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!

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Buying Metals

A question came up recently about where I source my metals. There's no easy answer to that. Metal prices vary widely between vendors, and prices can change significantly with market fluctuations. I've ordered/purchased materials from just about everywhere, but my usual locations are Zenith Aircraft (they sell raw materials directly to scratch-builders, unlike some other kit manufacturers), Aircraft Spruce & Specialty, Wick's Aircraft, Alro Steel (locally), Amazon and even eBay.

The major surprise was Amazon.com. Lots of materials vendors on Amazon have random cut-offs of materials that are perfect for some of the smaller quantities I needed in the plane. I ordered everything from .090", .125", .1875", .250" and .500" in 6061-T6 aluminum in the small quantities at very reasonable rates with free shipping on most of them. Because I have an Amazon Prime account, I got free 2-day shipping on a lot of it. I can also order the 4130 chrome-moly steel I need from Amazon in some cases, though the prices are not as competitive as with the cut-offs of aluminum.

Anyway, it pays to shop around. Make sure you're getting competitive prices, do your research and don't forget to have them "roll for shipping" the larger 4'x12' sheets of aluminum up to .032" thick. You can even negotiate prices with some of the local dealers. Here's video where I talk about sourcing metals:


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