The videos on this site are a pretty good reference for how to work with aircraft electrical wiring:
Wiring videos
September 5th, 2008New crimper
September 2nd, 2008I bought this Daniels AFM8 crimper on eBay last week. This is the same tool used by pro avionics shops to make wiring harnesses. Including the extra positioners, it would have cost more than four hundred bucks new, but I got it for just over a hundred. How can I afford not to save that much?!
Okay, it's possible that I may have a tool addiction.
It does a great job of crimping the little machined pins used in D-sub connectors, though.
Power wires
August 27th, 2008I received the terminal I needed to finish up the main bus power wire. Since the wire is captive in the panel, I had to crimp it in situ. I used a big wooden clamp as a sort of makeshift vise to hold the crimper while I bore down on the wrench.
The #6 wire for bus 1 and the #10 wire for bus 2 are both terminated and covered by rubber boots. Also, I love my shrink tube label maker.
Bus 2's power wire parallels the bigger wire for bus 1. They will eventually be tie-wrapped together (along with probably a bunch of other wires) but for now are loosely held together with masking tape.
Through the firewall and down the engine mount to the 30 amp current limiter:
One wire at a time…
Empennage fairing fitting
August 24th, 2008This morning I woke up early and flew a rental spamcan up to Falls City in Nebraska, taking advantage of the unseasonably cool (for August) morning to get a little daylight between me and the ground. Falls City has always held a certain special fascination for me; the first airplane I owned came with a Falls City Aero Service keychain, and though I never got around to making the short flight, I always wondered just what sort of a place it was. Turns out it's exactly like you'd think: a medium-sized runway, some old tin hangars, and a flock of agplanes. Nice morning though.
Later on, I got out the empennage fairing and spent some time cleaning it up. I used heat and pressure to reshape the areas that didn't fit so great – by clamping down a small section of fiberglass with wood blocks and duct tape, heating up the surrounding area with my heat gun, then letting it cool down, I iteratively got it to fit pretty well. Then I trimmed back the edges, countersunk the holes for tinnerman washers, and installed it with #6 screws to see how it looked.
Not bad really. I may have some additional shaping to do along the top edge, but that's all cosmetic. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. There are some gaps of a 32nd or two here and there, but at Oshkosh this year I saw some that looked like they'd been put on with a hammer… quarter inch gaps, even. So, I think mine looks pretty good.
Since I was already sweaty and gross from cutting and sanding fiberglass, I decided to make it a trifecta by mowing the lawn and then going for a nine mile bike ride. Now it is, as they say in the old country, die Miller-Zeit.
Took panel to machine shop
August 18th, 2008Today I took my uncut panel and electronic drawings to the machine shop near where I work. They're going to first cut me a test panel out of clear acrylic so I can double check the fit of all the various instruments and switches. If that goes well, I'll then have them push the button on the CNC machine again and turn me out a (hopefully) perfect panel.