Step 9.5 Flipping the canoe

In the last posting I was just finished with the lower half of the fuselage's exterior.  Since the fuselage is upside down on the saw horses, and since it somewhat resembles a canoe, the RV builder's community refers to this milestone in the aircraft's construction as "Flipping the Canoe."

At this point I have a choice on how to proceed.  I can flip the canoe over on to the saw horses and be done with it, or I can build a giant rotisserie to hold the fuselage at any angle -- flipped or not.  Those of you who know me, or who have at least read the previous posting, will understand that I am not one to take the simple road if a more complex solution exists.

And so, rotisserie it is!  Here is the basic frame.  The frame rests on neoprene leveling feet that really grab the floor.

The most difficult aspect of the rotisserie are the bearings.  I am far too impatient to order bearings and then wait for them to be shipped. Paradoxically, I am not at all opposed to spending endless hours fiddling with some home-made contraption.  Luckily, this time out, my first attempt came out really well.  I found two pipes in the steel dealer's cut-offs pile that would nest fairly well.  When I got home I found that there was about 60 thousandths slop between them.  I found a piece of .025" aluminum in my scrap bin and rolled it up and gently persuaded it into the pipe with a mallet.  That leaves about 10 thousandths slop.  If I were building a space shuttle, I guess I would have tried for 5 thousandths.

The aluminum doesn't go all the way around.  I left a small gap where the pipe's welded seam goes through. The thickness of the aluminum is just about the same height as the seam so what remains is a nice bearing surface for the inside pipe to ride on.  With a little grease it turns freely and with a very pleasant silky smoothness too.

With the bearing problem solved, the next step is painting it so as not to offend my aesthetic sensibilities.

Out of the paint booth and ready to attach to the fuselage.

And here it goes.  The fuselage turns over like the Poseidon Adventure in reverse.

I'm still working out a brake like device that will allow me to position the fuselage securely at any angle.  Until then, I've just drilled a hole through the axle assembly to permit me to pin it in the horizontal position.

The canoe is flipped.  Now, what's in the fridge?  Hmm.  Something in the upper left, I think.