Brian's Genesis G1sa Build

Just had my rotors and prop ordered. Decided on 23' Dragon Wings and a Warp Drive. Throw in some purple stuff! :)
 
All of those sound like good choices Brian.
 
willisbr :
I can say it fun to polish that aluminum seem like you can never get is just right. Bad thing is it doesn't stay that way for long. That is the part I hate...
I need to try some of the purple stuff that everyone talks about so much....
Look like your getting there...Great job..!
 
Brian- You will love using Purple polish on your blades. I just re apply some Purple whenever the bugs get to thick on my blades. I can go all winter without need for polishing my blades. Too many people get impatient preparing the aluminum. You can just apply Purple to your blades and start power buffing. It will come out shiny, but it won't have the depth and a true mirror finish if you apply lots of elbow grease first. The aluminum needs to be sanded to finer and finer grades, going down to 800 to 1000 grit. In my case, I had 16 root doubler plates that had to be progressively hand sanded to finer and finer grit. Then, getting a wool bonnet random orbit power buffer and applying liberal amounts of Purple. You must make sure you.are only warming the blades , and not getting them hot. Again, you can have shiny blades by not even sanding them,and just getting instant gratification by applying Purple. There is a difference however. You have to really work at the sanding part to really get a deep mirror shine. If anyone wants to see proof in person, I can show them at Mentone where I did not progessive sand my aluminum, and just used Purple only. Both are shiny, but my blades you can tell there is more depth to the mirror shine. Stan
 
StanFoster : Not sure if it matters what part of the country you live in, like SC here lot of salt air being 3 mile from salt water.
 
Chris- No doubt you would have to maintain the aluminum more often. I dont have any experience with how bad salt spray is....but that Purple will cut through anything.

Brian.....excuse me, I didnt mean to cut into your build thread. I could start another thread just for polishing aluminum if someone wants. I have seen a lot of mirror finished in aluminum over the years, and asking how it was done has accumulated in my head.

Stan
 
I appreciate the talk right here stan. I'm taking note! Thanks for the info. Do DW come semi shiny?
 
Brian- Ernies blades come as nice as anyones. Like I mentioned....you could just go get a random orbit power buffer, and make them very shiny........but........my advice is to convince yourself with a scrap of aluminum. Put some Purple on it only....buff it ....it will be shiny like a new dime. However, start sanding another piece with 220 grit...then 320...then 400.....on down to 800. In all honesty....I really believe you cant tell any difference after 400 grit.

Then power buff this with Purple....and hold them together looking very closely. From a distance...both look the same....but stick your face in there like you are going to use them to shave with. The progressive sanded one will have a deep mirror shine that once you see it....you wont be satisfied with the other one. Whats happening is that the unsanded one is not having all the micro grooves...scratches...etc taken down to a fine and flat level.....and you end up polishing in lots of imperfections. You have a very shiny surface that is reflecting shiny imperfections.

Now, lets say I was trying to polish the mirror for the Hubble space telescope. My finish would be a total disaster, and would not even come close for being a proper mirror, as now we are talking polishing this down to many more stages of finer and finer and finer grits....even getting into liquid grits that go finer and finer.

My point is you get out of something whatever you put into it....usually, but there are practical limits and I feel anything finer that 1000 grit is not practical for just looking at a rotor blade. Maybe some consider the extent I went to as being overkill, but everytime I look at my rotorblades closely, I am rewarded back for the many hours it took to get them there.

I read an excellent article in KitPlanes a few years ago about how someone polished and maintained their all aluminum plane. I remember shaking my head just trying to imagine the work that went into it.......and then maintaining it.

I was correct on the work going into getting the mirror finish....but the article stated that having a mirror finish is actually easier to maintain than a shiny surface that didnt have all the imperfections sanded out. That made a lot of sense to me.....less microscopic nooks and crannies to have the surface corrosion start on.

It wasnt until I experienced maintaining my own blades did I believe that. I can honestly say that maintaining my rotor blades is very easy. I can go all winter with one polishing....and during the buggy season......I can fly for two weeks, and have bugs all over....and it will take at the most 10 minutes of applying Purple with a micro fibre towel to get each blade back to a mirror.

Just trying to pass on information that I had to dig very hard for.

Dont take this as trying to tell you what to do.......I am just wanting to see everyones blades the mirrors they can be.

Stan
 
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Stan I really appreciate you taking the time in explaining that. I am a novice at metalwork. Cutting, drilling, and polishing. Learning as I go. I will heed your experience and advice. I have seen some rotors at Bensen days that looked like I could eat off of them. Mike's misfitt and that USA scorpion comes to mind.

What are the flight consequences of super polished blades? I've been told to not wax my RAF blades as they will slip more in flight. What of polished aluminum blades? You fly with a high rotor rpm also. No problem?
 
Brian- I love the way my blades fly. I feel the smoother they are, the better, but thats just my opinion. I waxed my RAF blades and my SparrowHawk blades. That made the bugs easier to remove. I would experiment and fly them so buggy, just to see if I could tell the difference. It could have been my imagination...but cleaner blades should fly better...and they felt like they did. I can verify that one time I cleaned just one dirty blade...and flew with a clean one and a dirty one. I could feel quite a bit of shake in the rotor. I am sure I moved enough grams of bug guts to throw the balance off...plus the clean blade had to have better airflow. I cleaned the other blade and it flew smooth then.

While I was building my Helicycle...I was on the fence about should I polish them...or paint them....polish or paint...polish or paint........

I was at Homer Bells fly-in where a bunch of Helicycles show up each year. There was an older guy there named Hap Miller....nicest guy you will ever run across. He had beautiful...georgous polished rotor blades on his. He actually went to Osh Kosh the following week and wont the bronze rotorcraft award...."Liddy" award ? or something like that. Just a georgous ship throughout. He is a mentor of mine and I talk to him by phone occasionally. When I talked to him about his polished blades, two things sold me on going polished. They are just very nice looking...and they wont go out of balance from the paint wearing off. My mind was made up and I went home knowing I was going to polish my blades.

I have seen the Mikes blades. He obviously would be a great one to ask how he did it. I would love to compare notes myself. There are shiny blades, and there are deep shiny blades.

Stan

I will say that once my blades were balanced....I dont have to ever worry about them going out of balance like the ones that painted their blades have happen. No worry of paint eroding from rain etc.
 
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Ahem. The secret to Mike's MissFit's blade polish is this ... he has his brother polish them! Which is a really good deal. Except when you're the brother.

Before Bensen Days, I polished his rotor on sawhorses with a variable speed buffer and a soft pad. Unable to afford the Purple Stuff, I use a commercial cleaner/polish intended for clear coat. It's readily available from a variety of manufacturers at your local auto paint shop. Since it's intended for clear coats, it's not too aggressive. Do it outside and far from everything. You WILL make a mess.

I did his other brightwork with Mother's Aluminum Polish. I takes tons of rags but does a pretty good job.

What did all this polishing teach me? Well, let me just say that I bought a gyro that is all painted except for the rotor.
 
Larry- You did a beautiful job on the aluminum on Misfit. Georgous.....you know what you are doing.


I also would have polished blades and a painted or preferably, a powed coated frame. That would be a lot of high maintenance maintaining all that aluminum at all the intersections...around bolts...clamps...hoses...etc. Rotor blades are free and clear and the simplest area to polish and keep polished.

I have no experience using Mothers products...but seeing your results...I am convinced that Purple is NOT the only way to go. It just happened to be the product I first used and was delighted with. I am now a loyal Purple fan forever. But had I used Mothers....I would have been shouting Mothers from the rooftops as well!

Beautiful finish work on that Misfit. My hats off to you and Mike on that creation.

Stan
 
Thank you Brian!

Thank you Brian!

I wanted to thank you for this informative thread.

I follow it closely and it adds to my understanding of how an aircraft comes together.

I find your desire to push forward into the unknown territory inspirational and your pragmatic approach admirable.

Thank you, Vance
 
The next best thing to having a brother polish your blades is to have Ernie's polisher polish them. He was at Bensen Days a couple years ago polishing blades for a small fee. Money well spent.
 
Well Tim came over last week and put a second set of forum eyes on the Gulf Coast Genesis. He gave me an idea of how to more accurately drill the rudder support tube holes and is letting me borrow a laser and jig. So I'll give it another go sometime later this week. I also was able to pawn off a spring loaded punch to him. I had lost mine and as it always goes, the minute you buy the replacement, you find the lost one.

Nothing new in the shop. I've been reading a bit about Gary's reaming questions. I don't have a reamer and probably won't do any reaming. Many seem to have used this technique. I'm getting very snug (mallet tapper) fits with my Dewalt bits. As soon as I break the hole, I stop and finish the job with a multi-bit. Getting good results. I think my multi-bit is slightly undersized so this has been working well for me.

Nicolas had let me know of a terrible explosion over in Cyprus that had set back some shipping from the shop. I looked it up online and there it was, front and center...massive military explosion that led to numerous casualties. Sorrow goes out to those involved and the locals effected.

My prop is in the mail and I should be getting an invoice any day now from Ernie for the rotors...cough cough.
 
I ordered my rotors yesterday from Earnie and they should be here within 2 weeks. I got my prop in about 2 weeks ago from warp drive. I haven't been in the shop much. I sat down and came up with a few concepts for the panel. Here is the digital idea I came up with. Comments?

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