Category: Fuselage

With all of the splice plates completed I started on the idler plate. It was fairly simple to cut out and create the radii on the ends. I have it marked for drilling but I need to determine the diameter for the last hole. It takes a fastener but the diameter is not marked. I’ll have to lookup the correct size and decide if I want to ream the hole or just drill to size. I think reaming would be a good idea as it will ensure a tight fit for the hardware. I don’t want any slope in the control system.

I formed these parts as well. I started by marking the tangent lines and then formed them the same as the others.

I formed the bend on these two parts. I noticed that the hardwood dowels I have been using were being crushed with use so I switched the one on the inside of the bend for a 1" OD socket. This seemed to work well. As usual I ended up with a bit of orange peel on the surface that disappeared with an application of scotch brite. I had a hard time guessing at the spring back and ended up over forming the parts a little. A few taps with a rubber mallet brought the bend back to the correct angle.

I used the rod or pole bender in my vice to put the bends in the -07 splice plates today. I ended up with a little orange peel which I cleanup using a scotch brite pad. I am going to need to get some more dowels or buy a couple pieces of steel rod. I find that the hard wood doesn’t last very long in the vise. I had to cut some new pieces for the second splice plate as the first pieces were becoming flat.

I cleaned up the -05 and -07 splice plates today. I filed the edges and then sanded the edges. Next, I added the chamfers and pilot drilled all of the splice plates includeing the -04 and -06.

Today I worked on the -04 splice plates. I used a file to clean up the edges after sanding. Then I sanded the edges to remove any remaining file marks. Finally, I finished the edges with a scotch brite pad.

I finished cutting out the -04 splice plates using the band saw. Next, I used the bench sander to clean-up the straight sides on each of the splice plates.

Today I worked on the splice plates again. I used my bench sander and a sanding drum in the drill press to get the plates to the correct size. Next, a little filing to smooth out the ridges left by the bench sander. Finally, I finish sanded the parts and then used some scotch brite to polish them a bit. I still need to drill the holes, put on the chamfers and then bend the plates.

This afternoon I worked on making the splice plates from aluminum plate. I traced out the templates and cut the parts using my bandsaw. The bench sander cleaned up the edges nicely. I still have alot of work to do on these parts and it will probably take several hours to get them ready for forming.

This morning I drew up 3 parts in AutoCAD. I needed templates for the upper and lower horizontal splice plate and the lower vertical splice plate. These were fairly easy to create in AutoCAD. I printed a hard copy, glued them to white bristol board and cut them out for templates