March 16, 2016 - Final Weld Forward Fuselage |
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| Now that the entire fuselage was tack-welded, I was ready to remove it from the jig and final weld it. But I hadn't final-welded in awhile and wanted to practice. So I made this cube out of 7/8" tubing and practiced welding. | ||||||
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I was pleased with the weld quality. I've come a long way from my first efforts!
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| Then it was time for the real thing. Per the EAA books, I started at the front, and welded a frame at a time. | ||||||
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I would weld all four corners -- the areas I could get to -- then let the welds cool to hand-touch, then rotate the fuse and weld all four corners again. Cool, rotate, weld, and so on. It took about one and a half hours per frame.
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| A close-up of one of my joints. | ||||||
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| Final welding in progress. | ||||||
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| And, it's done. Forward area. Fuse is upside down. | ||||||
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| Aft area. | ||||||
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| Looking aft. | ||||||
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