Monthly Archives: August 2011

More fuselage parts

I had been concerned about laying out perfectly straight edges for the bottom of the fuselage, but then I realized I have a 12″ straight-edge in the form of left over .032″ sheet.

I used it to guide the olfa knife for about 3-4 passes.  Then since I am paranoid about having a nice, clean break on such a major part, I did several more passes for good measure.  There was plenty of room on the sides to cut out blanks for many of the Z channel pieces.  Unfortunately I keep confusing .025 and .032 parts and cutting blanks out of the wrong size aluminum.  It seems like I will still have plenty of material left over.

Here is the fuselage bottom lined up with the edge of my work table.

Fuselage parts

I bought a 30″ Harbor Freight brake and have been using to make the .032″ channel parts for the fuselage.  I’m planning on building a 8′ brake for the longer bends, but I am kindof wishing I had got the 36″ brake for a few slightly longer parts.  The brake also doesn’t seem to bend quite far enough to make a true 90 degree bend due to spring back, so I end up having to add a wooden block after the initial bend to get it the rest of the way.

I have also cut some more larger pieces of .032″ sheet metal–the cockpit floor and the glare shield.