Powdered Mount & Standoffs

6/8/2010

Engine mount/Landing gear

The engine mount was finally coated about three weeks back. The finish was so nice, [not to mention convenient, that someone else was doing it instead of me painting it] that I have decided on powder coating the fuselage. The price is right - the finish, awesome.

Sheet Metal Attach

I decided to go with strips for sheet metal attach points. I added a bunch of lightening holes. These things took forever to align for welding...

Stringers

A while back, I had decided to bring the sheet metal to the rear of the rear pit. At that time, I made new formers to match the continuity line of the turtledeck. This unfortunately made all the stringer stand off attach points misaligned - they all required a redux :0| the domino effect of a seemingly simple decision change never ceases to amaze me..

I was initially using aluminium screen door frame material for stringers, trouble is, some of my stringers need cut-outs for tube members, as soon as I attempted to cut out a stringer, it was obvious that the integrity of the alum' box went to crap. So, I moved over to spruce [5/16 x 7/8]. The spruce has just arrived, so I will be tackling that job next.

Having seen the end results of my recently coated engine mount, I am desparate to get the fuselage coated for another pick-me-up and to complete a significant milestone. I have been steadily going around the fuselage finishing off lots of welding of bits n bobs, each week I get closer to that milestone. However, there is still a ways to go before coating...