May 31 Update - OX-5

Finally, the babbitt for the OX-5 was completed along with the other work I had done.  Hart's Machine Shop in Cecil, Ohio - who have done the babbitt work on about 12 other OX-5's did the work.  I went last Friday with my pals Mark and Drew.  13 hours in a car meant lots of talk about engines, hot rods, airplanes, mini-bikes - you name it.  We had a great time.  Hart's is an excellent shop, highly recommended, but S-L-O-W!!  Just don't be in a hurry.  My work took 8 months.  Here is what I had done:

1.  The bearings in the rods were re-babbitted.  The originals were OK by size, but some were cracked and/or had chunks missing.

2.  I had bushings installed in the small ends to allow for a full-floating piston pin.  A much better design as the original had the piston pin locked into the rod.  The pistons I had made use a lock ring to hold the pin in the piston to avoid scuffing the cylinder walls.  A typical automotive set-up.

3.  The main bearings and line-bore were checked.  Believe it or not, all the mains were in perfect condition and still had .0015" clearance.  So, nothing was done.  Hard to believe with nearly 100 year old bearings.  I asked if they had any concern with the babbitt being that old, and in their experience with other engines and very old babbitt, they felt very confident in leaving it alone.

Here's some pictures...

All 8 rods ready to go

Close-up of new babbitt after machining to size

Bushed small end with new piston pin

Everything is ready to build up the lower end of the engine, but I'll probably wait a while.  I would like to have everything ready to go and still need to get some misc. nickel plating done on the rocker arms, etc.

I've also got a lot done on the N-struts.  About all I have yet to complete are the diagonals.  When everything is done, I'll submit a post,maybe in a week or two - stay tuned - the saga continues!!

May 17 Update - Wings On

Sorry for the delay, I know it's been a while since the last update, but things are progressing nicely.

Primed fuselage

I mentioned in the last update that I had to prime the fuselage and tail surfaces, but needed a calm, warm day which we just didn't have.  Well, it finally got calm and warm and got these covered with DP Epoxy Primer.  No matter how you slice it, tubing just sucks to paint.  So easy to miss places!  Being able to rotate the fuselage helped tremendously.  Final color will be black, but will leave it in primer for all the fit-ups to prevent scratching the final paint.


Then finally, a major step in the restoration - mounting the wings to the fuselage.  I was pretty uptight about all this.  As you may recall, I had to reverse-engineer many of the fittings, calculate mounting angles, etc., etc.  So, I just wasn't 100% sure how everything would fit.

Checking wing for straightness with a string line

First step was to prepare the attachment of the 2 upper wings.  There is no center section, just 2 attachment brackets on the root of each wing at the spars with a long thru-bolt.  I didn't drill these fittings as the wings were being built.  I wanted to wait until both wings were done and align them properly before drilling.

Upper wing has no dihedral - checking level and flatness

Fittings ready to be drilled.  A long bolt goes thru the tabs on
these fittings from the top of the wing to the bottom.

Fuselage leveled and cabanes on

I then got the fuselage leveled and cabane struts on in preparation for attaching the wings.

In this photo, the upper wings are staged for attachment, although she looks good as a mid-winger!!

Upper wings on - Whew!  So far, so good!

I had plenty of good help mounting the wings.  Shown from left to right are Drew, Andy and his son, Dennis (previous owners of this project) and Mark, hiding behind the front of the fuselage.

The upper wings went on great.  Just lots to measure and adjust:  Angle of incidence, dihedral, twist in relation to the longitudinal axis, center of wings over center of fuselage (transverse position), and stagger.

I made wing stands that you can see in the far left of the photo to support the wings.

Bottom wings on with all rigging set

Bottom wings next.  Much easier, fixed mounting to the fuselage so the only thing to adjust is the dihedral.  Bottom wings have 2 degrees.

Cabane mounting with temporary transverse wires holding
wings in proper position left to right.

Lower wing mounting to fuselage

Here's a detail shot of the cabane mounting.  I also made temporary transverse wires from cable and turnbuckles to adjust the wings left to right positioning.  These will be replaced with 2, 1/4" streamlined wires on each side (4 wires total).











Here you can see how the lower wings attach to the fuselage.













We started all this about 9:30 in the morning and finished about noon, all properly rigged.  Very happy with the results.

The airplane will stay this way for a while.  I will be building the interplane struts (N-struts) next along with the aileron slave struts.  I then want to mount the ailerons and start making/running the aileron cables.

Although there is a lot of work left, I feel like I'm over the hump in having the wings done and know they mount correctly - many,many hours of work went into these!  Probably an interplane strut posting will be next.

Also, and I know many of my followers are not in this area, we are trying to sell our hangar and re-locate our shop to a different airport.  Our hangar is only about 5 years old, and is one of the nicest you'll find.  Here are the specs...

• 60x48
• 44x12 bi-fold door
• fully heated
• commercial building (not a pole barn) with R38 insulation in ceiling and R19 in sidewalls - very energy efficient
• epoxy-painted floor
• apartment/office with laminate floor and it's own heat source
• full bath
• great lighting throughout
• quick set-up/tear down paint booth
• located on C55, Ogle Co. Airport, Mt. Morris, Illinois with a grass runway

So if you know of anyone looking for a great hangar, have them contact me.  Thanks!