Effects of COVID on Building an Airplane - Waiting for Shipments to arrive

In an attempt to put together a rottiserie for the fuselage I needed to order some additional hardware as mentioned in my previous post. I decided to order the hardware and also some new Akzo Nobel Epoxy primer, so I placed the order for all of it with Aircraft Spruce. They shipped it UPS, and I watched the progress of the shipment as it left their Peachtree, GA location and made its way here. It was supposed to be out for delivery on the 9th, but never showed up, nor did it how up on the 10th.

There was no update from UPS so I called Spruce and they in turn called UPS. Then UPS started sending me notices regarding a rescheduled delivery and something about a package intercept. Then I got one that said that the sender had inidicated that the package required "special handling." Then I got another one saying they had "lost my package." Then I thought we had finally setup a new delivery date for the 12th, which also came and went, with no delivery.

So apparently just about everything under the sun has happened to my package, presumably AFTER it arrived at my local distribution center. I called Spruce a second time last Friday to find out if they knew anything more, but never heard back. Then, on the 13th, I get another UPS update, and this time it says that the package was damaged adn that were notifying the Sender (Spruce).

I called Spruce this morning and they apparently had not heard anything from UPS yet, so I informed them  that they have indicated that the package was damaged, and they said they were going to immediately begin pulling and shipping a new order, and would file the claim with UPS.

The only thing I am left wondering at this point is when the shipment actually became damaged. To say that I think UPS is giving me the run around is an understatement. I also realize that in many cases, when this primer is shipped, it ends up being damaged because they drop it, put some heavy crate on the top of it and crush it, or run a forklift through it. The last time I ordered this stuff many years ago I remember feeling pretty lucky that it had arrived in tact. This time I guess I am not so lucky.

SO here I sit - hurry up and wait.... To make matters worse, I also have a pending order for some new wing parts for Vans, but they just sent out a notice saying that they will be closed until the 18th for a number of reasons. So I can't even set that order in motion at the moment.

Between the COVID impacts, extreme cold weather over 2/3 of the country, severe lack of communication, and lack of accurate, understandable status information from the shippers, I am all but worn out. The real sad thing about all this is that all I really want to receive was the hardware. I only ordered the primer as an after thought to save some shipping and go ahead and order it with everything else. I am certain that the primer leaked, and is therefore reponsible for all the delays. If only I would have just ordered the hardware. Oh well, another round of hurry up and wait. What else can you do when the temps outside are -15 degrees F.

One solution was that I started using my Youtube app on my TV and discovered that Vans and other builders have some videos posted. One was just recently posted. It is about a 2 hour and 39 minute long how-to video on how to assemble and seal an RV-8 Fuel tank. This answered a lot of questions for me and also allowed me to re-visit where I had left off in the preparation phase of my left fuel tank, before the leading edge mod took over.

Unfortuntely, one of things I am planning to order from Vans is more Proseal, since my last order has long since passed its shelflife date. This stuff is also very nasty, caustic material that reqires special handling during shipping. To do the fuel tanks I must have this stuff. SO I don't have much choice but to hope that the shipping of that stuff will go much better than this latest episode. At least I now feel much better about sealing my fuel tanks after watching that video. All for now.

Making a Rotisserie for the Fuselage - Part 3

As part of my effort to re-engage in building my wings, I needed to order some new Primer. My old AKZO Nobel 2 part epoxy primer, although proven by me to work well enough enough at 7 years plus older than the shelf life date on the cans, is now so old and unused that I have decided not to continue to try to work with it. So I ordered a new can of catalyst and primer - expensive stuff. Picked up a tip from a fellow builder to get 8 empty quart sized paint cans from HD airplane supply and pour the contents into each of these smaller cans to make it easier to pour, store, and prepare. Having had real experience with this in the past by spilling it on the floor while trying to pour in in the small mixing cups,  and knowing precisely how bad smelling and toxic the catalyst is, I think this is a very good idea.

In addition to the primer, I decided I also needed some additional AN bolt hardware to finish the  rotisserie. Each spider leg has two holes in either end of it, and each of those are between 7/16 to 1/2 inch wide on average. With the hole on one end being addressed by the AN3 hardware and wood spacers, etc., I needed to figure out how to attach the other end to the angle. This other hole would normally contain the metric bolts that came with the engine stand. I need to use this other predrilled hole and drill an additional hole somewhere near the middle of each spider to provide the necessary holes to attach the angle iron to the spider.  You need to drill the extra hole in the middle to ensure that the angle is secured in at least two places on the spider arm, so that it cannot rotate out of position.

The next problem is figuring out what length bolts I should use for the remaining holes, to ensure they are short enough so that they do not come into contact with the firewall after attaching each angle to the spider on one end and the center mounting plate on the other. Each of the lugs on the spiders allows for about 1 and 1/2 inches clearance from the firewall. Unfortunately, the metric bolts that come with the engine stand are about 1 1/4 inches long after being inserted into the hole in the spider, so that leaves a very uncomfortable 1/4 inch of free space between the firewall and the angle iron adn spider bar - This is NOT good enough for me. 

SO I need to get shorter length bolts and corresponding hardware. That means I needed to go back to the suppliers and the conversion/identification charts to figure out which AN hardware I should get. My decision, based on measuring hole diameters and lengths and grip requirements and such, was the following:

For the other big hole in the spider and the 1/8 inch thick angle iron that will be attached to it, I decided on either AN7-11A or AN8-11A, since the holes sizes seem to hover somewhere in the vicinity of either one. I order both, and I will see which one gives the better. tighter fit. After I figure that out, I will know what size hole I have to drill in the angle iron.

For the second hole in the middle of each spider to lock the angle iron in place like others seem to have done, I decided to use AN3-7A bolts. Both of these bolt choices should leave at least a half inch or more of clearance from the firewall after being bolted together. That I think I can live with. I also ordered the required nuts and washers for all bolts. The AN7 and AN8 bolts get AN960-716, 726L, 816, and 816L washers, and AN365-720A and AN365-820A, or MS21044N8 lock nuts. The AN3 bolts use the same nuts I already received from Straight Flight, so I think I already have enough of those to use on the shorter AN3 bolts as well.  

I also ordered some hardware that I mentioned long ago in my blog when working on the fuel tanks. I ordered about 50 NAS1352-08-8P cad-plated socket head cap screws to replace the fuel tank access plate screws provided by Vans - AN515-8R8. I have seen too many posts from builders stating how difficult it is to remove Phillips head screws from the access plates of the fuel tanks when you need to service or replace the fuel senders or the fuel line or return attachment hardware or connections. There are 17 of these screws for each fuel tank, so you only need 34, but I always need extras, so I ordered a few extras. Somebody on VAF also asked if a washer would be needed for these cap screws, since their grip width of the head is not as wide as the AN515 screw heads. I am glad he asked that question, as I would never even thought about that. The washer for the cap screw is AN960-8 or AN960-8L for the thin version. I ordered 50 of each of those as well.

My order was shipped from Spruce's Georgia location, and at first I found this to be strange, since most western-based orders are processed by the Southern California location. But on second thought, with southern California's horrible pandemic situation, I am actually relieved that my order came from somewhere else. It also wised me up a bit about hardware orders or any orders for that matter that I will be needing for supplies, parts etc., as I re-engage. I need to be careful about where these are coming from, and develop a process to clean them carefully when I receive them - just to be safe. It is supposed to be here in a couple of days, and then I will resume the work on the rotisserie.

Coming - up - I need to degrease/remove the oil coating from my QB fuse, which now has a layer of fine abrasive forest fire ash particles on it from all the fires in the state this past summer and fall. I have stupidly left this unattended ever since it was delivered to me in 2018. This stuff even penetrated inside the house, so everything is covered with it, inside and out. So this is long overdue, and needs some serious attention. Also coming soon is the upgraded electrical service and heat into my garage. Enough is enough, and I really need to address my hostile building environment this year if I ever want to finish this project. I will also need to order more Proseal and some special formulated sealant for the fuel tank access plates. More on that later.

Making a Rotisserie for the Fuselage - Part 2

 With the majority of the Spider Lug concerns addressed, it is time to start working on the remaining components. The hardware I acquired thus far was focused almost entirely on the attachment of the spider arms/lugs to the predrilled holes for the engine mount in the 4 corners of the firewall. The hardware I purchased for this part of project was an assortment of bolts, nuts, and, and washers. Here is a pic of this batch of AN hardware that I ordered. I could not decide if the length of the bolts that I needed was AN3-26A or AN3-27A, so I ordered about 10 of each so I could check the fit and decide which one to use. The difficulty with this was determining the actual length of the threads for each bolt. AN or MS bolts length (total length) is defined pretty clearly in numerous charts that are found on line, but the length of the bolt shank and the length of the screw threads was not so clearly defined.

To make matters worse, there is yet another hardware identification in use called NAS. So to figure this stuff out you need to be able to cross reference AN, MS, and NAS hardware specifications. I checked various books that I have acquired, including AN43.13, and found them seriously lacking in details about the hardware, so I had to resort to other on line sources. There is good info in Aircraft Spruce and Specialty website (search for AN Bolt Selector)< and also on various website via google search, as well as Aircraft Genuine Hardware's website, and even from links and info found on VAF. 

From that research I was able to find out that most AN bolt hardware contains threads that are approximately 1/2 inch in length. but in reality the spec is to create threads to allow for at least one or more washers to be applied, then apply an appropriate nut,  and still have at least 2 threads showing after the nut is properly torqued. 

What I found was that, although the AN3-26A seemed to allow threads to appear where the bolt exists the hole in the firewall/engine mount steel support bracket assembly, the slightly longer AN3-27A bolt shows a small amount of shank that a washer will cover nicely before the nut is applied, so I think I am going to go with that. 

The hardware in the above pic was obtained from a local source - an maintenance facility at Centennial airport (KAPA) called Straight Flight. They offer certain hardware and other items for sell to folks like me. I was first made aware of them from a post I stumbled into a few years ago regarding some problems with Nut slippage and bolt thread issues with the Bolt/Nut combination that Vans provides for their RV-8 Landing Gear. Apparently the Nuts would lose their grip, causing the bolts to become loose - not a good thing. So a discussion ensued and someone ended up recommending a different NUT that seems to work much better and resolves this slippage problem.

Somebody local ended up posting that they found the new hardware from Straight Flight and were able to pick it up without having to have it shipped from somewhere else. that supplier was Straight Flight. So that is where I purchased the hardware you see in the pic, except for the 3/16 x 1 inch stainless flat washers in the noticeably orange packets that came from HD. Very nice to have a local aircraft hardware vendor located not very far away from me.

I purchased AN360-10 and AN360-10L washers (thick and thin versions) and standard and lock nuts so I could decide which of those I anted to use in the final assembly. Then next thing I had to purchase is the steel angle for the arm extensions between the bracket and the Spider arms. I purchased it from HD and got 2 48 inch long 1x1 inch pieces of steel angle:

These will be cut to size once I determine the lengths that I will need for all 4 arms. I also ordered some other hardware that I am waiting on from Aircraft Spruce for this part of the assembly. Straight Flight did not seem to have the sizes I was looking for, so I had to order them from Spruce. More on that in the next post.