Chapter 5: Fuse Sides

December 7th, 2002

I started building the jigs (as detailed in the plans) and everything went fairly smoothly until I tried to locate
some masonite.  Menards was out and Home Depot was out, but they could have some in 3 weeks though!
I really wanted to get the jigs built so that I could work on the Cozy over my Christmas break.

I decide to solve the problem by using 1/8" fiberboard instead of masonite.  I also decide to use the
short sheet-metal screw concept to hold the foam in place, instead of the plans epoxy method.
I really need to find out where I read this idea, so that I can give that Cozy Builder credit.
(Hint: If it was you, send me an email and I promise to give you credit!)

December 22nd, 2003

After temporarily screwing the forms to my extended, leveled, and braced work-table, I laminated the
upper longerons and put the nails into the table to hold them against forms. 

Jackie and David look on in barely contained excitement and suspense!

Despite Jackie and David's nervousness, the Upper Longerons come out great.

I was really working hard to get things done before Christmas, since David had other plans for me over
Christmas:

David wanted an aviation themed room for Christmas, so this took a few of the days over my
break.  If you look closely at the hanger on the wall, you'll see a Cozy MKIV in the lower right of the
hanger.

The P-38 and Corsair were Xtreme-Detail Models from Toys-R-Us...now if only I could find a Cozy Model!

January 20th, 2003

Now that the room decorating and painting is done, I can get back to 'Building Cozy Pieces' as David says.

To start, I transform the Longeron jigs into a pair of Bunny-slope Ski-Ramps using the fiber-board I bought
to replace the unobtainable masonite.  I also go ahead and drill holes along the outer edge of the fiber-board
so that I can sheet-metal screw the blue foam in place. The was more setup time than the plans method, but I
should get some of the time back at the end of this chapter.

I also setup a jig to cut the various angles of the 0.75" foam.  I ended up doing a little Trigonometry to get the
angles set correctly on the bandsaw.  For those that might be interested, the angles (from the horizontal) are:

Cross Section AA:    35-Degrees
Cross Section BB:    33-Degrees
Cross Section CC:    34-Degrees
Lower Longeron:        17.5-Degrees

Using the above angles, I was able to cut nicely shaped edge pieces.

While installing, I decided to forgo the nails through foam plans method and use clamps instead.  I was careful
to spread the force of the clamps using wooden shims.  I also discovered that I need more clamps!

February 22nd, 2003

After microing the 0.75" foam down and after cure, I discover that some micro squeezed out into the
electrical duct.  I'm going to have to remove it, but how?  If I use sand-paper, I'll be very likely to gouge the
foam (or worse!) I decide to try a grinding stone on the Dremel; it works well, but you have to have a steady
hand!

March and April, 2003

For some reason I didn't take any pictures of the layups in March and most of April.  I ran into a few
problems with the 2-layers of UNI, mostly bubbles and a couple of joggles.  I think the bubbles came about
due to low temperatures,  I heated up the shop for a few hours with the heater (to just short of 80 degrees!),
but I may have been impatient to start the layup.  Most of the bubbles were under 1/4", but I decided to fix
them anyway.

Another cause for the edge bubbles (ones near the 0.75" foam) is likely the 'tugging' of the UNI cloth
between the Fuselages Sides.  In hindsight, I should have cut the UNI in two between each Fuselage
Side after wetting out.  This could have prevented some of the lifting I observed.

I also had a small bubble problem (about 1" in size) on the 4-layer UNI layup on the Upper
Longerons.  This I plan to fill with epoxy using a children's medical syringe (from Dominicks).

I also decided to keep the 'natural weave' for the inside of the Fuselage-Sides.  I think this was a mistake.
The inside weave is not as uniform as I would like.  I think I would have been happier if I had peel-ply'd the
whole inside.

April 27th, 2003

I'm finally onto the lower longerons, and looking at the plans, I'm not too fond of all the drill holes that I
would need to make into the lower longeron and the foam to complete this step.  Now, the only reason
I can't clamp the lower longeron in place is due to its triangular shape.  If I can make a small triangular
tab to match the shape of the triangular longeron, I should be able to clamp it in place with my hand
clamps.  So, I spent a few minutes with the bandsaw and made about 16 small tabs as pictured
below.

This tab-clamp approach worked really well.  No nail holes!  The only problem?  I ran out of clamps again!

April 29th, 2003

After the lower longerons were cured, attaching the doublers was only a matter of more clamps!

May 4th, 2003

I'm getting close to the end and I can feel it!  I roughed out the electrical duct foam forms and packing taped
them to a handy piece of 2'x2'.  I also put some 4-mil plastic over the forms and found that the glass did not
want to stay put.  I quickly grabbed some scrap foam and wedged the glass (on top of the 4-mil plastic so
it wouldn't get stuck) to the forms and then weighed the assembly down.  I pushed the scrap foam hard
against the forms with the weights on to hold them in place.

May 5th, 2003

I had so much good luck with the clamps (instead of nails) on the lower longeron, I decide to do the same
with LWX and LWY.  I used weights for the interior parts of LWX and LWY where a clamp wouldn't reach.

May 7th, 2003

Looking at the Electrical Duct and the 0.75" foam, I decide to make it one piece and cut the channel out using
a hack-saw blade (as I did with the lower portion of the electrical duct.)  This turned out to be much easier than
I thought it would be, so I decided to go ahead and contour the foam to accept the electrical duct forms
(and hence the final 1-ply BID duct).

After sanding, the whole assembly is ready to micro in place.