I relocated the hummingbird feeder,
and this happened:
 |
| Four! |
 |
| Five! |
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Cause and Effect
Because of this:
I relocated the hummingbird feeder,
and this happened:
I relocated the hummingbird feeder,
and this happened:
Evolution of Pig
Who doesn't love pork?
Ok, plenty of people do not love pork. Some even loathe pork. Some can not fathom the idea of slaughtering such precious piglets while others can not fathom the idea of not indulging in a meal of pork.
I tend to find myself enjoying pork more and more. Pork and I had an on again/off again relationship for quite some time, but I'm learning to appreciate pork for what it is. Delicious. (At least when prepared properly.)
My cooking adventures are leading me to new and exciting recipes that delve into using cuts I've never considered before. Cuts I'd shy away from while perusing the meat department. Cuts I'd stare at questioningly, wondering what part of the pig it came from and why anyone would bother with it when there are perfectly good (and familiar) pork chops in the next refrigerated section over.
As pork and my relationship grows stronger, I decided to dedicate a small drawing to this tasty meat.
Because I could.
Ok, plenty of people do not love pork. Some even loathe pork. Some can not fathom the idea of slaughtering such precious piglets while others can not fathom the idea of not indulging in a meal of pork.
I tend to find myself enjoying pork more and more. Pork and I had an on again/off again relationship for quite some time, but I'm learning to appreciate pork for what it is. Delicious. (At least when prepared properly.)
My cooking adventures are leading me to new and exciting recipes that delve into using cuts I've never considered before. Cuts I'd shy away from while perusing the meat department. Cuts I'd stare at questioningly, wondering what part of the pig it came from and why anyone would bother with it when there are perfectly good (and familiar) pork chops in the next refrigerated section over.
As pork and my relationship grows stronger, I decided to dedicate a small drawing to this tasty meat.
Because I could.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Bossy Bird and Other Tails
A few weeks ago my neighbor told me a recipe for homemade hummingbird food: mix three cups water with one cup sugar, boil, cool, done. So I bought a feeder and made the food and lo and behold . . . hummingbirds appeared!
These little guys are quite entertaining.
I never realized how territorial hummingbirds are. There are around five that rotate out the role of "Bossy Bird." Depending on the time of the day, one bird will stake claim of the feeder.
The bird in charge will perch above the feeder and twitter on about his new found fountain of deliciousness.
Blabbering on like that attracts other birds to attempt a drink. The bird in charge then chases off the intruder bird all the while a second intruder bird comes by for a sneak swig.
This pisses off the bird in charge, who will hover behind the offender, twittering on about theft and fanning his tail feathers.
Bossy bird eventually gets over it and realizes he has a drinking buddy
This lasts for a few seconds until the next bird comes by and claims ownership.
For such tiny birds, they consume a lot of sugar water. I had initially estimated the handful of birds to go through a feeder full of food every ten days. Their appetite has picked up and they're now draining a feeder every few days.
See, they're expanding at an extraordinary rate!
These little guys are quite entertaining.
I never realized how territorial hummingbirds are. There are around five that rotate out the role of "Bossy Bird." Depending on the time of the day, one bird will stake claim of the feeder.
The bird in charge will perch above the feeder and twitter on about his new found fountain of deliciousness.
Blabbering on like that attracts other birds to attempt a drink. The bird in charge then chases off the intruder bird all the while a second intruder bird comes by for a sneak swig.
This pisses off the bird in charge, who will hover behind the offender, twittering on about theft and fanning his tail feathers.
Bossy bird eventually gets over it and realizes he has a drinking buddy
This lasts for a few seconds until the next bird comes by and claims ownership.
For such tiny birds, they consume a lot of sugar water. I had initially estimated the handful of birds to go through a feeder full of food every ten days. Their appetite has picked up and they're now draining a feeder every few days.
See, they're expanding at an extraordinary rate!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Elevators and Wingtips
Ok, ok! I know I've been neglecting updating about the Cozy for a while now, but I promise to get us caught up. Way back in May I talked about the first step towards building the canard. Our final product of that series of layups was this:
This laborious part only resulted in the black portion of the canard below. This post will cover the teal highlighted areas: the elevators and wingtips.
Elevators are the control surfaces which alter the pitch of an aircraft. You wouldn't get much flying done without them, so they're pretty important.
To start out, Ced drilled holes in the required areas on the torque tubes in order to pop rivet hinge inserts in place.
A lot of documentation was skipped, so here's a quick rundown of what happened next. With the hinge inserts placed inside the torque tubes, the tubes were ready to be bonded into the elevator cores. These cores were ordered from Eureka CNC to save time and have precise cores. When bonding the tube inside the core, you have to make sure the tube is at the correct angle in relation to the core. I did not participate in this step, but I'm sure it was stressful.
After that bond cured, it was time to glass the foam. Since these cores are relatively small, Ced opted for a one-shot glass layup instead of the two part layup specified. The elevators turned out well and saved a day of work and cure time.
After the glass cured, the hinge slots were cleared of glass.
And the ends of the elevators were capped.
More stressful measuring and drilling ensued in order to mount a piece of hardware lovingly referred to as the "torque tube offset."
After the offsets were installed, it was time to match up the elevator to the canard in order to mark the slots that needed to be cut into the canard for the hinges.
See those L-shaped hinges? They have to go down into the canard.
But first, they needed to be trimmed.
Trimmed hinge and opened slot in canard:
With the slots cut and the hinges trimmed, it was time to bond the hardware into the canard. Filling the slots 2/3 full with wet flox, the hinges were set into the slots and left to cure. After the cure, it was time to install the wingtips. A block of foam was tacked onto the ends of the canard using micro.
The top surface of the foam blocks were shaped into a pleasing arc.
After matching both tips as closely as possible, the top surface was glassed.
Once that layup cured, the canard was flipped over and the bottom of each wingtip was sanded to shape.
The plans call out for a plastic tube to be inserted in the foam to create a channel for the hinge pin. Instead of running out to the hardware store for this material, Ced opted to use a drinking straw.
The foam around the edges of the tip was removed in order to fillet the edges with micro for stiff tips and a glass to glass bond.
The tips stayed swoopy and are now covered in glass.
Here you can see the alignment of the straw with the hinge pin holes.
The vertical walls of the wingtips received a layer of glass, too.
Now it was time to install the elevator mass balance weights. The purpose of the weights is to balance the elevators nose down. Using jigs, foam and lead is lined up on specified points on the elevator.
They are all bonded together and taped in place.
The elevators needed to be perfectly balanced in order to prevent flutter. Again, I didn't help out with these steps, but I'm sure they were stressful.
In order to install the elevators, notches for the weights had to be cut in the canard.
The bottom skin and foam were removed and the surfaces were micro'd and glassed.
Here you can see the elevator installed on the canard and the weight hanging low.
When the elevator is pitched down, the weight swings up.
And you can see the whole thing in action:
This laborious part only resulted in the black portion of the canard below. This post will cover the teal highlighted areas: the elevators and wingtips.
Elevators are the control surfaces which alter the pitch of an aircraft. You wouldn't get much flying done without them, so they're pretty important.
To start out, Ced drilled holes in the required areas on the torque tubes in order to pop rivet hinge inserts in place.
A lot of documentation was skipped, so here's a quick rundown of what happened next. With the hinge inserts placed inside the torque tubes, the tubes were ready to be bonded into the elevator cores. These cores were ordered from Eureka CNC to save time and have precise cores. When bonding the tube inside the core, you have to make sure the tube is at the correct angle in relation to the core. I did not participate in this step, but I'm sure it was stressful.
After that bond cured, it was time to glass the foam. Since these cores are relatively small, Ced opted for a one-shot glass layup instead of the two part layup specified. The elevators turned out well and saved a day of work and cure time.
After the glass cured, the hinge slots were cleared of glass.
And the ends of the elevators were capped.
More stressful measuring and drilling ensued in order to mount a piece of hardware lovingly referred to as the "torque tube offset."
After the offsets were installed, it was time to match up the elevator to the canard in order to mark the slots that needed to be cut into the canard for the hinges.
See those L-shaped hinges? They have to go down into the canard.
But first, they needed to be trimmed.
Trimmed hinge and opened slot in canard:
With the slots cut and the hinges trimmed, it was time to bond the hardware into the canard. Filling the slots 2/3 full with wet flox, the hinges were set into the slots and left to cure. After the cure, it was time to install the wingtips. A block of foam was tacked onto the ends of the canard using micro.
The top surface of the foam blocks were shaped into a pleasing arc.
After matching both tips as closely as possible, the top surface was glassed.
 |
| Nice and swoopy. |
The plans call out for a plastic tube to be inserted in the foam to create a channel for the hinge pin. Instead of running out to the hardware store for this material, Ced opted to use a drinking straw.
The foam around the edges of the tip was removed in order to fillet the edges with micro for stiff tips and a glass to glass bond.
The tips stayed swoopy and are now covered in glass.
Here you can see the alignment of the straw with the hinge pin holes.
The vertical walls of the wingtips received a layer of glass, too.
Now it was time to install the elevator mass balance weights. The purpose of the weights is to balance the elevators nose down. Using jigs, foam and lead is lined up on specified points on the elevator.
They are all bonded together and taped in place.
The elevators needed to be perfectly balanced in order to prevent flutter. Again, I didn't help out with these steps, but I'm sure they were stressful.
In order to install the elevators, notches for the weights had to be cut in the canard.
The bottom skin and foam were removed and the surfaces were micro'd and glassed.
Here you can see the elevator installed on the canard and the weight hanging low.
When the elevator is pitched down, the weight swings up.
And you can see the whole thing in action:
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