December 26, 2005 - Forward Fuselage

I fashioned the F-796B reinforcement angle for the fuel tank forward bracket.  The drawings say to drill a hole in them so I did that.  Then – for the first time – I fitted left angle to the forward fuselage.  The angle hole wasn’t even close to matching the forward skin hole.  I could have made it match by filing the angle but then the whole thing was way too short.  There was nothing to do but remake the two angles.  Lessons learned:  1) trial fit early and often, 2) never, never drill holes until you’ve made sure there is no way to match-drill it.  Before I could make new angles, I had to make sure I had enough 125x3/4x3/4 angle stock.  So I went through all the plans and built a list of fabricated parts and stock requirements.   Then I went ahead and cut the four long .125 and four long .063 seatback angles, shown below

 

It turns out I have plenty of .125 stock.  I remade the two angles.  Instead of making them according to the drawings, I trial fit them and then cut and filed.  Once they fit properly, I clamped them in place and match-drilled them from the skin.  I used the rivet-trick to keep the skin and F-902 3/32 holes aligned.  It took awhile to get the angles trimed, filed and drilled properly but they came out perfect.  Once the angles were done, I match-drilled the spacers, and I was done. 

 

The right reinforcement angle clecoed in place.