·:[ Darryl's Coot Building Journal ]:·
• • • • •

[1 hour] I played around with the power gear mechanisms a bit. It seems that the piece shown on drawing 622-2, note 2 (perhaps this is the sprocket actuator), was not made with a small enough diameter bore. It causes the mechanism to hang. That will have to be fixed. Also, the surface that goes in the sprocket groove is not perfectly flat, which contributes to binding.

I disassembled all 4130 parts for sand blasting. (I picked up some sand the other day.)

[2.5 hours] Previously I mentioned that I was completely cleaning up the tape on one side of each bulkhead for fitting the new webbing of each bulkhead. Today, I painstakingly removed the second side at several bulkheads. I believe I have every bulkhead completely cleaned of old tape, except station 96. Station 96 will require a bit of work still.

There is still much prep work to do on the interior of the hull.

I have started removing the FG tape from the keelson. It seems that the previous builder got no adhesion between the tape and the underlying wood!?! I may need to replace the wood itself, although I haven’t inspected the wood carefully.

Work and play have conspired to keep me away from my Coot. I have the roof of my shop extension nearly completed now. I have also done a little more badly needed cleaning and reorganization of the shop.

I met Russ, a Coot builder (or soon to be builder) from N. Seattle the other day. He stopped by to claim the wing tanks I was giving away, and we spent a couple of very pleasant hours talking Coots. If anyone out there has a Coot hull for sale, Russ may be interested.

I will be out of town for much of next week, so posting will be light. I’ll take along plenty of Coot-related material with me.

I purchased plywood, foam and 2×4s for building a “squaring cradle” for my hull. Right now, I have a cradle (on casters) that is supportive enough to allow me to step into the empty hull between station 80 and 96 and move around a little (the sponsons are supported by saw horses). But, I need a better frame for final squaring-up of the hull and fitting of bulkheads.

I am also waiting on an order of fiberglassing supplies and spruce (for station 127) Aircraft Spruce.

Almost evey time I mix up a batch of T88 epoxy, I make a pair of pull-test pieces. One of each pair gets tested during construction. The other pair is available in case the FAA cares to replicate the test. In any case, here are the results of the pull tests for the bulkhead construction to date.

[3 hours] Today was mostly about working on the re-roofing project and then doing some yard and shop clean-up. For some reason, though, I got a urge to play with the landing gear motor. It turns out to be an old AMC motor—probably a tailgate window motor.

The markings on the motor are:

12-8-73
American
Mo 721148A
12 volt
65SPM5H302

The motor worked like a charm. I cleaned the old grease out of the gear case and re-greased it. The body of the motor was covered in rubber, and there were well-developed rust bubbles under the rubber. So, I pulled the rubber off, sanded and wire-brushed the case, and then chemically treated the exterior with a rust converter. The motor is now ready to be painted. I also cleaned up the mount a bit.

I also disassembled the 622-2 powered gear lead screw assembly. It turns out that the sproket was rusted to the -4 tube, and I needed to use a large gear puller to free it. I cleaned up the parts, but I may remake the -4 tube from stainless steel, since this piece cannot be painted.

I noticed, one again, that the previous builder was very sloppy with using proper bolts. There are many bolts that are the wrong length, have a drilled shaft, etc. I need to get an SS pin (just under 1/4 inch) that acts to lock the sprocket into the lead screw. The previous owner is using a bolt for the purpose.

Here is a picture of stuff:

I still need to sandblast and repaint some rusty pieces (e.g. the two brackets), but I am out of sandblasting sand at the moment.

Oh, and before someone asks, I am planning on going with the stock electric-motor operated landing gear. I realize that there are some substantial advantages to going with hydraulic. Even so, I have all the parts for the electric system, so that I will first give that a try. If I find it unsatisfactory, I will move to another system. I think a conversion from electric to hydraulic is not that difficult.

[1 hour] I started shaping the sides of station 7 to the hull today. I really helps to have the old nose box to work with. Still more work to to in the trimming of the sides—better to work slowly than to take too much off!

[2.5 hours] I cut out the web for station 127 today. I cut it slightly oversized and spent quite awhile trimming the lower contour to the hull. The most time consuming thing was cleaning up the old tape and resin to ensure no interference.

Most of my work day on Sunday went to re-roofing a tool shed. I built the unattached 120 sq ft shed almost exactly 4 years ago. It is set against the garage door to my workshop, which extends the length of the shop by 12 feet when the garage door is opened.

Unfortunately, the down-spout above the flat roof occasionally gets clogged with leaves and it dumps water on the roof. It was only a matter of time before leaks started. I am about half-way through with the job.

[3.5 hours] I did the final fitting of bulkheads at stations 168 and 148. As part of this, I cleaned up the remaining old fiberglass tape from the two stations.

I also finished cleaning up the old station 127 bulkhead, removed all old hardware, flattened all the old staples, and used it to draw a template onto the marine plywood for a new station 127. Did additional layout work for the bulkhead.

[1 hour] I’ll only claim one hour of work today, but I did much more.

In doing my spruce inventory, I discovered that I had plenty of 1.25″ by 0.75″ spruce. Unfortunately, it was chopped up into 2 foot and 3 foot sections. I believe I ordered enough of this stuff to make station 127, but I may have forgotten to specify that I needed long pieces. In any case, I took about 12 feet of the 1.25″ x 0.75″ and chopped it down on the jointer to 1″ x 0.5″ Now I have all the spruce and plywood to finish the nose box.

I did a little more prep on the old station 127 in order to use it as a pattern for the new station 127.

I borrowed a friend’s pick-up truck and went into Seattle to the “Home Building Center” to get some more marine ply wood (Okume). I got 2 sheets of 1/8″ and 1 sheet of 1/4″. This should get me through the project. The 1/8″ stuff is slightly thicker than 1/8″ because it is a metric size (3 mm?).

[2 hours] I spent some time cleaning up the old station 127—removing old tape, getting rid of the spiders, etc. I went to my spruce stock to pick out the pieces needed to build the frame, and discovered that I don’t have the spruce for the 1.25″ x 3/4″ frame members. Darn! I thought I had all the spruce I needed. So, I did an inventory of what I need and what I have.

Besides the station 127 pieces, I also short on the 1″ x 1/2″ spruce for finishing the nosebox. I guess I place an order for the spruce I need today. I do have most of what I need for station 96, so that may be next in line.

What I do need to get for stations 96 and 127 is more plywood. It is available locally, and I should be able to pick some up on Thursday.

I stopped by a West Marine store today for the first time. Wow! This is a chain of do-it-yourself boat-building/repair/outfitting stores that have all kinds of great stuff for the Coot builder. The store is only a few miles from home and right on my way to work.

[2.5 hours] Finished the station 14 bulkhead. Here are photos of the front side of the completed bulkhead. (Click on photo for a larger image.)

Unfortunately, I made a mistake in placing the 1″ x 1/2″ notches in the uprights. I placed ‘em an inch too low (D’oh!). I repaired the error by gluing in a block of spruce after cutting the notches in the correct spots. The error will not be a problem because, in the completed nosebox, 5 of the 6 faces of the block will be glued to spruce.

Still to do on installation: (1) taper the side supports near the bottom to fit the taper of the hull (notice that the front webbing is cut approximately to the final size), and (2) trim the excess lengths at the bottom.

And here is an updated view of the nosebox.

Of course, there is much to do before the nosebox is completed, including final fitting of each bulkhead to the hull..