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, December 8, 2018

Shop Updates

Friends, 

I'll have some new videos coming out soon, but I can't seem to gain any traction on video editing when I have other actual things to do on the Zenith, the Cessna and my home. Case in point, the shop is continually evolving in terms of fabrication capability. For a while now, I've wanted a press brake kit from Swag Off Road. They make a fantastic finger brake kit that works with the 12- and 20-ton Harbor Freight hydraulic H-frame presses. Shortly after I bought my 20-ton version in mid-2017, I ordered the Swag Off Road machined bottle jack knob, which eliminated the need to use the jack handle to release the valve. It's a great upgrade and rather cheap. I then added an air-over-hydraulic jack, because manually pumping that press is awful.

Later in 2017, I took advantage of Swag Off Road's one and only sale, Cyber Monday, to order their upgraded arbor plates. Harbor Freight ships both the 12-ton and 20-ton presses with the same weak arbor plates. The 20-ton press can grenade the plates under full load, and some people have gotten hurt. The Swag Off Road arbor plates are a welcome addition to the press.

For this year's (2018) Cyber Monday sale, I finally snagged the Swag Off Road 20-ton heavy duty finger press brake kit and got it tacked up:


I'm only running a 110 circuit for my TIG welder, so even at full amperage I'm struggling to get this thicker stuff stitched together. Fortunately, full penetration welds are not required, so I'm getting by. Here, you can see the press brake in position atop the upgraded arbor plates, with the machined knob on the bottle jack valve:


Lastly, I've been working for a few weeks trying to get the wobble out of my drill press chuck. When the drill is running, you can visibly watch the chuck wobble pretty badly. I was measuring up to .040" run-out, which is terrible. The drill eggs out my holes and just won't drill squarely. I break a lot of bits drilling steel now, and just can't get everything squared up. First, I tried a new chuck that fits the MT2 spindle. It's a lot heavier, but is nicely made and very solid. It did nothing to fix the wobble. 

Next, I added new bearings. Still no dice. I used the shop press for the bearings and to seat the chuck, so I know it's on squarely (assuming the spindle is within spec). I can only surmise that either the spindle is flexing during operation (certainly possible...it's pretty small in diameter) or it is bent slightly. I'll probably order a new spindle (a lot of the original parts for this press aren't available anymore, but SearsPartsDirect.com does have the spindles). I've had this press for years, and I've asked an awful lot of it. It's slated for replacement with a floor-standing model, but I haven't found one in stock locally, and I'm not dropping $125 on freight charges.


Anyway, I'll do another update once the press kit is fully welded and I have the new drill press. However, the next updates will have to do with the Zenith project and not just shop woes!

Cheers!