My Bede BD-4C is looking more like a modern airplane and less like the Wright Flyer, since I bonded the eight foot long section of skin to the right, rear section of the fuselage. Conceptually, it’s simple. Paint the 3M Scotch-Weld #10 contact adhesive onto the airplane and onto the skin.
Baratza Encore Coffee Grinder
We wore out our venerable Mr. Coffee coffee grinder. It made a lot of noise but the blades were so smooth that they would not feed the beans. Here is a photo (which you can click to see larger)
Fabricating Steel Hinge Parts
Here is a bonus post, for those of you who are seriously into the nitty gritty of fabricating an airplane out of a pile of aluminum and steel. I don’t usually post photos in this much detail because I figure that most people don’t care. If you want more of this sort of thing, post […]
Right Side Door on My Bede BD-4C
The door on the right side of my Bede BD-4C airplane is ready to go to the welder. I had to fabricate two aluminum blocks for the hinges. These will bolt to the fuselage. Then I had to fabricate matching steel parts and weld them to the door frame. Here is a photo of the […]
BD-4C Ventral Fin Complete
I have finished the tail skid and the ventral fin of my Bede BD-4C airplane! After fiddling around with bits and pieces for months, it was a huge celebration to bolt the tail skid in place…
BD-4C Doors and Ventral Fin
In and around helping Act Two Theatre with our production of Chicago, I have been continuing to work on the doors of my Bede BD-4C airplane. I tack welded the pilot side door together and it came out “OK.” At first, it did not fit as well as I wanted but I was able to cut one weld […]
Starting on the BD-4C Doors
I have spent the last week making the steel frames for the doors for my BD-4C airplane. OK, let me be more precise. I spent the last week making the first frame. Having done the copilot’s door, and figured out all the hard stuff, I made the pilot’s door in few hours today. The only […]
Garage Heaters and Airplane Progress
I only have a little bit to say about my airplane this week so today’s post starts in a different direction. My friend, Don, and I got to talking last night. He is building a wooden sailboat in his garage. How cool is that?! As it turns out, it’s a bit too cool for Don to work on it […]
Types of Screws
Image credit: XKCD
Prescription Health Insurance Insanity
Excuse me while I vent about the insanity of health insurance here in the USA. I take levothyroxine for a chronic condition (which means that I have taken the same dose for years and will likely continue to do so). I have a couple of choices for buying it: $15.89 for a 30 day supply […]
Tailcone is Done!
It’s hard to believe but I have actually finished the tailcone of my Bede BD-4C airplane. Lots of nutplates, screws, and rivets. I think the hardware to hold it together may well weigh more than the aluminum in the tailcone itself. Here it is assembled to the back of the fuselage. (Click any photo to see […]
Return of the Bede BD-4C Tailcone
In December 2011, when I first started building my Bede BD-4C airplane, I made the tailcone according to the drawings. I documented that process in two blog posts, Top of the Tail Cone and Bede BD-4C Tail Cone. In the intervening three years, I ended up rebuilding the tail of the fuselage to fit the […]
First Attempts at Metal Art
Having acquired a welder for working on my airplane, I got kind of distracted making some silly little projects. 🙂 Click on the pictures or, if you don’t see the slideshow below, jump to my Metal Art Projects photo gallery, where you can see larger versions of the photos.
Comparing Health Insurance (ObamaCare vs. Company Health Plan)
For years, I have offered health insurance to the employees of my company, Hen’s Teeth Network. December 2014 is the last month that HTN will provide health insurance. This blog post explains why and includes the spreadsheet that I used for my analysis. It is all about the numbers; this is not a political rant. Most […]
Finished the Bede BD-4C Rear Seat Frame
The first brace for the rear seat frame of my Bede BD-4C airplane took so long that I thought the remaining three would take quite awhile. I was wrong. With help from my friend, Dave, I got them all done on Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. Here are photos of the complete set of braces and […]
Fabricating Steel Parts
Now that I am a “master welder” (hah! 😛 ) I am moving forward with fabricating steel parts for my Bede BD-4C airplane. My first attempt was the tail skid. I had to have the tube bent for me, since I do not have a torch, but then I cut the tube to length and […]
Rear Seat Frame Progress
I made some progress on the rear seat frame for my Bede BD-4C airplane today. The rear seat is a surprisingly comfortable sling. I cut the tube which is the cross bar. I clamped some wood onto the fuselage to hold the tube in position. Then I continued fabricating the angles which will be riveted […]
I Made a Welding Table!
It’s done 🙂 I welded together a welding table using my flux welder. Here is the previous post, Welding a Welding Table, where you can see some of the in-process photos.
Welding a Welding Table
When I started cutting up steel for the back seat frame of my Bede BD-4C airplane, the chop saw threw off so many sparks that I singed the top of my wooden workbench. Being a bright boy, I thought that moving the saw to a metal table would be just a wee bit safer. 🙂 I went […]
Welding!
For years, I have joked that, I don’t weld. Well, now I do. There are a few steel components on my Bede BD-4C airplane that need to be fabricated to fit my plane. The main ones in front of me now are the door frames, the rear seat frame, the brackets for the front seat, and the […]
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