Saturday, July 1, 2023

Fuselage Center Section #5 - aft center channel bulkhead.

 Priming session!

After what seems like hours and hours of deburring and etching/scrubbing, I got to prime some parts!


It is getting hot and humid in East Tn so the fan came out!

Parts on the rack for priming.

All done!

These parts are for bracing the side skin to the main center section channel.

Other side.


All done.

These parts add a flange to the otherwise flat center section assembly that is pre-riveted together by the factory.


Done!

Next the vertical uprights get riveted to the aft center section bulkhead.

Solid rivets get squeezed here.  Leave the top holes open.

Tails...

The other side gets the same.

Then the aft bulkhead gets riveted to the center section channel.

Solid 470 rivets on the top row.

Solid 470's on these center 3.

Solid 426's on the dimpled holes.


All done!

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Fuselage Center Section #4

 More work on the center section tonight.  Match drilled the side bulkheads to the aft center bulkhead.

First you have to cleco the puzzle together.


I finally found a use for my wing nut cleco's I bought years ago.  I used these to pull everything together instead of the wood blocks and clamp spelled out in the KAI.  Worked great!



Match drilled the holes and put a cleco in each one as I went.  The cleco's won't grip the entire stack of parts so I alternated sides when inserting them.

Left side done.



Right side done.


Now I get to take it all apart and deburr the remaining edges and holes, prime the non anodized parts and then rivet it together.

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Fuselage Center Section #3

 Continuing to work on the fuselage main center section.  Kinda slow getting back in the rhythm of building. 

Decided to countersink and fill the extra holes that the factory mistakenly drilled in the center section channel.

Now I don't have to look at the empty holes and don't have to worry about anyone in the future asking why they were left open.

Separated these corner strips that get riveted to the forward bulkhead corners.

The wheel makes quick work of cleaning up the left over flashing.

Have to dimple these three holes only on one end of the parts.  Look at the drawings to make sure which three get dimpled!

Next came separating these skin brace angles.

Cleanup...


I am trying to build a batch of parts for a priming session.  Will just keep these cleco'ed in place for now till I have more parts to prime, then I will come back and rivet them.  The pre-assembled main center section is built from clear anodized parts so it won't get primed.



Monday, June 26, 2023

Fuselage Center Section #2

 Continued working on the main center section of the fuselage.


Cleco'ed the aft bulkhead to the main center section channel.

Match reamed all the holes that are common with the main channel.

Deburred the holes in the main channel.

Found a mistake made by the factory.  There are 6 extra holes drilled in the main channel.  Support says to build on with the option to fill these with flush rivets. 

Deburred the match drilled holes in the aft bulkhead.


Marked specific holes in the main channel that get machine countersunk.

Countersinking complete.

The KAI gives a specific tolerance for the width of the wide part of the countersink.

And last thing for today was to machine countersink these holes, one on each side for a flush pulled rivet.  Used the 120° cutter for these.