3/8/2008
Just a little time in the shop for a Saturday today. I have the doggies home with me, and I didn't want to put them up all day long while Brit is helping with a dog trial.
I started by finishing the lower canopy release angle that I left off with the other day.
Next I clamped the upper half angle to the lower half, and matched the holes and the notch.
Then I deburred the holes and the cutout, and temporarily bolted C-607 and 609 to the lower angle. The fit was just about perfect, but I did have a small amount of filing to do. The front half of the lever is flush with the edge of the angle, while the aft half protrudes about 1/16" or so.
Van's then says to get some scrap .016 to use as spacers between the angles to simulate the UHMW tape that I'll put in later. I had some .016 on hand, but Mike Bullock had a better idea, so I copied him. Mike passed me up in his build this winter, and I 'm glad he did! He has some really good ideas, and now I'm able to take some of his thoughts on things and apply them or modify them as needed to my build! Thanks Mikey! His idea in this case was to use tape as a spacer. Four layers turns out to be .016. So I laid down the tape, then trimmed the cutout and #12 holes with an Xacto knife.
The upper and lower halves are then put together with the latch and handle between.
I clamped this assembly in to position for drilling...
...then drilled away using the skin as a guide.
The red tape will come off, and UHMW tape will go in later, but this turned out very nice this way.
I got the piece of 4130 3/8" tubing in the mail from Spruce today, so tomorrow I'll go back to finishing the jettison up, then come back to the canopy release.
1.75 hours