Good News

My fix for my leaky tank worked! The balloon has been inflated for well over a week!

Broken Kobalt Air Compressor

The other day I turned on my Kobalt air compressor (purchased from Lowes), and it was making an odd sound. It was still working, but it just sounded strange. I turned it off, and noticed that the "key" was sticking out of the pulley and motor shaft. After I removed it, this is what I found.

Basically the motor is trash, as well as the pulley as the keyway is no long a nice square shape, but some other geometrical oddity. I grabbed the manual and I have a 3 year warranty. Great I thought. I called the 800 number, and they were closed. I called the next day, and person I spoke to said that the damage wasn't under warranty, but I told them it was workmanship that caused this issue. They didn't tighten down the set screw to hold the key in place. They said it was my responsibly to tighten everything when installing the compressor. I looked in the manual and no where does it say that. To even tighten down the set screw you'd have to actually take apart some other parts of the air compressor. I asked them why do they even assemble it in the first place. They didn't have a good answer for that. However, they were more than willing to *SELL* me new parts at the tune of $400 bucks. Uh no thank you.

In my manual it says the compressor is warranted by ABAC/American IMC. But the place I called said they were "Nu Air USA" at 866-242-4298. Wait a minute, I have a Kobalt compressor I bought from Lowes. Who are these people? This doesn't make sense. A search for ABAC basically came up with nothing. But I did find out their address 1623 Cedar Line Drive, Rock Hill, South Carolina. when I searched for that address I found NU Air USA's website: http://www.nuair.it/portal/ Their USA office has an email address of custormer.service@nuairusa.com Going to that website, www.nuairusa.com , its a parked domain. What a joke.

So, the moral of the story. It appears that compressors at Lowes and compressors with the Kobalt name are complete junk. The warranty is non-existent and the workmanship is a shoddy. Would I every buy another compressor from Lowes, or the other big-box stores? No Way.

Fixing the leak

I received my order of parts needed to fix install a new inspection cover. The reason I cut a 5" hole, was that it would be a perfect size to use the same parts that are used on the other inspection hole on the fuel tank. The reinforcement ring will ensure this area is as strong as before, plus it makes the spacing of the platenuts really simple since the holes are already laid out.

For the most part, my approach is overkill. Vans says you can just cut the hole, and then use blind rivets (pop rivets) to rivet any extra piece of aluminum over the hole. I figure if I have to cut a hole in the tank, I might as well make it removable in case I ever need to get in there again.


I clamped the ring in place and used it as a drilling guide.


The end result is a set of perfectly spaced holes


Now, to get the ring inside the tank I had to cut it into two pieces.



Here is a shot from inside the tank, after the ring has been riveted in.


I then mixed up the sealant, and completely covered the area where the leak was. I didn't take any pictures of this part, since my hands were covered in sealant. Once I was happy with the ridiculous amount of sealant I used to fix the leak, I installed the cover plate. I'll be pressure testing it in a few days.... I've got my fingers crossed. You should too.

Giant Hole

I bought a 5" hole saw from harbor freight for 5 bucks and put it to work. I cut a hole in the rear baffle. This will give me plenty of access to fix the leak. The bottom right area of the hole there is a green arrow, which is where the leak is located.



I found the leak right away, you can see it here, its the black spot. I suspect there was a small air bubble in the sealant that cause the leak.

Leaky Tank

I finally got around to finishing the right fuel tank and to pressure test it. I noticed that this tank lost a lot of pressure almost immediately. I checked the usual suspects, the fuel cap, the balloon itself, the fittings. Nothing appeared to be leaking. So i started spraying down soapy water, and I found the leak.

To attempt to fix it, I hooked my vacuum cleaner up to the tank, and then applied sealant from the outside of the tank. The ideas is that the sealant will get sucked into the hole. If that doesn't work, I'll end up cutting a hole in the tank, fixing the leak, and then installing an "access" cover over the hole. It sounds worse than it will be. I may even do it for good measure - I'd rather fix it correctly now, rather to have to deal with it after the plane is flying.

Update - 2/18/09 - The fix did not work. I'll be cutting a hole into the tank to fix the leak. It shouldn't be a big deal.

Fitting the fuel tank

The leading edge/fuel tank seam isn't perfect. I ended up drilling out some rivets and installing a shim under the leading edge skin. This will help make the two pieces of metal line up so that there are no gaps. I believe this picture was before the shim. You can see the gap above and below the screw.



The tank is installed - its now starting to look like a real wing! The tank needs to be cleaned since it still has a residue of sealant on the outside.

Time to assemble

I masked off the spar flange so that I can prime it. I've already used alodine to help with corrosion, but I figure a little extra insurance can't hurt.


Here is how it turned out after the primer dried.


Now the leading edge gets cleco'd on ready for riveting.



As a test fit, I installed the tie down loop to see how it would fit. The Grant's did a great job in fabricating the bracket inside the wing.


Inside, I used MSP-4-2 through 4-4 rivets I pulled them from the inside to get the tightest fit. It was pretty hard to do these, but I think the results were worth it. No gaps between the rib and the spar.



All the cleco's are gone, and it's permanently attached.


All, were done, except for this one rivet. I couldn't fit any of my squeezer in there, or bucking bars. I ended up getting a piece of steel and sanding it down so that it could fit in that space.

Problem Rivet

Landing Lights - Part 4

The next step is to drill the holes for the screws that will hold the lens in place. I used the bracket that is taped to the inside of the lens as template. You'll see below.


Here are the drilled holes. They need to be enlaged, and dimpled for the screws.


I put tape on the lens so that I was able to pull it into place and drill the Plexiglas. I used blue painters tape for the other wing. This tape shown below left all kinds of sticky residue on the lens and was a huge pain to get off.


Next the metal brackets get taped to the lens using double sided tape. The tape is just to hold them into place while the screws are installed. The screws then pull the metal plate against the lens and against the skin.


Last is to install the weatherstripping to make a nice tight fit.


The final product. I'm really happy with the results.

Landing Lights - Part 3

Here is the landing light and bracket. It gets installed into the platenuts that were installed in the 2nd part.





The lights are HID, and have a ballast (grey metal box) and an igniter in the small black box. I'm going to mount the ballast on the back side of the bracket.



I've mounted the ballast and zip-tied everything together.


Here is the other side, now with the three screws holding all the mess on the other side.

Landing Lights - Part 2

Supplied is a template for the platenuts that hold the lamp inside the wing.

Landing Lights - Part 1

I'm going to cut a huge hole into my beautiful wing... I hope this works.


No turning back now.



One corner has been sanded smooth.


The hole is finished and sanded.

Helper

Mason was down in the basement and wanted to help. I had him scuff up the skins to get them ready for priming.

Dimpling Skins

I built a small table ontop of the main table. This helped a ton a dimpling the skins, as it kept it at just the right height.

Neat Trick

Here is a neat trick to remove that annoying plastic. I just used a scrap piece of PCV piping. You'd be really surprised how much plastic there are on all the skins. the pipe is a lot thicker now with all the plastic on it.

Skin Prep work

I managed to hit my thumb with the hammer. It really freaking hurt too.





Here i'm dimpling the inspection cover holes.

So much countersinking I'm sick of it...

I countersunk all of the holes for the sinks.


There are a TON of them. I went through at least 8 charge cycles on my cordless drill.

Back to work

Now that the holiday's are over, we spend some time deburring all the ribs.


Kelsee is a pro at this now. She can even do it with a cat on her lap.