A new Carbon Cub builder has (as usual) a few questions...

[Mark W]

Remember, you can never have too many clamps...




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Pete,

Thanks. Wow, that was an education. Are those 3" clamps? Where did you buy them?

Mark

[Mark W]

Hey Mark, congratulations on your purchase. Best kit in the business as far as I'm concerned. Here's some random comments, observations and tips.

1) Manuals...Cubcrafters manuals plus Mitch's videos and CCK pictures are a really good combination. Get the links from Mitch and be sure and always refer to the manuals in Dropbox because he's always editing and improving them and that way you're guaranteed of looking at the most recent instruction and diagrams. As others have said, Poly Fiber's manual is a must have when you get to covering. It's a very easy read and I referred to it many times all the way through covering and painting.

2) Resist the urge to do more work than what's shown on each page. There's a reason for everything particularly when the manual says "don't do this now".

3) With the exception of about 3 rivets it's possible to hand squeeze every solid rivet on the plane. And for the ones I couldn't reach, we got engineering to sign off on pulling some cherry maxes. Unless you're really good with a rivet gun for myself I was much happier with the results squeezing by hand.

4)The wood leading edge clamps produce very good results. Find that thread and put your name in the queue.

5) The accuracy of this CNC cut and drilled kit is excellent so if you come across a part that seems to need a new hole or trimming, step back and take another look at it because you may have picked the wrong part or reversed it.

6) When attaching the fittings to the spars pay very close attention to the orientation of the spars bolts. Heads and nuts are directional for a reason.

And my last comment is to raise a RED FLAG of CAUTION for you and all first time builders.

7) Drilling your spars. When you come to the part of your wing build where you're attaching anything to the spars, be extremely careful that you do not drill outside of the safe zone of the spar. Mitch has added a number of details and some red ink to help you through this process and believe me, it pays to be ultra careful here. There's at least 3 main parts that require new holes in your spars....
- Front spar Pulley bracket (page 90, 91 in the wing manual)
- Rear spar reinforcement (page 92)
- Leading edge skin top edge rivets (page 143)
Be sure to use a drill stop for all these parts and be sure your drill stop is set exactly to the depth of the metal you're drilling AND allow for the range of the compressed drill stop spring.DO NOT DRILL THE SPAR BULB.

And if this sounds like someone with first hand experience, you're right.

Hope this helps.
Paul

Paul,

Thank you so much for this and your other very useful recent posts.

This kit (like all of them I suppose) is a little intimidating in the early going, so it is great to have an active and supportive forum like this.

BTW, did you use Kitlog or something else for logging?

Mark

[N867SP]

Mark,

I used 100 of the 1" clamps that I get from Grainger. Then I picked up 50 2" clamps from the aviation isle of my local HomeDepot.

Sure it can be done with less but clamps are cheap and when you only have 2 hands...



I am using ExperCraft to log my project. Likening to build is http://websites.expercraft.com/n9pw

Pete


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[ceslaw]

Four tips

1. Spend some time lurking around SuperCub.org. There are some talented people over there and some good build blogs.

2. If you have some down time waiting for your kit to arrive, order the eight DVD series from www.ZackAir.com. Although some of his techniques deviate from the manual and will not likely be your approach, it gives a good perspective on what is coming.

3. Order the Avery tool kit. You will use everything in it. Quality stuff.

4. Put Mitch’s cell phone number in your cell phone.

Chuck

[Mark W]

Four tips

1. Spend some time lurking around SuperCub.org. There are some talented people over there and some good build blogs.

2. If you have some down time waiting for your kit to arrive, order the eight DVD series from www.ZackAir.com. Although some of his techniques deviate from the manual and will not likely be your approach, it gives a good perspective on what is coming.

3. Order the Avery tool kit. You will use everything in it. Quality stuff.

4. Put Mitch’s cell phone number in your cell phone.

Chuck

Chuck,

Thanks for your tips. I have ordered the DVD's.

How did you log your build? Paper and pencil or software?

Mark

[tcwilliams]

I have used an IPAD. Both for pictures and notes.

[ceslaw]

Chuck,

Thanks for your tips. I have ordered the DVD's.

How did you log your build? Paper and pencil or software?

Mark

Mark:

I looked at several on line sites and software and was not terribly thrilled with what I saw. So I have a simple system using a Microsoft Word. After each session I note the date, hours worked, and brief description of what was done. Then I incorporate a few pictures. A line separates each day's entry so it is easy to read. The beauty of this is that it can be easily edited and it is not constrained by a structured format.

Starting a build blog is another, parallel way, to expand on certain aspects of the build that may benefit other builders.

Chuck

[Paul]

Mark, I'm simply going with an Excel spread sheet for logging my time and I upload all my photos to Dropbox. I've identified every entry by section, part, L/R and that's made it easy to sort.

I've also made notations in my manual (the original hard copy that came with the kit). But be sure to refer to the updated version that Mitch saves to Dropbox.

Having an iPad in your shop like TC suggested is ideal for enlarging details. I even on occasion enlarged a detail to scale to check dimensions for placement etc.

[Mark W]

Mark, I'm simply going with an Excel spread sheet for logging my time and I upload all my photos to Dropbox. I've identified every entry by section, part, L/R and that's made it easy to sort.

I've also made notations in my manual (the original hard copy that came with the kit). But be sure to refer to the updated version that Mitch saves to Dropbox.

Having an iPad in your shop like TC suggested is ideal for enlarging details. I even on occasion enlarged a detail to scale to check dimensions for placement etc.

Thanks Paul. I will certainly have at least an iPad in my shop.