| Jabiru J400 Builder
Log - April 2006
4/30/2006 3-6:51pm
1) finished sanding both wings and bottom strut fairings... unfortunately
i forgot to fill one edge of the wing at the tip and will have to
do that along with a few other nick nacks
2) so i tried sliding the hinge pin on the cowl from the outside
and it seems to have worked...so i will install a hinge pin retainer
on the outside of the cowl like the control surfaces use... in a
way i'm glad that i didn't know it was supposed to go through the
firewall to the door...i saw that method on another builder's site
and it looks like a messy setup as you have to cut through the structure
in two places and probably makes it tough for one person to remove
and reinsert...
4/29/2006 3-8:37pm
1) finished snading the left wing but there's a few spots that need
some more filling such as around the stall warning...it's mostly
done though
4/28/2006 3-5:30pm
1) more wing sanding
4/27/2006 3pm-5:48pm
1) one of the tricks of applying micro seems to be to not add too
many microballoons to me... if you get it just right, the surface
turns glossy after 5 minutes... i think this seems to work well
because it penetrates pores and cracks a bit better and will leave
a smooth finish... but it all depends... on large holes, very dry
micro might be good because of weight...but on shallow fills, a
bit more runny might be good (and it might cover more surface since
you can spread coats better)
2) filled the remaining parts of both wings... all filled...now
i just have to sand it all
4/26/2006 4:09pm-7:57pm
1) trimmed the bottom of the wing that has been finished to remove
extra hard resin from joints
2) filled the bottom of the right wing and the top of the left wing
3) filled the lower wing fairings on the fuselage
4/23/2006 4pm-6:59pm
1) sanded the right wing where i applied the dry micro from a previous
day..didn't seem as bad as i thought it would be... should be done
with all of this sanding within 7 days i hope
4/20/2006 6:30pm-11:18pm
1) sanded some more fill and prepared the wings and the lower strut
fairings for filling... hopefully this will be a one time thing
2) filled in the right wing...all except for 5%...will get to the
remaining tomorrow
4/19/2006 6pm-8:35pm
1) checked the lower strut fairings...they look good so it looks
like i'm finally able to remove the wings for filling and then onto
painting finally!
2) did a bunch of research today on paint...not that today was the
first day on this... after a long attempt to find no voc polyurethane
paint, it doesn't seem like there's any out there that has been
used on aircraft and lasted...polyfiber used to have topgloss and
apparently it bombed and was removed...that's a real pain because
in the spirit of experimental i wanted to do a paint that might
be water dispersible and still look good... mmm...it looks like
i'm back to imron which is seems to be like good stuff and a safe
bet on finishing but evil stuff to use from what i hear...
3) did some sanding of the filled parts from yesterday...
4) removed the wings with the help of Tricia...feeling tired and
so i'll continue with the finishing tomorrow...should be able to
fill the wings tomorrow
4/18/2006 2:24pm-6:18pm
1) sanded the lower strut fairings and prepared them for flocking
2) flocked them onto the fuselage and held it with 6g screws
3) did somemore filling...this time on control surfaces and the
belly of the fuselage
4/17/5pm-11:09pm
1) so i got the lower strut fairings in the mail today
2) assembled these fairings and prefit them to the lower strut around
the fuselage... sanded the fuselage so that i can flock these fairings
on...will do that tomorrow as it took a long time to prefit them
as it is..
4/16/2006 6pm-10:03
1) sanded the trailing edges of the wing where the ailerons rubbed
up against the wing
2) also trimmed the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer for
rudder clearance...both the rudder and the aileron fittings are
really tideous...used a sheet of paper to check for clearance...should
be enough for paint purposes
4/14/2006 3:45pm-6:41pm
1) so i brought a bathroom scale and weighed the plane ... the 3
wheels came to 561.5lbs but the cowl, elevator, rudder, and one
flap, spinner, and prop, muffler, doors are not on... just curious
to see how much room in weight i have to play with... so i have
119.5lbs left for a total empty weight of 682lbs according to the
manufacturer... it's gona be close...might have to chuck some things
but we'll see... if not, all passengers will have to go on a 15
day weight watchers program before each flight...i guess there's
something good out of weighing the aircraft now... it seems that
the muffler is a bit over 5lbs...the elevator is about there...and
so on... the good part is that now i definitely know not to worry
about filling everything flat as the pounds will start to add up
quickly...so a respectable but not perfect job is good..and that
applies to paint...priming it all is probably not necessary as the
manufacturer suggest... i guess the instruments are a big weight
factor especially with my touch screen lcd... and such... will see
what we can do about it when i get there...i think the light fabrics
in upholstry is definitelly a must since that will definitely add
up with such an area... a big reason to buy this kit is that load
and running costs and if the load isn't sufficient for 4 small-medium
sized people than that is a problem...
2) did some sanding on the elevator...looks good..but i need to
readd some micro as it seems i missed some spots...whoops...
3) going home...after much loafing and chatting and dinner time...it's
a friday anyway
4/13/2006 4pm-9:07pm
1) did lots of sanding...the only thing that is ready to be sanded
but didn't finish is the elevator...i think it needs some filling
as i missed a few places
4/12/2006 4pm- 8:55pm
1) more filling of the cowl, rudder, horizontal stabilizer, spinner
with dry micro of course...filling can actually be fun...sanding
is a pain...but that's for tomorrow
4/11/2006 2-5:46pm
1) sanded the door windows and the spat seams...also sanded the
quick drain under the copilot seat
4/10/2006 4:40pm-7pm
1) more filling ..filled the door windows and spats
4/9/2006 4pm-8:31pm
1) more sanding of the tail...i think i'm done with 95% at the tail
now...just need to fill in a few remaining spots...not that big
4/7/2006 4:23pm-12:23am
1) back for more of a beating...
2) so it seems that i've been mixing the aeropoxy a bit off by 5.7%...
the label on the resin says "100 PR2032 resin to 27 hardener"...
it seems that i originally calculated at essentially 27% hardener...
when the percentage should be 27/127 = 21.3% and not 27%... sort
of a bummer but at least i haven't used this stuff on the structural
parts and i'm sure i got that resin mix correct... but then again...
with a resolution of a the scale being 0.1 i'm not sure that it
really makes a a whole lot of difference since the error can be
0.0999 and on small batches of say 1.5oz total epoxy where the hardener
should be 0.3 ...0.05 is a sixth in error which is something like
13% of the hardner or ~4%? total... so is 4% short or 5.7-9% too
much better? it sounds like neither is too good but maybe too much
is the choice since at least it should cure thoroughly..not sure...
at least this is the case for dry micro since i do these small batches..but
then again its aesthetic and not a real big deal... oh well... the
final product seems fine and is damn hard...
3) anyway..did more scrub work of applying dry micro by hand to
the rear left tail section
4) also wasted a lot of time chatting
4/6/2006 7pm-10:19pm
1) so it seems that the hand method of spreading the filler (from
the previous day) is the most accurate... it seems to fill all the
holes nicely and leave a nice finish after sanding that is ready
for painting... it is also somewhat easy to tell where the bumps
and the depressions when doing this method so i will continue...it
seems that the rear right side of the fuselage and tail is ready
for paint... lots of sanding today and it left a nice smooth surface...certainly
respectable but we'll see when the glossy paint goes on..
4/5/2006 7:00pm-10:34pm
1) more sanding and more filling... i have a hard time smoothening
the micro on so i tried by hand.... maybe using a commercial filler
is the way to go...but since i started with micro i'd like to stay
with it... so i'll do the best job with the hand method and call
it a day...if it comes out real bad maybe one day down the road
i'll fix it...but as long as it's not a performance problem or real
ugly i'll keep it that way... we'll see.. i hope it comes out respectable
4/4/2006 3pm-10:08pm
1) after lots of sanding and filling i realized that hand sanding
is really the best way to smoothen everything... it seems that theres
some ripples in some seams and to smoothen them out straight would
be a bit tough and probably require a lot of filling..so i'll go
lean instead
4/2/2006 3:30-9:23pm
1) more sanding and filling... on my second fill...apparently i
didn't do it in a way that one fill did the job apparently...
4/1/2006 3:14pm-8:21pm
1) some more filling and sanding...yippy ;(
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