1/27/2007
I got all the hardware organized today, and put away. The plans call for fluting and flanging the bulkheads as a starting point. These won't get used for a little while, but it gets it out of the way early. The fluting pliers that I have are rather disappointing, and I'm a little surprised at myself that I kept using them for the wings. They aren't all that bad, and are from one for the reputable aircraft tool stores, but I decided I don't like them, and I ordered a new pair this past week. They aren't here yet, so I just deburred the edges of the bulkhead parts, and used the hand seamer to work on the flanges. Some of these won't be bent 90 degrees because of the cone shape of the tail, so I'll work them in to their final shape later on.
Here's all the bulkhead parts after deburring with the wheel.
While I wait for the new fluting pliers to arrive, I'm gonna go ahead and start on the firewall, which is next anyway.
I went around the edges of the firewall with the hand edge deburring tool. Stainless steel is a different animal as far as deburring and drilling goes. Tools are quickly dulled with this stuff, but it has to be done, and I have plenty of deburring blades (at least right now I do...).
Then I started fabbing the F601J angles. No big deal here, just a couple measurements and cuts, followed by some smoothing on the wheel. These are made from some 2x2.5 angle stock (.187 thick, I think).
I learned a new word at this point. Gussets. Never hear that one before. I still am not sure what a 'gusset' is, but here they are.
You can see on the plans where some of these go. They appear to be 'stiffeners' to me, but what do I know. Anyway, I deburred the edges of the gussets, and then set out the rest of the firewall stiffener parts to work on tomorrow.
2.75 hours