Fuselage

While waiting for the replacement rod end bearing to come from Vans for the control stick assembly, I put the F-704 aside and started on the next big bulkhead. The F-705. I also figured out how I'm going to make the wood spacers for the F-704, so I got started on that this evening.

I dug out drawing #20 and all the big parts for the F-705 bulkhead. This is the bulkhead that goes right behind you as you sit in the cabin. It holds the seat belt anchors, the seat backs in place, and the rear spars of the wings bolt to the bottom of this bulkhead. The long horizontal bar seen near the top is the F-705B stiffener. This needs to be trimmed a little bit to the exact length and deburred, so I did that first. Then I pulled all the blue vinyl off the rest of the parts.

Next, you have these F-705C doublers. These are beefy bars bent on each end as you can see. They hold the rear spars of the wings to the bulkhead so they have to be good and strong. The plans call for them to be trimmed, tapered and rounded on the ends. This was easy work for my little $99.00 bandsaw, even for 1/4" thick stock like this.

Here they are, after smoothing and polishing on the scochbrite wheels. To the left of them is the F-705H stock piece, marked for cutting out the little spacers. Finally, you can see the F-705B stiffener on the bottom, marked down the centerline with a fine red line. This will help me position it exactly when I clamp it to the bulkhead for drilling. You just line up the pre-punched holes in the bulkhead with the line right down the middle, clamp, and drill.

Finally, after looking around online, I figured out how to make the wood spacer blocks for the F-704. So I dug through my scrap wood pile and found the perfect pieces for this little project. Since they have been sitting outside, they have been wet from rain and I'm concerned about whether they might shrink over the coming months as they dry out. I decided that kiln-dried lumber would have been a better choice. Since I'm out of time tonight and the stores are all closed, why not kiln-dry it myself? So I put two short pieces of 2 x 6 in the oven and turned it on the lowest setting. I'll leave it overnight at around 125 degrees. That should dry it out thoroughly and it will be ready to go tomorrow.

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