Skin bender & tank parts
I constructed the "skin bender" today. Basically I needed a way of bending the new skin to shape. The RV-9A wing is asymetrical... the bottom is flat and the top curves up.

It a nutshell, I screwed plywood to the shop floor to act as a base (later will become the holders for fuel tanks. I then screwed a 1" diamter piece of electrical conduit to the edge of a 2x8x12. Since the conduit only comes in 10' lengths, I had to add 2 feet. For the long piece, I put 3 screws, one on each end and one in the middle. I countersunk the holes a bit and then filed the heads till they were flush with the conduit. Then I drilled a 3/8" hole on each end of the 2x8 to screw into the floor, thus clamping the skin between the plywood and 2x8.

Skin Bender #1
Skin Bender #2

(Moved on.. can't bend it myself.)

I constructed the anti-rotation bracket for the fuel tank. Plans call for a 9/16" hole in a 1x1 bracket. I discovered during a test fit that the bracket wouldn't sit flush on the access plate, so I turned the holes in to U's. (I've seen builders do this anyway to make it easy to remove the fuel pickup.

Anti-rotation bracket #1
Anti-rotation bracket #2

(Time: 4 hours)
- posted by Matthew @ 9/27/2003 03:27:29 PM