Finished deburring the angle part I was working on yesterday as well as the deburring for all the remaining pieces. After that started putting the aft fuselage back together. During that process realized that I had forgotten to updrill a few holes so took care of that as well.
After that went ahead and attached the newly formed angle part and drilled all the needed pilot holes. I hope to wrap up the rest of up drilling and get started with riveting tomorrow
Tonight managed to get all the channels and angle stock pieces deburred. While deburring realized that one of the angles had got messed up during up drilling and I believe that it was probably due to the fact that one of the clecos had come loose.
I could have probably salvaged this piece but using over sized rivets but instead I decided to just remake this part. Before calling it a night, I went ahead and cut out the part but it still needs a lot of deburring and finishing up
Started off by working on fixing the tail mount issues and finally manged to get it set correctly by filing some extra metal from the angle holding the two longerons together. Also had to re drill the holes in one of the channels because of the 2 mm move. Thankfully I had only drilled pilot holes so it worked on OK. Drilled the new holes using 1/8 drill bit and all in all it worked out. A couple of holes are slightly enlarged but I will just use an oversize rivet for them
After wrapping that up, went ahead and up drilled the complete aft fuselage. During the week I will work on deburring all the pieces and hopefully get to rivet the complete structure the coming weekend
After yesterdays progress picked up where I had left ff and trimmed the skin to the final dimension and marked and drilled all the pilot hole locations.
Next went ahead and trimmed the tail end of the skin to cut out the notch needed for passing the tail mount. After that went ahead drilled and clecoes the skin to the fuselage. When reattaching the tail mount I realized that I had attached the tail mount directly to the channel without using the spacer specified in the plans so it was a minor setback.
I cut out a spacer using some scrap 3/16 plate and worked on attaching the tail mount again. It was a real pain and the mount would not go back on easily. On top of that since all the pilot holes in the channels were drilled without the spacer in space. the hole location had moved my a couple of mm. I called it a night and decided it work on it tomorrow
Today went ahead and attached the tail wheel mount and all the associated angle brackets needs for supporting the tail mount. It took a while but I was pleased with the end result.
Since I had cut out an over sized bottom skin, I went ahead and drilled the pilot holes on one of the edges and attached it to the fuselage structure using 4 clecoes. After that wend ahead and marked up all the cut lines needed to get to the final dimensions
Today, went ahead and attached the push rod support channels. After that fabricated the missing parts for the seat belt attachments and other aft fuselage sub assembly.
Before calling it a day went ahead and clecoed the sub assemblies together. My daughter came down to check on the progress I had made and wanted a picture with the fuselage and I was more than happy to oblige
Tonight with my wife’s help managed to get the aft fuselage put together. Started by attaching the screws needed for the splice plates. After that pilot drilled and clecoed most of the structure but still need to pilot drill rest of the holes
I also need to work on attaching the push rod support channels
Today spend a good amount of time studying the plans trying to figure out how to put together the aft fuselage box. Like most builder I decided to use the upside down approach for the assembly
Since it is too cold in the garage and my little shop in the basement doesn’t have enough space, I moved into the media room and after spreading plastic sheet all over the carpet, managed to clamp the whole box together. It is finally looking like something that may be part of an aircraft
I did not think that my wife would agree to me doing this in the media room but them I do have an extremely supportive wife. BTW, you get to see my new haircut and my first passenger in the pictures as well.
Work is keeping be extremely busy these days but today got to spend most of the day working on the plane. First of all up drilled and deburred the Cross Tie Box Assembly
After that went ahead and riveted this assembly and the right aileron which needed to be riveted since I had run out of rivets while working on it. After these two were completed, moved on to both left and right aft side panel and wrapped them up as well. I still need to add bolts on the splice channels on both the panels.
Today wrapped up the left panel and it is ready for riveting now. Also went ahead and started on the Cross Tie Box assembly. Before calling it a night managed to cleco the whole box together. I still need to trim the channel edges but overall I was very happy with my progress today
