll mount a front plate or not for a possible PTT button.

This is pretty much the end of my clean-up tasks to knock out the “low hanging fruit” items.  I will be doing some layups, etc. on the tool box, but I will be quickly transitioning my focus to finalizing the canard & elevator mounting from here on out.

Today I started out by laying up the 1-ply of BID on the forward side of CS109 that I had intended to yesterday, but needed to go with smaller corner layups in order to have CS109 taped in place to the right arm rest so that it would be positioned correctly.

Normally I would glass the aft side of CS109, but after reviewing the plans, and since I do have a small corner piece of BID on the aft side, I’m going to leave it until I glass the arm rest in place (yes, I am in the current minority of builders that still plans on glassing my armrests into place & not make them removable).

[Note: I cleaned up this layup a bit more after this pic . . . in case you’re wondering (smile)]

I then sanded the cured BID on the aft control mounting bulkhead, CS118, and then redrilled the #12 holes.  CS118 is complete.

I then spent almost 2 hours cutting all the BID required to install the top & bottom engine mount extrusions (4 total) to the CS spar & longerons.  Probably not a very exciting pic… but cutting glass for nearly 2 hours isn’t exciting either!  ha!

Although towards the bottom of my task list today, I finally got sick of looking at all the peel ply boogers on the CS spar-to-fuselage layups, so I gave it a higher priority!  You may have noticed in my blog post yesterday the significant amount of dust & debri in the nose from mounting the canard (which is now gone…the debri, not the canard!)… with all that was going on I simply didn’t have enough time before heading out to Rough River for a good after action cleanup, and am just now getting around to it.  I spent well over an hour cleaning up all the layups from mounting the CS spar to the fuselage, and also the inboard holes in the CS spar forward face I filled with foam & glassed. If you remember, I made those holes for drilling the wing bolt holes.  I still need another good hour in ridding the spar (and then later the wings) of all the offending bondo.

After cleaning up the aft side of the fuselage, I then pulled the peel ply and knife trimmed the CS109 front side layup.

Again, I’m going to wait to glass the aft side CS109 until I install the right arm rest. Tomorrow I’ll sand this mount down and redrill the #12 holes.

Well, tonight was finally the night!  I spent about 3 hours reorganizing, cleaning and straightening up the shop.  This is just phase I and I plan on knocking out phase II tomorrow.

The main thing I’m happy about is that I can walk to the front of the shop to back of the shop without having to low crawl under my CS spar.  Just 2′ to one side of the spar to pass, and I am one happy camper!

I don’t have a shot of it, but the final act of the evening was that I spent a good 30-45 minutes filing down & cleaning up the edges of the upper left 4130 engine mount extrusion. After another 15-20 minutes tomorrow, it will be ready to be cut to its final 8″ & 1.6″ lengths.

I started off today acting upon some information that I got from my buddy Dave Berenholtz down in OZ.  He said that his Long-EZ was built in 1987 and that over the years the requisite plan’s holes in the bottom of the Instrument Panel –with the foam exposed to air, etc.– have  deteriorated significantly from the edge of the foam not being treated.  This jived with what my Instructor from the EAA Composites Workshop stated when he said that builders should always cover exposed foam with either micro or flox.

So today, before I got started on re-installing the CS109 & CS118 control mounts, I decided I would get the lion’s share of this task knocked out.  I figured that if I channeled the foam in the lower Instrument Panel holes before I started any glassing, then I would use whatever leftover epoxy I had at each step to use for micro to edge these holes.

After I used the Dremel tool to remove a small channel of foam around each of the Instrument Panel’s lower holes, I then cleaned up the dead glass from the previous install of CS109.

I then did the same thing in the back seat, and cleaned up the existing glass from the previous CS118 install.

I cut 4 plies of BID on the table (not shown), one for each side of the respective control mounts, and then set about to drill the #12 holes through CS109.

Here’s a shot of the AN3 bolts test fit.

I then did the same thing for the aft-side CS118 and test fitted those AN3 bolts as well.

To ensure I could remove the arm rests after the 5 min glue stuck CS109 & CS118 to the fuselage sidewall, I covered the top inside armrests with clear packing tape.

I then 5 min glued CS109 in place to the fuselage sidewall, while taping it in place with duct tape to ensure it aligned properly.

Of course I did the same thing in the back for CS118.

The forward CS109 control mount wasn’t as solidly stuck in place with the 5 min glue, so I went ahead and worked the back CS118 mount first.   Below you can see that the 5 min glue did its job and kept CS118 right in place.

I whipped up some MGS285 epoxy with fast hardener, and then some flox, and added flox fillets in the corners.

I then laid up 1 ply of BID on each side of CS118 and peel plied the layups.

Since I still needed the tape on the front side to secure CS109 in place, I simply laid up 1 ply of BID on each side, but kept each ply small at 2″ x 2″… just enough to lock in the position of the CS109 control mount & keep it aligned properly with the arm rest.  I then peel plied the layups [Note the micro in the foam edges of the lower instrument panel holes].

While the CS109 & CS118 layups were curing, I then drilled a #12 hole down into the upper left engine mount extrusion’s bottom reinforcement plate.  I then countersunk the hole in the outboard 2024 aluminum angle “L” bracket.  I didn’t want to drill the other 2 holes on the other side since I wasn’t sure how much compression there would be when the engine mount was actually bolted in place (the plans say 4 AN3 screws according to a CP… but I seriously don’t know where 4 holes would fit for AN3 screws.  There technically is 4 screws/bolts going through the extrusion plates into the lower reinforcement plate, IF you count the 1/4″ bolt that holds on the engine mount tube).

I did realize after I Alodined these parts (below) that I had a major brain SNAFU and should have at least drilled & countersunk the screws on the top (long) extrusion.  I could then have simply drilled the holes into the lower reinforcement plate later, since it connects both sides… oh, well.  No huge deal, just definitely not optimized as for as Alodine coverage.

Now, my main Alodine goal for today was to at least get the Engine Mount Extrusions Alodined.  I cleaned all the parts with a quick wipe down of Acetone.  Then I cleaned them with a 3M pad and Simple Green, and rinsed them thoroughly.  I then took them outside and Alodined them.  In addition, I was also actually able to prep & Alodine the Aluminum parts for the wing bolt brackets that will allow me to mount the wing bolts in the spar quasi-permanently facing aft to greatly simplify wing mounting/removal.

After I was done Alodining all the aluminum parts & letting them dry, I pulled the peel ply off the CS118 layups & razor cut the BID glass.

Here’s a shot of the new & improved CS118 glassed into place.  Tomorrow I’ll finish sanding the edges & redrilling the bolt holes.

The CS109 mount initial attachment layup came out fine as well.  I didn’t realize that I had floxed in such robust fillets, so that sucker will definitely be strong!  Tomorrow I’ll add another full ply of BID to the front and aft side.

I quickly double-checked the fit & alignment with the front right arm rest, and it fit great!

Here’s the last shot of the evening (not, however, the last action of the evening since my hose sprung multiple leaks as I was Alodining this stuff, and my shop still needs some TLC to get some water out from underneath some stuff!!!)

You can see below that the 3 aluminum engine mounts and the outboard spar wing bolt brackets are Alodined.  Clearly I still need to finalize cleaning up the edges of the 4130 steel engine mount.

Now that I have a good bit of these of smaller tasks out of the way, I really do plan on attempting to reorg the shop tomorrow in order to get it prepped for finalizing the canard & elevators install!

Actually, engine mount extrusions were just one small part of today’s activities . . .

My goal today really was to get the new CS109 & CS118 plywood bulkheads cut and glassed back in place in the fuselage.  Uh, this didn’t happen.  Although I did get a lot done.  My secondary goal was as I got something curing (CS109 & CS118), I would then get the shop reorganized so I could build something, let alone just move around.

Let’s just say that there was a lot of “drag” today in that instead of things taking 1 or 2 steps, the prerequisite tasks of just getting materials out of the shop closet, or finding tools, took much more time than it should have.

After I marked out the dimensions of CS109 & CS118, I then pulled out a scrap piece of the 1/4″ Finnish Birch plywood that is used for the firewall.  Since I had no other scrap plywood pieces big enough for either plywood bulkhead, I had to get into the closet, which was a feat unto itself!  ha!

I found some good spots to cut out the new plywood bulkheads, marked them up & then cut them.

[I should state that this was not my first foray into cutting wood today.  I actually started by cutting the four (4) WA16 Spruce wedges for mounting the engine mount extrusions to the spar & longerons.  One of them needs to be a bit taller, so I will be re-cutting one more.  They are in a rough stage now & still need to be sanded. Sorry, the only pic I have of them currently is at the end of this post.]

Here’s a shot of the new CS109 plywood blank.

And the same for CS118.

As a reminder, the reason why I’m redoing the CS109 & CS118 control stick mount bulkheads is due to the fact that the Cozy Girrrls sell the Cozy style stick mounts (I’m guessing….) for the Long-EZ.  In the pic below, which I shamelessly stole from my buddy Dave Berenholtz’s site, you can see that the CG stick mounts straddle the CS105 control tube, whereas in the original Long-EZ the control stick merely bolted to the inside the CS105.  If this lost 3/4″ offset to the inboard side of CS105 isn’t accounted for, then clearing the side wall either top or bottom of the stick will be problematic.  Interestingly, and as I told Dave in an email, since I widened my fuselage and my armrests just a hair bigger, I had already kicked the holes in CS109 & CS118 inboard by 0.4″.  I might have actually been able to get away with doing nothing, but it was good that I took these off. The good part is that I only had to move the holes another 0.35″ inboard.

I then cut the 1/8″ thick 2024 aluminum bottom engine mount extrusion support plate.  My upper Right side extrusion originally had 1.5″ x 1.5″ legs, but since I didn’t want the top vertical leg extending so far up above the longeron, I trimmed it down to 1.25″.  The horizontal leg I left at 1.5″ on the INBOARD side.  I planned to trim down the OUTBOARD 1.6″ long extrusion to 1″ wide (see below).  Thus, I needed the bottom support bracket to measure 1.6″ long  x 2.5″ wide.

To trim the OUTBOARD 2024 upper right engine mount extrusion to 1″ wide, I needed to secure it so that the miter saw wouldn’t chew it up.  I knew it needed at least one bolt hole in the bottom leg of the plate, so I marked a spot for a #10 hole.  As you can see, I marked the 1″ cut line as well.

I then drilled the #10 hole and mounted the extrusion piece to a scrap piece of wood.

I then cut the extrusion down to 1″ wide on my miter saw.

I then made up a quick jig that made it so that a 2×4 was the same height as the 1.25″ high 2024 engine mount extrusion.

I then took my router with a 1/8″ roundover bit and radiused the edge of both short & long engine mount extrusions.  Again, these are still in the rough stage and I have to finish cleaning them up.

I then cut the 0.1″ thick 4130 steel bottom engine mount extrusion support plate for the upper left engine mount.  I didn’t have any 1/8″ thick 4130, and honestly didn’t order any because 4130 is some amazingly strong stuff, so 0.1″ will do the trick…. and with slightly less weight.

I cut the first cut using another chop saw I have with a metal cutting blade on it.

For the 90° cut I simply pulled out the Dremel tool and used it.

It only took a few minutes to cut through this steel.

And voila!  The bottom 4130 support plate for the engine mount extrusion on the upper left side.

Since I had the saw out, I grabbed a small aluminum hinge that I had set aside a few weeks ago for the battery compartment mounted tool box.  I then cut a hinge for the tool box.

Below is a shot of todays machinations.  In addition to the tool box hinge above, I also trimmed the GIB handle tube to length (6″, at least for now) & cleaned it up.  BTW, it weighed in at a whopping 0.086 lbs, and that’s with the grip in place.

Yet another bunch of material I cut but didn’t get any pics of are the pieces that will make up the U-channel wing bolt securing bracket (in the middle of the pic below).  This will allow me to put the wing bolts in the spar facing out (aft) and be secured against moving.  This will greatly facilitate the speed & ease of putting the wings on & off.

You may also note that in the pic above I included printouts of my engine mount extrusion diagrams/notes that I updated yesterday.

I may get an hour or two in tomorrow evening, but basically I won’t be full on in the shop again until Monday.  Pretty much all the parts I cut today need to be sanded, shaped, deburred, etc.  I then really need to get the shop reorganized after I get all these smaller bits ‘n pieces squared away.

Today after my Sunday visits and watching some football I decided to work a few lingering side jobs that needed to get done.  Since I won’t be tearing into the wing to CS spar full bore until tomorrow (Monday) I decided to work on some of my airplane “bucket list” items.

The first item on my list was a small base tray for the battery.  I have a strap to keep the battery secured in the nose, but it still can slide just a hair from side to side.  I want to ensure the battery stays put, so I’m going to make a tray about a 1/2″ high to keep the bottom of the battery exactly where it needs to be.  And I do mean “exactly” since space is tight in the nose.

I took the battery out of the nose and removed the posts.  I then taped over the posts to keep them clear of any nasty stuff.

Here’s a shot of the nose with the battery removed.

I then wrapped the battery in plastic (saran) wrap, with tape over top of that.

I then grabbed my Integrated Backup Battery and pretty much did the same thing.  The IBBS is item #2 on my list tonight.  I’ll be floxing the Clickbonds in place on the face of the Napster bulkhead for the IBBS to mount to.

After I got the IBBS protected from any potential gunky stuff, I then punched holes through the bolt holes in the flanges on each end of the IBBS box and inserted a Clickbond.  You may be able to see that I quickly ran each Clickbond along the face of my 32 grit sanding board to create some nice grooves in the metal to provide a little better gripping action for the flox.  My final prep action for the Clickbonds at this point was to hit each one with some Acetone to ensure they were spiffy clean for good adhesion for the flox, and to the bulkhead.

With the IBBS ready to go, I then prepped the glass for the battery tray.  Since this thing isn’t going to be seen, and just needs to be reasonably strong, I went ahead and just pulled out some glass from my scrap pile.  I used about 4 pieces of BID on the first layer, overlapping about a 1/2″ on the seams, then a layer of UNI (because I have a TON of UNI scraps!) and then a final third layer of BID made up of 2 single plies simply butted up against each other at the diagonal seam.

I then whipped up some MGS 335 epoxy and wetted out the glass.  After the glass was nice and wet all the way around, I peel plied it.  To really get the sides to stay tight against the battery, I went ahead and wrapped the edge with duct tape the entire way around the battery (sorry for the blurry pic).

I used a small amount of the epoxy to whip up some flox and then dabbed some small blobs of it in the middle of each Clickbond, after very lightly wetting each Clickbond surface with epoxy.

Here’s the initial shot of the IBBS unit getting clamped into place.

And here’s a few more shots of the IBBS unit clamped into place to ensure the Clickbonds cure in place.  I’ll let the flox cure overnight, and tomorrow I’ll add 2 plies of BID over the click bonds to secure them in place.

My final task of the evening was to make the outward shell of the small tool box that I’ll be mounting just aft of the main battery, and just above the small emergency nose gear extension battery.  Once I got the IBBS in hand, and figured out where I was mounting it, I then was able to finalize the tool box design that I’ve had in mind to incorporate for some time.  Mind you, it’s not a very big tool box… but then again the Long-EZ isn’t a very big airplane!

The template below shows the profile view of the tool box.  It is 7″ tall, 4″ wide and is 1.5″ thick at the bottom and 2.5″ thick at the top.  I plan to mount it with 4 button head screws on the front center face of Napster.

Since i didn’t have any readily handy blue foam for carving the tool box mold, I simply used a piece of the 2″ trash urethane foam.

I then added a small 1/2″ (at it’s thickest point) piece of urethane and sanded it into a pleasing shape (as Burt would say!).

I then covered the urethane foam with duct tape as a mold release.

And then laid up 3 plies of BID on the forward 3 sides of the tool box.  Since I want the tool box to have square corners on the back edges, I’ll use micro corners on the aft flat layup that will make up the back wall of the tool box.  Then I’ll throw in a corner tape along the inside corners.

Because I want to have a nice micro finish on the tool box, I went ahead and peel plied it.

I cleaned up the shop a bit and packed it up for the night.  Tomorrow will be the final prep for the wing to CS spar mounting, and if all goes right I may get the wings drilled!

I started out today rereading the Chapter 14 and 19 plans sections for installing the wings to the CS spar, and the CS spar to the fuselage.  I then printed out those pages to use along with my other task list sheet as reference when installing the wings, etc.  I then made up a Chapter 19 specific to-do list on a 3×5 card.

The first task on my to-do list was to finish building the sawhorses for mounting the wings to the CS spar.  So that’s what I did.

After the initial completion of the sawhorses, I added a round of 2-1/2″ screws to buttress them up a bit.  I also added a shelf on what will be the aft side of the CS spar sawhorse (pic below, right side) for the water jug that will serve as the central reservoir in my water level system.

Here’s a long view of the sawhorses that I finished building today.

And another pic after I set them out in a general setup for when the CS spar and wings are mounted on them.

In preparation to setting up the CS Spar on the middle sawhorse, I ensured that it was level.

I then took a few minutes to get access to the CS spar hanging on the shop wall.  I pulled it down, took it outside, set it on its respective sawhorse, and then ensured it was level as well.  In addition, if you look closely in the pic below you’ll see that I marked the center lines of all the CS Spar hard point extrusions.

Here’s the CS Spar level at 0°.  Once I leveled the CS spar, I found and marked the 17.4 WL right at the aft spar CL.

Then, so as not to blind any neighbors, I flipped the spar around 180° to shoot it with the laser level.   Of course I ensured the spar was level again after I flipped it around.  Once I had the laser crosshairs centered on the WL17.4 and spar CL, I then marked the 17.4 WL in multiple places horizontally on the back face of the spar.

Here’s a normal shot of me shooting the spar with a laser level in order to find & mark the 17.4 WL.

I also determined and marked what the plans call out as the “A” & “B” marks that help ensure the wing hard point extrusions are aligned with the CS Spar’s extrusions.

Below is a closer shot of the markups I did on the outboard CS Spar extrusion.  My measurements and dimensions are showing up a hair off, but that’s not too surprising since I did reshape the outside of the CS Spar to make it narrower to better align with the inboard wing root (remember, I made my wings first so I knew exactly their thickness before building the spar).

The plan is still to get the main wing mounting accomplished on Monday, but tomorrow I do plan on mating up the wings to the CS spar, ensuring the “A” & “B” lines match, and prepping my water level system to ensure that it works.