Frank,
I just lost the two shortest riblets and had the material to make the two longer ones. Basically I just removed two and cut out the HAZ of the others and slip them down. One of the diagonals will get the HAZ cut out and re used. I carefully cleaned up the spar and am using that again. Everything is retacked after loading the sundry parts and may have it finished enough for a side by side progress pic Sunday.
Jim
Good to hear it wasn't major surgery.
I'm impressed with your work - the best I ever did was throwing a bead line down a bit of stock back in High School.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
10/15/18 Yes I started over with a new fuselage Friday. The first one was rather dubious at best. So with much improved welding skills and sticking to gas (oxy/acet) welding Lets get to it.
First pic is of the two new sides and this pic also displays the cleat system I used same as in the very first fuselage. The second side I did start using steel plate shields under the welds and failed to ignite the table top. Bomber idea.
Second pic shows a tubing cluster and the degree of notching involved. Those are all hand cut and requires lots of back and forth with test fitting. Oh my feet hurt that night.
Third pic shows some welding back where the top longeron does a step down and incidence change for the horizontal stabilizer. The tag end of the longeron there gets trimmed when the welding is all done.
Fourth pic is a shot from the front showing the fixture used to mock up both sides of the fuse so that the cross members can be fit and tack welded. And the fifth pic shows the fixture from the rear.
Pics in a few days
Great!
It's a real statement to your diligence that you could look at your work with an honest eye and realize that there wasn't any fixes to be had, and it required a full do-over.
The opinions and statements of this poster are largely based on facts and portray a possible version of the actual events.
This pic shows the end of the fuse after redoing the tail post. I had jammed that in one night and it was very strange the next morning it was crooked. Elves or gremlins me thinks
55 wire loops so far
Cowl hoops, combing, and gun mount stuff welding in this week. Plan to start painting this weekend
11/9/18, This weeks work after taking two tries at the curvy cowl tubing around the front machine gun mounts and still not happy. So I cut up some of my failed attempts and made the partial cowl supports that are near the adjustable rear gun mounts.
You guys also saw the start of the static front gun mounts that are now completed.
Yesterday I fabbed and welded in the cockpit combing tabs.
And after messing with some other stuff I made the lower wing/fuselage cover. That is the rectangle laying on the work table. The fuselage tabs it bolts to have been drilled but have not been shaped yet. Tomorrow is going to be cold so I may get some time wire wheeling the fuselage in preparation for some epoxy primer if Sunday warms up enough.
11/25/18 Had some warm weather today so I finish welded the inside of the lower wing mount boxes and bolt carrier slugs and a couple reinforcing tubes where the engine bearer supports weld in and then started priming some 3 stations. I was having trouble with the epoxy going off too quick the last few times so I retarded the flash by decreasing the activator part B. At the end of the day I drilled the holes in the big clusters for these rear cabane cups. They should get welded in tomorrow and a second encapsulating coat of epoxy in this area. Manufacturers directions say if I re-coat within 24 hours I don't have to sand with 220. I likes not sanding.
A little progress today on the wing spar brackets. First pic is after the first bend on the practice 3 mm thick stock. Guess the form could have been deeper but I am working with 3" wide 3/4" mandrel stock. This pic shows the mandrel completely pressed. Third pic shows that I pulled the mandrel out of the form and placed it on its side in the press. Fourth pic shows I still have a bit of spring back, maybe 3 degrees. The die forms are changeable since the two front spar brackets have this angle and the rear spar brackets have more pronounced angle. Now I have to make the form so that I can bend the ears in the opposite direction so that the brackets can bolt to the fuselage. This material bent very easily in the fixture that was made.
Progress 12/22/18, first pic shows that I started reassembling the fuselage. Seat, torque tube and control column, rudder bar, panel, cockpit floor, and the firewall mock up. Second pic shows the cockpit mock up poly panel. Some friends in Culpeper that are heavily tweaking an aluminum kit Newpie 28 told me about these poly panels for cowling and turtle deck mock up. I decided to use some of the material for firewall mock up too. Stainless can be tough to work with, better to fo the fidgeting in poly. Third pic shows the new throttle cross bar I made yesterday and I made some new panel brackets as well as you can see in pic 4.
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