With new hardware to play with, the next steps were to remove the front wheels of the engine stand, determine the height of some wood to replace the front wheels to keep the mast of the engine mount level with the ground, and start the process of cutting the 1x1 steel angle to size, and drill the first set of holes in one end of each angle.
Here is a pic of the stand with the wheels off. I first used a piece of 2x wood that I cut long ago to use as a form block for bending the mounting plate for the LE mod, and a piece of 2/8 inch thick plywood. That seemed to put the mast back to level when I checked it with my torpedo level.
Then I had the idea to put the mounting bracket on the stand and recheck the level. What I discovered was that the mounting bracket has a lot of play when mounted in the cylinder at the top of the stand, adn when I put the level on the actual mounting bracket that everything would be attached to I found that mast was no longer level and was indicating a bit too high. Then I found a piece of 1/4 inch plywood that was from the top of the crate that my wing kit came in years ago, and this seemed to set everything back to level again with the mounting bracket installed on the stand. Now I just need to cut the wood pieces to size and mount those to the stand using more nuts and bolts.
With that figured out, just prior to removing the front wheels from the stand I was wheeling it around in the garage, and I noticed that only 2 of the 4 wheels were making contact with the floor. A closer inspection revealed that that cross bar that serves as the front axle for the front wheels was at the angle to the rest of the frame. This means that some of the metal and/or the welds of various pieces were not done very well to ensure that the mount points for the wheels would be square to each other. This also means that when the fuselage is mounted to the frame it would not be sitting square but a bit lop sided in the front. I just could not allow that to happen, so my solution was to get out my sledge hammer to see if I could coax the front axle to be a bit more square to the rest of the frame. As I pounded on one side or the other I noticed that the square post was being forced into the corner of the frame. Either way this allowed the front axle to reposition itself so it was a bit more square to the rest of the frame, so I was satisfied with that.
That exercise just further convinced me that welding is totally an imprecise, unreliable method of joinng metal together. I am also sure that the fact that it came from China has something to do with that as well. You get what you pay for I guess. These next pics attempt to show the angle of the front axel when compared to the rear axel of the stand. it is hard to tell but there is small when you look at the front axel and how it aligns with the axel in the rear of the frame. I just wanted to make certain that the stand would not wobble with the front wheels removed.
The next step was to find the exact center of the firewall at the front of the fuselage. The idea is that the exact center of the firewall is also where the exact center of the mounting bracket should be located. This ensures that the width and height of the front of the fuselage when mounted on the stand will allow the fuselage to be rotated so that it will clear the bottom square metal frame of the stand. I will have to get my figures posted tomorrow, but I used my flexible 2 foot long metal ruler and a tape measure to find the widest and highest points of the firewall, found the half way point and marked it with a Sharpee on the firewall. I believe those measurements for the half way points were 18 and 1/8 inches wide and 15 and 1/16th inches high I ran the tape measure from end to end to find the widest or highest point of the firewall. As shown in the following pics, it ran through the exact centers of some rivets in the firewall.
Fitting the mounting plate so that it is centered with the center of the firewall ensures even clearance of the fuselage when right side up, upside down, or to either side as needed.
With that out of the way the next step was to start cutting and drilling the holes in the steel angles that will serve as the extended arms that connect the mounting plate to the spider arms on each corner of the firewall. Since 1/2 inch AN bolts seem to fit rather well in the precut slots and holes in the mounting brackets, I decided to drill 1/2 inch holes on both ends of all 4 of the angles as well. This becomes a bit of a challenge when you consider that the 1x1 inch angles are 1/8 inch thick. This means that you only have 7/8 of an inch to drill a 1/2 inch hole.
I also had to ultimately decide where along the flange I would drill each hole. I decided to start with one inch inboard of the end of the angle. The next series of pics shows how I marked and set each angle in the drill press clamp. The drill press did allow me to drill very accurately placed holes in the angle. The clamp and the wood allowed me to secure the angle in the vise and line up my 1/2 inch drill bit.
I should also mention that before all this drilling I cut the angles in half as a starting point. So each angle is currently 24 inches long. I used my sawzall with a metal cutting blade. It made quick work of that. I then used my grinder to remove any sharp burrs on the cut edge. Then, before you start drilling holes, you also have to decide how you wan tot position the angles - with the perpendicular flanges faced outward or inward. from the mounting surfaces. In the pics you can see I chose to have them placed inboard - no real reason, but you have to decide how you want to position them so you know which side to drill the mounting holes for the bolts.
After the first 4 holes were drilled I mounted each angle to the mounting flange of the engine stand for a trial fit.
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