Finished riveting together the F-711 bulkhead and then did the F-712. I almost forgot how fun it is to actually put stuff together. After I riveted together the F-712 bulkhead, I remembered that I still needed to tap the tie down. The taps I have are a little lame. They can only tap a one inch deep hole. The plans call for 1-1/4″. I guess if it’s not enough, I’ll get some better taps later.
Riveted together aft bulkheads F-707 thru F-710. Well, F-709 doesn’t really need any riveting, and the others are simple. I started working on F-711, which is slightly more complicated.
I was down for most of the weekend, but started feeling better today. The weather was cooperating, so I prepped and primed the aft bulkhead parts. That wiped out what little energy I had.
Finished drilling, deburring, dimpling, and countersinking the tie down for the last aft bulkhead F-712. I dimpled everything except the tie down, which I countersunk since it’s the thickest part. Now the remainder of the aft bulkheads are ready for priming.
Went back to riveting the cover brackets on the center section. Also made the place holders for the wing spars. It was kind of fun working with wood for a change. I glued up two pieces of 3/4″ wood a while back, so I just had to use the belt sander to trim them down to 1-7/16″. That took longer than I expected, probably because the belt sander needs a new belt. I also loosely bolted on the spacers and control mounts using the correct hardware. I just didn’t tighten anything down yet.
Finished deburring and drilling the F-708 bulkhead. I drilled the optional wiring holes and the holes for securing the static line.
I deburred and fluted the F-707 bulkhead and clecoed it together for drilling. I’ve also been drilling out all of the optional snap bushing holes. It’s easier to drill them out now than later. And if I don’t use them, it’ll just be extra lightening, right?
I also clecoed together the F-709 and F-710 bulkheads, drilled everything out, and deburred.
I deburred another couple of bulkhead parts, and then worked on the F-711 bulkhead. I tapered the bars, and then drilled them to the bulkhead. I then disassembled it and deburred the holes.
I’m sort of just randomly jumping around now finishing up the aft bulkhead stuff. I fabricated the rear tie down and looked ahead in the instructions. It looks like I have just a few more hours on the aft bulkhead and I will be ready for another batch of priming. Too bad the weather looks like rain all week.
I deburred a few more bulkhead parts, thinking I was almost done with that. Then I found another pile of bulkhead parts. Fun.
After I had enough deburring, I riveted together the F-706 bulkhead. Despite trying to be careful, I riveted on the F-728 when it’s supposed to wait until later. No big deal to drill it out. I took the first two pictures before I discovered my mistake.
I then worked a little more on fabricating angles for the aft-most bulkheads.
(Edit: Although it may be tempting to rivet the angle to the F-728 bellcrank channel, wait until later. There are some holes at the top of the F-706 bulkhead that need to be back-drilled, and it’s much harder to do that with the angle in the way. See the 3/14/2005 entry.)
Unfortunately, I spent more time watching the debate than bulding. I finished rounding the darn corners of the tabs on the aft-most bulkheads. I also riveted nut plates on the center section access cover support ribs.
Riveted together the rest of the F-705 bulkhead. The plans call for leaving out many of the rivets until later, so it didn’t take long to rivet together. One thing to watch for is that there is one rivet on each side of the doubler that goes in before the smaller parts of the doubler.
