Sealing Day #1

The instructions say to attach and seal all the various fittings to rib 101 before sealing up the main tank, so I did that today. I mixed up a very small batch of sealant, enough to put into a syringe for dispensing. I used a digital scale accurate to 1/2 a gram to measure out 20g of part A and 2 grams of part B. I had little 10ml syringes on hand already from another project, but the 14 gauge needles were a bit too small for how thick this sealant is. Nonetheless I successfully got everything gooped up. It ain’t pretty, but I as long as it doesn’t leak I’m happy.

I also bought some 60mL syringes for the main tank work, which I’m planning to do tomorrow.

Before wrapping up for the evening, I took the fuel level sender out of its box and was surprised to find it comes attached to a nice round cover and Viton (!!) seal, which I guess I have to remove and throw away to instead use TAF’s custom bracket that attaches to TAF’s custom cover. Wonder why they did this? Well, if nothing else this reinforces my decision to use a Viton seal that I made as I described in my last post.

As you might be able to tell from the photos, I’m not working in my garage anymore – it’s been so cold lately (8°F this morning!!) that I had to move someplace warmer. Luckily, I have a finished & heated basement, so at least for the cold winter months I’ll be working there. The downside is that my finished space isn’t big enough to fit the whole wing, so I’ll be working on smaller pieces for a while, and maybe sneak back to the garage if we get some more moderate weather.

I think when this plane is finished I’m gonna point my plane south and won’t look back!

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