Pics from the Weekend HOBBS 453.5 hrs

A box of supplies arrives from Van's for the ER tanks...MORE ProSeal (woohoo!), locking fuel caps, etc

Locking deluxe fuel caps. Although my main tanks don't have locking caps as I didn't think I needed them for that application. I did, however, want them on the aux tanks so a line boy doesn't mistakenly fill them without my knowledge. Its safety, not necessarily theft that I am concerned with.

A template I made from the standard tanks. No need to cut out the hole twice, just find center and drill a #40 hole in it. The center point is what I am interested in....

...If....of course, you have a set of these in your shop. I am a huge pack rat (I am working on it!) and I tend to keep everything. Well, case in point, this compass is left over from my undergrad education about 23 yrs ago!! That's back in the day when they actually still taught manual drafting..with pencils, erasers, easels and straight edges. :) Nowadays that is all done by computer with CADD (Computer aided Drafting and Design)...thankfully. Manually drafting, although fun and a sort of art, was very time consuming. Anyhow, these came in handy. Use them, along with your center hole to create your circle cut-out for the fuel cap.

Also mark your rivet holes, and start cutting. I laid the skin flat and used my special hole cutting tool....hate that thing, but it worked. Here, after some careful work, is what you get...ready for the fuel cap install.

And now for my 'misadventures' in ER fuel tank installation. It suddenly dawned on my that I needed a feed line coming from the ER tank through my ER electric transfer pump and then feeding into my main tank per Mr. Tuckey's design. I already have both of my main tanks sealed up nicely...what the heck am I going to do about this?! 

Crap!!! ...and some other choice words...followed by perspiration on the forehead and that uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that has become quite common while building an airplane for the first time! After calming down...always gotta do that first, clear the head and then solve the problem. I then scratched it (my head) quite a bit, pondered my predicament and weighed my options. Why not cut another access hole in the end rib...and cover it with the extra covers I had for the float type system that I'm not using? Seemed like a good plan...  

Broke out my hole cutting tool again and was able to perform the surgery on the completed tank. Gosh, I gotta tell  ya, it did hurt a little to cut into a perfectly good fuel tank! So much for my earlier tank pressure test...I will certainly have to redo that.

And the challenges continue...wouldn't be any fun if it was easy...how do I get the reinforcing ring into the tank???! Crap! More sweat and uneasiness...relax...cut it on the band saw in one location and slide it in to position. No structural compromise. No problemo! What was I worried about? ;)

And here you can see the product of my work...almost done. I have to tell ya, building these ER tanks is nerve wracking but a ton of fun for me! You really get a real sense of accomplishment, that you are actually building something from scratch (not really...but closer) and you are not following plans word for word.