The squirrel war that is…

Case in point, besides one of the light wires that I just spliced back together being re-gnawed through, my other morning greeting was just off to the side of my glass cutting table, where I found an entire ceiling light assembly on the floor.  Note the sharply cut cord.  Crazy.

So I spent another hour plus reinstalling this light and working on getting rid of squirrel nests, plus ensuring the plane was safe from any potential downed light fixtures.

Moving on… I tried my hand using the Dremel tool to create a gas cap tethering tab.  The making of the tab went well enough, it was drilling the hole in the narrow strip that went slightly awry as it slid off-center.  This is stainless steel after all.

I decided I would need to reverse my tab manufacturing process by drilling the holes first, which in my mind meant I might as well machine these darn things.  I then modeled up a new tweaked version of the gas cap tether tab and 3D printed it out to check size and configuration.

I then machined the gas cap tether tabs out of some leftover scrap 0.036″ thick 316 stainless steel from the exhaust pipe brackets.  Here they are, with some final cleanup left to do.

I then finally pulled the heat blanket and heat lamps off the top cowling and cured aft stiffener.

I also pulled the hot glued wood spacers and to my surprised delight, the top cowling didn’t move a hair!

Yes, the gap is a bit tighter than I want it to be, and I’m invoking both Wayne Blackler and the Long-EZ plans for the minimum gap: 5/16″ (0.3125″) per Wayne and 0.4″ per plans.  I’m in the middle.  Regardless, I do have a decent gap that I can work with and tweak if I have to… thus I’m calling this task complete and pressing forward!

Over the last couple of days I’ve been checking and resetting the pressure switch on the shop air compressor to get it to cut on as close 145 psi and off at 175 psi as possible.  There’s so much air in the tank that I’ve been letting the automatic moisture-removing valve cycle a bunch of times, which slowly knocks off a good 10 psi over a 24 hour period.  I then open a valve to drain the air to see when it kicks on and off.

Well, today I reset the adjustment screw rather aggressively (2 full turns) and got the darn thing to cut in at 137 psi and cut off at 167 psi… close enough.  I did a final install on the pressure switch cover and then manhandled the compressor to get it rotated and back onto the rubber pads and floor securing bolts.

I then put the big compressor closet access panel back into place and secured it with screws.  This task too is complete.

Pressing forward … one task at a time!