October 23, 2006 - Canopy Latch Slots
I turned my attention to the canopy latch slots on the left side.  I fashioned the two angles per the plans.  I edge-smoothed the latch and removed the bow out of it. 

 
A template on one of the drawings is supplied to show you where to drill the holes and cut the slots in the left fuselage side.
I used the template to drill starter holes, but then I used Dan Checkoway's technique to drill the remaining 12 #40 holes.  First I made a template out of aluminum sheet, using the drill press with a "fence".  This technique produces a line of holes that is perfectly straight. 
Then, using the template, I drilled the four #30 holes, which are on each end of the two horizontal slots.
By happy coincidence, I had just bought this set of files.  One of them was a square file which was absolutely the perfect tool to file out the slots.  Again, I got the idea of using the square file from Dan Checkoway's site.  I probably spent over an hour filing out the slots, but it was worth it because they came out really nice. 
 
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