Fuselage

November 25, 2008

Fabrication night! - 4.0 Hrs.

What fun! I like fabricating all these angles and parts. After all the boring deburring and metal prep, this is different and enjoyable. Tonight I fab'd all the angles and bars for the F-710 and F-711 bulkheads. For the F-712, which is the very back end bulkhead of the fuselage, you trim the tie-down bracket that will hold the tie-down ring for the tail of the airplane.

Here are the parts for the remaining bulkheads, all deburred. The ringed ones leaning against the wall are the F-707 and F-708 bulkheads. They're basically ready to scuff, clean, prime, and rivet together. But I'm going to do all of that in one session for the rest of this stuff. The semi-circular piece on the left is the F-709. Nothing really needs to be done to it other than the deburring, etc. It's ready to go. The F-710 is in front of it on the left. It has a reinforcing angle piece across the top that needs to be made. The F-711 and F-712 bulkheads are 2-part assemblies. So you can see that they are in pairs above. They get riveted together back-to-back with reinforcing angles or bars before becoming part of the fuselage.

The F-711 bulkhead on the left is made with these two stiff vertical bars riveted on, and a short angle piece horizontally across the top. Then in the middle you see the reinforcing angle that goes across the top of the F-710. On the right is the tie-down block that will become part of the F-712. In the picture above, I have cut the angles on the bottom of the tie-down to narrow it to a point. But it still needs to be cut to length to shorten it a few inches. It also needs to be tapped for a 3/8" threaded bolt. The eye-ring that becomes the tie-down will thread in here from the bottom. It was fun making all these parts and drilling them to the bulkheads.

UPDATE: March 1, 2009 - I missed an important step at this stage of the game. The F-710 bulkhead, in the middle above, should be drilled in two places for 5/8" holes and snap bushings inserted for the rudder cables. You can see the pilot holes. This was done on the other bulkheads but missed here. So if you're building and are at this point, don't forget like I did! It's much easier to drill these holes now before the fuselage is all riveted together.

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