Lots of center section work...
I finished up the other F-915 rib. I had Sandi help me flip the whole section over onto a pair of sawhorses. I then ran to the hardware store and got some 7/16" bolts and some material to bolt the center section halves together, which I hadn't done yet. (Don't wait like I did.. do it when the instructions tell you.)

To get the 1 7/16" spacer I used two pieces of 3/4" particle board and a small 1/8" piece of aluminum bar. I cut the particle board to 7 5/8" x 12". This allowed it to stick out the sides to use later as a place to support the fuse. In order to get exactly 1 7/16" I used the router to shave about a 1/32" of the wood for the aluminum spacer to fit in. These actually took quite a while to make.

Spar spacer outside
View from inside

Once I had the 704 center sections bolted together, I went ahead and match drilled the baggage floor and seat pans. Seems like a good idea to do it now instead of later to reduce the amount of shavings I have to clean out later. I was going to match drill the forward seat pans but the hole aligment where they mate with the ribs wasn't be best.... decided to wait and do those later after everything else is riveted together.

All seat pans/baggage floor in and cleco'd
Without the floor in

I match drilled the 904H sides to the vertical posts.

Before I dismantled everything, I needed to finish up the F-623 ribs and the little spacers that go with them. When I was originally fitting these ribs, I couldn't get a good fit along the sides. Now I'm looking at these spacers I'm supposed to make trying to figure out why I even need them and how they are going to fit. There was a bit of a gap between the web of the rib and the bottom skin near the forward edge. After studying the plans intently, I finally saw View C-C on the plans which outlines how the rib mates with the 905 section. What confused me was that the forward end of the rib flange had a joggle in it, like it supposed to tuck on the inside of the 905 upgright, yet the plans say the whole forward end gets whacked off which is why you need the spacer to connect it to the 905 spar! Ugghhh.... so I modified the end but did leave the joggle to tie in with the 905 upgright and made the spacers.

Forward end of 623 where it mates with 905.

I need to make the aft spacers as well but may wait until I mate the bulkhead that goes with it.


(Time: 8 hrs)

- posted by Matthew @ 6:37 PM