Isaac Shultz's Sonex Project

Today I got a ton of work done on my hydraulic brakes system. I assembled the mount for my master cylinder and through some testing and pretending to sit in the cockpit to get a feel for where I want my brake lever, I located the exact position. I drilled and clecoed the whole assembly. with it in place, the real work behind hydraulic brakes set in. I cut my 12' length of tubing into two pieces, one for each brake. In order for the brake lines to get from the master cylinder inside the plane, to the brakes on the wheels, I had to drill a couple holes in the firewall at the front of the plane. One of the worst things that can go wrong with these brakes is having a line break. If that happened I would loose all pressure and have no brakes. If the brake line touches something, it will likely vibrate against it in flight, if it does that, eventually it will break. To prevent my lines from breaking and loosing their fluid, I use a larger size tubing, that just bar...

Part 1: The Rudder Pedals I laid out the cuts I'd need to make, the holes I'd need to drill, and gathered my hardware. Then I pinned two blocks together using a  drill bit, and updrilled them to 3/16" together for perfect alignment, once drilled I put  the bolt through and tightened it. I drilled them to 1/8" and cut them on the bandsaw  I cleaned up the edges on the sanding wheel, and we were off to the races! I located the center holes, these were where the steel tube of the rudder pedals would come through. I used a 1" spade bit to boar through the phenolic, and yes, this freed up about 3.5 square inches of COMPRESSED phenolic, and sent it all over the work bench. Now that the holes were drilled, I used the Dremel, with a sanding tip, to ream them so that they fit with minimal friction. Taking a bit of extra time on this was well worth it since it made my rudder pedals silky smooth, like ...

This time I got plenty of pictures. With the case halves joined and each throughbolt torqued according the manual I moved on to preparing my new cylinders. The cylinders and pistons got cleaned with laquer thinner, then oiled and then assembled together. I used a specially measured shim places at the base of the cylinder to change how much space there is between the piston and cylinder head, which changes how the engine will run. The shim goes on first, liberally gooped up with sealent, then slowly lower the cylinder on and connect it up Then one it's on I turned the crankshaft to help pull the cylinder down, seat it with a few taps of a rubber mallet and done. Repeat with the other cylinder and we are good to go. Next goes the gasket, then the pushrod tubes, the head, aaaaand torque it!        Perfect! Now it's looking like an engine again. Repeat on the other side A...