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AN Confessions of An Airplane Nut Part 9 – Perspective It has been said, (no doubt by the infamous “they”) that life is all a matter of perspective. What may at first seem a bad thing may be a good thing seen from the right perspective and vice versa. For instance, if as a child I knew that I would get to learn how to fly but not until I reached the ripe old age of 56, the wait would have been unbearable. The same series of events, seen from the perspective of a 57 year old, now appears to be a logical progression that led up to the magical moment when Bill Gross signed off on my license. Not answered is the ultimate question of “why” I was permitted to do this great thing now instead of earlier or “why” I was allowed to do it at all. But then we never get to see our lives from God’s perspective so we just have to trust that there really is a plan behind it and it is a good one. The Pietenpol project has been a long series of varying perspectives. When I first got the idea and broached it to my wife, it was with a feeling of, “ I wonder if I really can?” That changed a little when she said (more or less), “Go for it.” Then came a period of intense research at the beginning of which I knew basically nothing and at the end of which I became a kind of “know it all” if you know what I mean. It’s kind of like that period called the teenage years when we all “knew it all” and later found out we really didn’t. Same here! The further I go in this project the more I know I didn’t know about the stuff I need to know, you know? But, hey!, learning this stuff is one of the major reasons I got into this project in the first place. And, now that the woodworking part is nearly done, I have the perspective of looking back and seeing how it all came (or is coming) together. I have quite a bit of past experience in working with wood so I expected a wood and fabric airplane to be a fairly logical extension of that skill set. This turned out to be true but even the woodworking part involved learning some new skills. I kept putting off starting on the metal parts. I knew virtually nothing of working with metal and I own almost no tools designed for metal working. As I explained in an earlier chapter, I kind of sidestepped this metal thing by finding a source for ready made parts; several sources in fact. I purchased and installed quite a few weird metal shapes that I had no real investment in other than money. Let me tell you, there is a definite lack of satisfaction in just bolting together somebody else’s work and that’s a new perspective I wasn’t really planning on. Consequently, I decided to jump in and try a few parts for myself. To start I purchased a 24” x 18” sheet of 20 gauge 4130 chrome moly steel from Aircraft Spruce and Specialty, The first parts needed are basically just flat strips of steel with a few holes drilled in them, so… How do you rip a sheet of steel into uniform 1” widths? The fast, simple ways are with a metal shear, a water jet, a laser cutter, or a metal cutting band saw. I have none of those tools but I do have an old Black and Decker jigsaw and the hardware store sells “metal cutting” blades that fit it. Well Glory Be, it works! The speed of cutting through metal is considerably less than through wood but that turns out to be a good thing as it is easier to cut a straight line at slower speeds. Ear protection is a definite must when using this method, however. Also required is a long pair of pants to ward off the hot chips. Patience is useful here as well and is a virtue for this job. Once the strips were cut to length, all four corners needed to be rounded to a ½” radius. This reduces the overall weight and helps to relieve “stress risers” which are places at which the metal might develop cracks over time. For the same reason the sides of each piece should be rounded and any nicks taken out. Believe it or not, I already had the perfect tools for this process, my trusty hacksaw and a sharp, new mill bastard file. I can’t even say the name of that file without being transported back to shop class in high school. I think that all boys that age have a (healthy?) appreciation for bathroom humor which includes “nasty” words of all kinds. “Oh, I can’t use that bastard, etc, etc,” Once again I have digressed, - sorry. I clamped each of those metal strips in my vice and proceeded to true up the sides and then round them off. During this process several words went through my mind such as: tedious, boring, repetitive, tiring, etc. But then I started to notice that there was a real “feel” to shaping metal by hand. It began to be very satisfying when the file dug smoothly into the metal surface and precisely removed an almost invisible shaving. This was very much like working with wood when you get to that last fine grade of sandpaper and run your hand over the resulting silky smooth texture. It’s a very sensual feeling, certainly not one I expected to feel with metal. Sure, I ended up with a couple of small blisters from the file handle but nothing to complain about. More importantly, once more I was getting that feeling of satisfaction from knowing that here is another skill that I can learn with practice. I carefully measured the necessary hole locations on the first piece, center punched them to center the drill, fitted a new, sharp drill bit into my trusty DeWalt cordless drill, and set about punching holes. I quickly found out that the faster speeds available with my corded drill were necessary for this job and so made that switch. I then used the first piece to guide the holes in the remaining 15 plates. A drill press would have simplified this part of the job but it turned out to not really be necessary. A quick deburr on all the holes and the parts are ready for primer. I hung the parts in my well ventilated spray booth, (i.e. a tree branch right outside my shop door,) and gave them a couple coats of zinc oxide. That was fun! What’s next? A couple of the purchased parts required some welding which is something that the old Black and Decker jigsaw just won’t do. SO, another new perspective - you can’t always do it all yourself. Ed Jones, one of the elder statesmen of our EAA chapter, told me earlier that he would be glad to help me out. After a quick phone call I gathered up the parts and headed over to Ed’s well equipped shop. He spent about 45 minutes showing me how to get the parts all welded up and then another two hours or so showing me how to use some things in his shop that should be very useful later. Things such as a variety of shaped hammers, a big sand bag, and a large hardwood knob. These are used in shaping sheet metal as is the English Wheel and pneumatic hammer rig. How about “machine turning” which is how you get those beautiful swirl patterns in flat or curved metal sheet. I can just picture that on my engine cowling. Oh Boy! My current perspective is from the inside looking out. I can see where I started and have a pretty good idea where I’m headed. I wonder what it will look like by this time next year? Tom Stinemetze The Airplane Nut ____ | ____
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