About The Project:

The airplane is a home-built, scratch-built Zenith CH 750 STOL. Building from plans/blueprints is a challenging way to build an airplane, since most of the parts you use to build it are not prefabricated. I chose the Zenith CH 750 STOL for its rugged design, its STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) characteristics and its aluminum construction. Zenith Aircraft Company has designed this airplane so that it can be built from scratch or from a kit by the average person. They provide excellent technical support for both kit and scratch builders. In addition, I'll be installing a 1965 Chevrolet Corvair 164 cid horizontally opposed, air cooled, 6-cylinder engine, with special conversion parts to make it suitable for airplane duty. This is what the airplane will look like when I'm done, although I'll have a different paint scheme:

Follow my progress below!

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Everything in .040" is done!

It's amazing how much productivity you can muster once you have the right tools! Now that the bending brake is fixed and working properly, I really went to town on the .040" parts. All of the parts in that thickness are now made. I acquired a 20-ton shop press to do various things (in addition to working on the plane), and it sure made flanging the lightening holes in this batch of parts much easier. I've put in at least an hour every single day for the past 9 days on this project...really knocked out a lot of progress. About a total of 25 hours of work in that 9 days, and I plan to do more today and tomorrow. Here are a few photos of the parts I made:

Firewall Center Stiffener, Rear Seat Support (sliding seat option) , Dual Stick Gussets & Hinge Plates, Horiz Tail Attach Gussets, Inboard Seat Belt Brackets:

Seat Channel, Firewall Side Stiffeners, Firewall Channels & Covers:

Landing Gear Channel, Firewall Rear Reinforcement, Pedal Bearing Channel, Nose Gear Gussets:

At this point in the game, I have nearly everything made in .016"/.020"/.025"/.040"/.090"/.125", except the skins. I only have yet to make about ten parts in .032" and thirty-eight in .063." Once those are done, the only other parts left are the welded steel structures, the welds for the fuel tanks, the Nyloil bearing parts and a few little odds and ends. I also nearly have the skeletons completed for the flaperons.

Now that parts fabrication is nearing completion, we'll start to see some major visual progress on the actual structures of the plane. Once the flaperons are done, I'm going to start on the elevator and the horizontal stabilizer. After that, it'll be on to the wings. The wings & fuselage take a very long time to complete, plus I'll need to detour into the welding & steel structures. Some of that fabrication will take a good bit of time. But my plan is to do the wings before I have to do any of the major welding, except for the fuel tanks. We'll see how the plan goes, or if I end up doing something completely different.

Cheers!
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