N34KP's rebuild

[Richard Roller]

I have to scarph 2 pieces together for the floor board. Here goes nothing!

[taildrags]

Wish I lived closer to you. I have the plywood that you'd need without having to scarf it. I have the plywood for the sides, too. Leftovers from the Piet project that Corky started but never finished.

-Oscar

[Richard Roller]

I appreciate the thought, Oscar. I have the sides and everything else. I just didn't have the 1/4" for the floor. I ordered 2 pieces of 1/4" x 2 x 4 because it saved me a bunch of shipping cost.

Speaking of shipping cost. I'm doing a road trip to Wicks tomorrow, for lift struts. It's 5 hours away. Shipping for the struts, from one side of Missouri to the other, was going to be $280! Over half of the price of the struts!

[Richard Roller]

The second one (left) turned out nicer than the first. I'll clean up the first one and glue tomorrow.

[Richard Roller]

Attempting to glue the two pieces together.

[taildrags]

"Do or not do. There is no try." -Yoda

[Richard Roller]

No X wings here! In a swamp, or otherwise!

[Richard Roller]

I was mulling over a change to the engine mount brackets at the firewall. I've decided to increase the brackets bolt patterns by one bolt, both horizontally and vertically. So I pulled the existing corner gussets off and I'm gluing new ones on sized to the new bolt pattern. This is in case I decide to change the engine installation down the road.

[taildrags]

Now there's a forward-thinking man...

-Oscar

[Richard Roller]

Years ago I redrew the steel tube drawings stretched to the long piet length. My thought was to use a 60° V6 on it. I'll probably never built it. But who knows, a V6 on 34KP?

[Richard Roller]

I picked up a piece of white ash today to make the engine bearers and landing gear stations pieces.

[taildrags]

...and who doesn't love a nice piece of wood? Especially if it has an airplane part inside it!

-Oscar

[Richard Roller]

I forced myself to do something today on the Piet. I cut out the ash cross members for the landing gear and started the glueing of the forward cross piece. The floor board is ready to glue on as soon as I get the rear one in.

[Richard Roller]

Forward cross piece glued in.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Thanks for taking the time to document this. It will be a good resource when I get there.

[Richard Roller]

The rear crpss piece is in and I'm fitting the floor board.

[taildrags]

Well come on, Richard... floor it!

-Oscar

[Richard Roller]

Glued the floor board on just now. No help, that was a busy 30 minutes!

[taildrags]

They don't call it "working time" for nothing. Spread and smooth on all glue areas for all you're worth... you can feel it starting to get a little tacky... get it into place... lift and shift, align and clamp, unloosen and readjust... hurry! Hurry!. Then it's past the point of no return and you just have to clamp and staple and figure you can shave any little overhangs and squeeze-out later. Don't you love it?

-Oscar

[Richard Roller]

The glue up on the floorboard worked well. I've planed the edges flush and removed the staples. Several staples broke while trying to remove them. Glued in I guess. I'll have to think about this a little.

[Chuck in Indiana]

I wonder if you could heat the staple with a soldering iron to soften the epoxy locally?

[Richard Roller]

I'm going to ignore the broken staples. They broke off flush with the plywood, and I can't get hold of them short of digging away some of the plywood.

[Richard Roller]

Slow progress. I've flip the fuselage back upright and started the last gussets. Currently glueing the last two inboard splice doublers.

[Richard Roller]

Plugging along.

[Richard Roller]

[taildrags]

It's a wonder that the entire world isn't held rigidly in place with gussets. Got to have them!

-Oscar

[Richard Roller]

I decided to block the corners of the firewall station truss.

[Richard Roller]

[taildrags]

I'll bet that fuselage frame is stiffening up nicely, what with the blocking and crosspieces and gussets getting installed. One of the most comforting things about a Piet is the robustness of its basic structural 'cage'.

-Oscar

[Richard Roller]

Yes. It's getting g pretty sturdy even without the side plywood.

[Richard Roller]

While test fittings controls today, I discovered the aileron torque tube between cockpits was bent a little in the crash. Always something.