Fuselage

I spent quite a bit of time at the scotchbrite wheel today. Haven't done that for a while! I deburred a lot of parts that will come into play shortly, starting with the F-757-T side gussets. Then I deburred the pair of F-695 gussets that go on the very forward end and attach to the firewall. I also deburred the elevator bellcrank parts and the shoulder harness attach brackets. Some of these parts are thick and take a lot of time on the wheel. When they get too hot to handle, I set them down and work on something else while they cool off, and then work on them some more. I finally got them all deburred, nice and smooth all around.

Then I got out my band saw and spent some time marking and trimming the F-721B side rails. I'm putting in a tip-up canopy, so I trimmed the side rails accordingly. You have to study the drawings carefully because the trimming is different for a slider. Then I deburred them and clecoed them to the longerons. They clecoed on very easily with no fit issues. I was happy about that because I've read where some have had fitting problems with them at this stage.

So, with the side rails clecoed in place, I slid the F-757-T gussets into place underneath the longeron and on top of the F-705 bulkhead and into the slot in the side rail. It's a rather tight fit, but I guess that's a good thing. The unprimed 757 gusset can be seen here with glare reflecting off the surface. This is after drilling out the four 1/8" holes into the F-705, and then drilling through the side rails and longerons through the gusset.

Here's a shot of the right side rail and gusset installed and drilled. I still have to mark and cut out the square openings in these gussets, but I wanted to do this first to see where the square hole will line up and make sure everything is okay.

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