While ordering 4130 tubing for making various steel parts of my project I noticed that the 1-1/8" with .058 inch wall tubing has an inner diameter of just over an inch. I happen to have some 1" acme rod and nuts that would fit quite nicely  inside that tube. After scavenging pieces from a few other stands I was able to put together the following

Instead of…

While doing layouts for the fuselage side skins earlier today, I decided to throw together this little bit of javascript

to help me calculate rivet spacing's. Not everything is a nice multiple of 20 or 40 millimeters.

I have a web server on my home network so I can bring this up in my IPad while I am in the shop.

Enter the distance and the desired rivet spacing. The page will print out the hole locations at or under

the desired rivet…

I have been experimenting the last few weeks trying to figure out how to best create the joggles to go over the .093  longerons on the lower fuselage.

I tried the wood block method given in the zenith cd. I tried  the slotted aluminum sheet method as I had seen on the EAA homebuilder tips videos. I tried a third  method shown in the homebuilt help using a tucking fork and a hammer. I tried my vice. Perhaps it was  just due a lack of skill on my part, but the joggles I got…

Picked up my Corvair Core today. Probably be a good year

before I really start tearing into it, but the seller was relatively close by and the price reasonable.…

A panel hack saw is a special kind of hacksaw that uses a spring steel sheet as a back to support a standard hacksaw blade. This allows the saw to make long cuts in metal where a normal hack saw would be stopped by the bar.

When I first found out about them I wanted to buy one, but no one seems to make them anymore. So I had to make one of my own.The spring steel is .032 sheet and the hacksaw blade is a standard blade.

The saw can be a little tricky to use.  The…

A homemade set of tucking forks for fluting parts. While I have used this on only two parts, I like the control these give me over creating flutes compared to the fluting pliers I have used for just about everything else.…

Some pics of a simple jig for handling the varying angle of the fuselage bulkhead.

At the top the of the form the bevel will be 15 degrees and as it is rotated by 90 degrees it will decrease to 0 degrees. This roughly corresponds  to a bent edge of 90 degrees at the top and smoothly changing to  11 degrees open on the side.

The jig is hot glued together and screwed to the form.…