The Making of N327GM...

Thanks for the tip, Lee. I'll take all the feedback you guys can give... I'm new to this, and appreciate any and all tips and ideas for improvement you have.

I'm assuming when you say "scribe", that you really just mark the dykem itself?

Yes, very lightly,but a light scratch will polish out if, you get a little heavy.

I only marked inside of which will be drilled away anyhow.
It is easily re-marked if in error, and easy to see when re-checking your measurements.
I also used it on the sawn edges of my plates as an indicator for straightness.
Hit it on the belt sander to indicate the high spots, hand file them down to close,and finish off on the belt sander.
 
If you're doing alot of filing on aluminum, get yourself a file card which is a flat piece of wood with short wire bristles on one side. Use it often to get the aluminum out of the teeth of the file. Also, go to the dollar store and get some big fat sidewalk chalk the kids use to draw on sidewalks. Rub that on the file before you use it as a lubricant and to help keep the aluminum from getting stuck in the teeth. The combination of the chalk and the file card makes filing pretty painless. You can use Dykem or a felt tip pen to mark the aluminum. You can very lightly scribe a line in the dye to make an extremely easy to see sharp line. If you're scribing so hard you pull a chip you're damaging the aluminum. Another great tool for dressing edges is this: http://www.mcmaster.com/#bur-tools/=c8ymy4

Using some tap magic or other cutting fluid makes cutting and drilling easier, the chips less likely to stick to the drill bit, and the drills stay sharper longer. It is messier though.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#coolants/=c8yok9
 
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Thanks for the tips, Lee and John. I have some sidewalk chalk in the garage, so I'll give it a try on the next filing job.

Did a little more work tonight.... nothing major. Finished drilling the holes on brake cable guide blocks, rough cut and drilled the drag link supports, re-did the rudder cable attachment pieces for the rudder pedals, and filed the steel nose gear support blocks down to final shape. It's raining here now, so I'll have to wait to primer these parts until tomorrow night.

Here's some of the parts laid out on the plans....

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Here's the nose gear supports, after filing.

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John Rountree tells me that my kit is now in San Diego, but that customs wants to go through it. Hopefully that will go quickly. Then it will be on a truck and headed for Texas. Can't wait to get my hands on all those new parts....

I also downloaded the free 15 day trial of from kitlog.com. I'm trying it out for a few days to see if it's how I want to document the project. Seems pretty easy to use, and I like the format on the canned reports that it can do. Still need to experiment with it's post to internet capabilities. More to come on that as I use it.
 
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Gary that Kitlog looks very interesting indeed, great find.

Be good to get your feedback on how you find that.

I will admit that the Genesis would be a good fall back to the Arrowcopter... hey guys we can all dream right! And this may well be the way to log the build.

Stu and I muddled along and it was pretty half-assed. Piles of dog eared receipts, photos and entries on memo pads and sheets of paper. He tidied it up pretty good at the end, but this looks a much better way to go.
 
Use dykem like Scatt said, only use a pair of dial calipers to gauge, and as a scribe.
The edge of the open jaws makes a beautiful line, and stays sharp for years.
Use one edge of the open jaws to drag along the end of the workpiece,
while the other edge of the open jaws scribes your line, GET IT?
 
Hey, Mike.... I get it.... I just haven't gone out and got the dykem and calipers yet. Was at Lowes at lunchtime today, but they were out of the calipers. I'll try a different store tomorrow.

As for tonight..... it's been grinding, filing, sanding.... grinding, filing, sanding.... spent an hour cleaning up and doing some grinding, filing, and sanding.

It's still raining here, so not good for painting..... but here's the parts that are now ready for primer...

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And here's proof that I actually cleaned up my work area....

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So far I like the kitlog application.... the only thing I don't like is that it is limited to 3 pictures per build log entry. So if you want more than that for one day, you have to do multiple entries... no big deal.

Here's a rough print screen of what a typical build entry log, with pictures, looks like when printed using one of the canned reports in the application.

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Thanks for that look at it Gary. I guess that the developers figured that three pics is good enough for the FAA, although it hardly whets the appetite of the build junky crowd on this Forum.

Well it looks as though you are set for a while to provide us all with entertainment as we see this bird take shape. I think the feedback tips and comments is helpful, Stu and I certainly got a lot of help from people here.
 
Running out of things to do, until more parts get here..... I went ahead and painted the primed parts with.... wait for it.... aluminum colored Duplicolor!

Seems like a lot of work to make the parts look aluminum again, but the primary purpose is for corrosion protection.

I'm more convinced than ever that the rest of the frame and parts will be powder coated!!!


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This weekend I'll work on mocking up some ideas I have for the HKS engine mount, which will be the only modification to Nicolas' design that I plan to do. Jazzenjohn and I have been trading e-mails, and I'm going to try and duplicate his HKS engine mounting method. We'll see how it comes out and if the mock up gets the go-ahead from Nicolas.

The HKS has an oil sump in the bottom, and the gearbox has a different offset than a Rotax engine, all of which has to be accounted for in the mount to keep from changing the thrust line.
 
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Spent some quality time scratching my head today, trying to figure out the best way to mount the HKS engine.... it has an oil sump that prevents me from doing mount bars across the bottom of the engine like for a Rotax mount. It also has some contours towards the font of the engine that make it hard to run mounting bars in a front to back manner.

I finally decided on stacked aluminum bars that give me the clearance to get around the sump.

Here's the mount bolt holes... Left side of the picture is the gearbox side, right side is the front of the engine.

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So I made a short stand-off piece that fits the mount bolt area perfectly, right down to the radius contour needed towards the front of the engine.

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Fits like a glove...

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Then I stacked another bar, which is able to go forward enough to clear the sump towards the front of the engine. That makes the mount tall enough that I can make two cross mounts that can go across the engine on either side of the sump. These two pieces will go across and eventually be the points for the Barry mounts. In this picture I have a short, scrap piece of aluminum bar and my square clamped on in the locations for the cross mounts. I need to order more aluminum bar to make the left side and the cross mounts, but I think this will be a good, sturdy mounting system.

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Hi Gary....
This photo is a engine mount for a Soob 1.8 made from 1/8 "L" shaped angle steel...I adapted it for a 2.5L I recently installed.
This "Halo" style worked real nice...supported from the front (the small end to the Mast) and was supported from the rear and the front straight sides down to the keel.
It's an idea that might find function in your install...easy to adapt and solid once mounted <maybe you will gleam ideas here helpful to your install>.

I ran engine mount "rails" down the sides (mounted to the big holes seen in the top of the Rails) with no issue of Oil Pan clearance.
Maybe something like this can work for you.

M-M.
(PS..This is an original Parham Mount <Design> used on a Bensen Drop Keel Design for a 1.8L)
 

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Alternate HKS Mounting Solution?

Alternate HKS Mounting Solution?

Since I need more material to finish the original design for my HKS engine mounts, I decided to do a quick mock-up of a design that is very similar to what Jazzenjohn used for his HKS mount.

I'm using the exact same rubber engine mounts that he did.... he's got 50 hours on his setup and so far, so good.

Here's the design, just roughly laid out on the work bench... there's 3 inches between the 2x2 tubes, so with some aluminum block spacers of the correct size, I would simply use this instead of the original horizontal engine mount tube on the G1sa. If my math is correct.... this will work without changing the position of the horizontal engine mount.

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The main difference is that I'm using 2x2x 1/8th rectangular tubing, instead of 1/8th inch aluminum angle like Jazzenjohn did.... I felt like this would be stronger. A side effect of this, is that I will be forced to put mounting bolt access holes in the bottom of the 2x2 tubes, 1 for each mounting bolt.

This picture shows the rubber mount situation.... I still need to insert some washers, so the mounts are loose in this picture. Note the access hole on the left tube.... I still need to do the others, if I decide to use this type of mount.

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Here's a couple of pictures with the engine sitting on the mount....

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GaryMac

That mount with the 2x2 square tubing is a --WINNER !!

Tony
 
Thanks, Tony.

I'm liking the 2x2 tubing method more and more.... the more I play with the design and how it all fits together.

I'm doing some more work on it tonight, after my batteries for the cordless tools charge some.

Here's what the actual layout, with spacer blocks, etc. should look like, based on the green lines. The middle tube will be the horizontal engine mount on the G1sa, in its orginal position. I will have to cut it to make it shorter, but this design should be a "bolt on" to the kit, with no real modification required.

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I like it Gary! The 2" square tubing should be quite a bit stiffer torsionally than the angle I used, and also stronger, without much of a weight penalty. It has a nice clean look to it as well.
 
Thanks, guys. I'm liking the way it is coming together.

Brian... are you talking about a machined plug to put into the end of the 2x2 tube? I'm hoping to avoid that, as I want easy inspection of the mount bolts. I think this mount will be very stable, and handle torquing moments well. I guess we'll see when I ground run the engine (hopefully in a few months).

Jazzenjohn..... when you bolted your engine directly to these rubber mounts... did you use locktite or anything else? I'm concerned when it comes time to torque the bolts down to the proper spec, and am curious how you did it.

Thanks, Gary
 
Last post for a few days.... I'm building my order on Aircraft Spruce tonight for more miscellaneous pieces that I will need for the engine mount (nuts, bolts, aluminum, etc.), so I won't be doing anything meaningful until that order comes in.

Hopefully the kit will arrive this week.... John was working on getting it crated last Friday, after the customs inspections, so it should be on a truck sometime this week.

Here's the final, rough version of the engine mount.... lots of filing, sanding, and assembly left on this, but I don't want to drill very many holes until I know exactly where it needs to be on the frame. So I wont do much more on it until I have the frame ready for it.

Rough engine mount....

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And another, for good measure....

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And finally, the shop put back in order, waiting for the next set of parts and pieces to arrive...

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That motor mount is built for combat, I like it !!!

Tony
 
Gary, what I meant was to push in the square tube and run the bolt through. Suppose can put a higher torque on in if it was solid all the way through. Have you tried puting a good torque on a bolt through the square tube alone?
 
Brian, I have not tried torqueing anything down yet. I'm sure that what you are suggesting would allow a higher torque.... we'll see if that is necessary when I do final assembly.

Thanks for the suggestions.... I really am open to anyone's opinions and suggestions, as this is my first build and I want to do it right, and safely!

Thanks, Gary
 
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