Heat in the Garage
Well after a two month hiatus due to bitter cold temperatures, my workshop has received an upgrade. We have run a fresh line for power and installed a mini split in the garage. Now my garage is not 100% insulated as the outer walls are not shared to living space, so I had to insulate whatever I could. I insulated the ceiling space, front doors, and cleaned up the weather stripping to insure I am as tight as I can be without drilling into the walls. After that was done, my HVAC friend came by and installed our new mini split. I am not expecting 75 degrees in the winter, but keeping the room above 60 makes it comfortable to work out there and not be freezing. I gave it a quick test the other day and I am quite happy so far. It will also be nice in the summer if its scorching as I can cool the garage as well. Back to work now!
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| Let there be heat.... |
Christmas Tool and Workshop Additions
In other news, Christmas came and I added some new tools to the collection. I know there are plenty of tools and parts that I will purchase over the life of my build, so I have started to compile a list of everything I will need over time. I am starting with some basic tools and will buy some parts as I approach needing them. However, my family has come through and picked up some basic tools for Christmas. I now am a proud owner of a soldering iron, label maker, 12" offset back rivet set, and some extra countersink cages. These will all be quite useful and helpful as my build continues. I am going to continue updating my list of things and hope that my future birthdays and Christmas' will help lighten the hit to my wallet.
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| My Wife's Christmas Gift to Me. |
One thing that I was super excited about was a surprise gift from my lovely wife. We all know that the spouses will either make or break any home build, but mine has been amazing. From the minute I asked to do it, she has been supportive and willing to help anytime I need. Now, I haven't had to have her crawl into the tail cone yet, but I think she will do so without issue. She purchased me a sign for the workshop that I cannot express my gratitude. I am so happy and have mounted it on the wall right above my workbenches.
Building Resumes....
I've continued to build on the rudder section. I began where we left off with match drilling the entire rudder skins and substructure. I have now disassembled and labeled the skins. I got to break out a new tool and play with that tonight. The new tool is the Cleaveland Edge Forming Tool. I broke it out of its plastic finally and played with it on the scrap pieces I have. The directions were not very detailed, it only said don't over do it, but the website for Cleaveland had a short video describing how to adjust and do it. I still am not overly thrilled by the video, but it is good enough. The real question is trying to determine how much is overdoing it. I might reach out to my tech advisor to discuss this briefly before doing it. So thats where we will continue next, edge forming and deburring for priming.
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| Rudder structure all built and match drilled... Time to take it apart now... |
