Bulkheads are finished

Today we wrapped up the last few bulkheads for the fuselage.  We started off by finishing up the match drilling we started on Thursday night.  There wasn't a lot of manufacturing to do today, we finished most of those tasks on Thursday.   After that we began the long process of edge sanding, deburring and sanding all of the parts.  After we cleaned a primed all the parts, we assembled the remaining bulkheads.  We were finishing up the last few rivets when the power failed.  The good thing about air tools is that the tank gives you a certain amount of buffer.  Anyways, the power was out for about 30-40 minutes so we started packing up the workshop.  When the power came back we finished up the last few rivets and wrapped up our packing tasks.  The workshop is mostly ready to be moved.

More bulkheads

Tonight we got back to work on the last few bulkheads.  Darren and I spent time manufacturing some attachment angles and parts.  We wrapped that up and started match drilling all of the components together.  The last few bulkheads are quite straightforward so the work is moving along briskly.  We'll wrap those up on Saturday and then start packing up the workshop for the move to my new house.  There will be one more update on Saturday and after that we'll have a few weeks off while things get setup in the new house.

F-706 Bulkhead Complete

Today we finished up the F-706 bulkhead.  This is the first bulkhead in a series of a few that form the "tail cone" at the back of the plane.  This one also has the bellcrank that will connect the control sticks to the elevators.

We started out by manufacturing more pieces of aluminum angle and match drilling those to the ribs.  After that we went through the normal sequence of assembly, match drilling, deburring, prepping and priming for all the parts.  Finally we assembled the bulkhead.

F-706 part way through the construction.

F-706 after the assembly is completed.

Different angle of the F-706 after the assembly is completed.

Finished F-705 Bulkhead

Tonight we worked on assembling the F-705 bulkhead.  This one had a lot of parts but our pneumatic squeezer made short work of all the rivets.

Scott working on the assembly.

F-705 Bulkhead Progress

Today we finished all the manufacturing, match drilling and prep (deburring, sanding and priming) work for one of the centre bulkheads (this is the one where the seatbelts and the rear wing spars attach to).  We manufactured a lot of the parts for this bulkhead from un-prepped aluminium parts so it took a tremendous amount of time.  In any case, we made good progress and will be ready for assembly one night this week.

Scott working the drill.

Scott checking his work.