Ken's Sonex 1243

[Bryan Cotton]

Ken,
Glad to help. I made the mistake of too much polish too. We all learn.

One key tip, at least one that works for me: I take a small dab and smear it around as much as possible with my finger. Then I take the buffer and blip it at a very slow speed to finish sreading out the polish. When you have some shine going, this technique will make the area look tarnished. In fact the polish is just spread very thinly and uniformly. Then lay into it and bring the shine back. You don't get the same cues on your first pass but after a while you know what to do. Also, I like to polish a small area, and center the next pass on the edge of the prior pass. That way even though I am doing 3 passes, overlap means the metal sees the buffer 6 times. Each application does not take long but there are a lot of them.

When I get to C it is a lot more relaxed. You are de-scratching the F9 work.

[DCASonex]

My experience spreading a minimal amount of polish at low speed is same as Bryan, then do actual polish at about mid speed, but kick it to high just at the end to throw off as much loose material as possible (outdoors and wearing old clothes).

Might try a second pass with the C grade as well. When you no longer see improvement is when you are done. The finer the polish, and the more closed the grain, the better the surface resist oxidation.

David A. SO NEXT

[LarryEWaiex121]

Next plane is going to be tube and rag:)
I've become very good friends with my Nuvite and Cy-Clo polisher over the last 4 1/2 yrs. One temptation is to try and get too much area going at once. Smaller is better as noted. I like to get after the rivets very soon after touching up and area. Get into the rivets with a good clean micro-fiber towel.
I have experimented over the years with using some mineral spirits to finish cleaning around the rivet heads after the almost final polishing. After cleaning as much as possible I make another pass with the Cy-Clo with no Nuvite. Obviously, the trick is to clean the rivets and not strip all the area around the rivets of the benefit of the Nuvite protection.
One warning from experience. My hanger has a tendency to puddle water on the concrete floor during times of heavy snow melt. When the surrounding ground is frozen and run-off can't soak into the ground, I will get water puddling on my floor at times.
The plane will get condensation all over it and when it dries, the surface will get tiny white dots all over the polish area. They won't come off without a complete re-polish and its a real pain in the butt. I read some place to put down the famous blue plastic tarp under the plane. It actually works pretty darned well. I still get water puddling but the condensation doesn't form so bad on the plane surface.
I'm guessing that a large area fan set on a mild speed would also help to keep the moisture from settling?
Now that I no longer downhill ski or snowmobile, winter is basically a drag. Seems the only purpose of Winter is to stop ones flying fun with cold temperatures and short day light.
Possibly this curse was put upon us by the Flying God's that want us to stop flying and service and rebuild our flying machines for a new season? Yeah, I'm going with that one.

Larry
Waiex 121, Jabiru 3300, 449 hrs.

[onex28]

I have the same water problem in my hanger and for winter storage I wrap my wings and fuselage with plastic sheeting, thinner than tarp material, and in the spring the surface is as bright and polished as when I covered it. Also FWIW was talking to a gentleman who said he helped polish a P51 and he said that they used corn starch to remove the black residue from around the rivets. I haven't tried it but will next spring when I polish, what can I lose?

[Sonex1243]

Initial polishing done! forward skin dimpled and only 120 more holes to go for deburring.. Then, the lights, electrical plumbing and control rods before riveting it up for good.

[Sonex1243]

Some more progress after a weekend of glider towing. I installed the aileron control rods and finished deburring the wing. Got it leveled up, re-checked the squareness and installed the upper aft skin. Flipped it over and have the lower skin ready to rivet.











Still need to rivet the forward skin and run the wiring / pitot/ static lines.

[Sonex1243]

Great day today! Finished the right wing except for the aileron control rod that is getting re-worked since I had the bellcrank end assembled wrong when it came to the proper movement of the components. That is the beauty of this forum, with lots of builders who help those who need a little clarification! The duckworks LED light was installed, wired, ops checked along with installation of the 3 conductor shielded wire for the AeroLED Pulsar EXP wing tip lighting. Will do the wing tips at a later time.

[Rynoth]

Pool noodle on the pushrods, good idea!

[Sonex1243]

Finished the wing stand today. Built the one from the sonex forum, i think it was designed by another sonex builder. Came out real nice, got the right wing off the table and fit right into the stand perfectly.

[Sonex1243]

Cleaned out the shop, it really needed it! I was very pleased that the wing and stand fit real nice after getting the left spar out of the crate and removing it from the garage. Laid everything out and started clecoing the wing ribs to the spar. Will be up drilling to #30, then attach the rear spar and up drill it for deburring and riveting the wing frame.