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And now they are one

Ron B.

Well Known Member
Clecoed the tail and fuselage together today, good New Year's Eve present. Took pictures but have never mastered the picture posting thingy.
 
Congratulations!!! That is awesome. I need to go out to the garage and get my horizontal stabilizer moving forward then. I've got lots of work to do to get to this point.

Figure out how to do the pics. Those are very motivational to those of us following you in this adventure.
 
Ron's pics

Here are Ron's pics. Beautiful workshop, very inspirational.


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Never to be separated (hopefully)

New Year's Day, all of the riveting was done and now it's one and on to the fuel system. I am really jealous of all that space though.

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Now they are one

Congrats guys. I am approaching the time when the plans call for putting the halves together and am considering delaying that step until later. I built a 12 and waited till the end to mate the halves.
Working on the fuel, brakes and rudder petal seems to be easier with the fuselage on its side. Also the plans call for riveting the last nine rivets on the bAgage ribs to the bottom skins after the parts are mated. This makes no since to me since only the last two roles are common. Riveting later will require some kind of setup like the pictures show. Also once mated, the shear size on this plan will make it hard to handle.
 
What a frustrating morning. Trying to rivet the baggage ribs to the aft bulkhead with 470AD4s and lots of smilies. Quit for lunch and returned with a plan.
Used the trusty overhead hoist and once again pointed the tail to the sky. Mounted wood blocks forward of the firewall and bolted them thru the engine mount holes. Set the fuselage on the floor and worked that way all afternoon and evening. Only one smilie to remove this time. All but two rivets driven , easy ones to do but requiring two people. I spotted a few more smilies that were formed a while back and with the fuselage laying in it's normal position, I felt I would only make things worse by drilling them out (they were not bad) but with the fuselage in this position , I know I can get them set properly now. Tomorrow's job, and then set the fuselage back on the ground properly.
 
Looks good Ron B! I have question if you could answer. I am starting my fuselage kit and need to know the dimension from the very top of the firewall (angled piece) to the very bottom. I need to know this to ensure the assembly will fit coming out of my basement door. My door is 30" wide. I have the aft end finished and will join them in my garage.

Thanks!
 
I finished the tail cone today and clecoed it to the forward fuselage. So far I have been working seven weeks part time, and have built both the fuselage and tail cone in that time. I have done this working alone and so far have needed help for about an hour for some rivets on the fuse floor.
I will need some help with riveting the two halves together, time will tell how much help is needed.
I like to work alone and then there is only one person to blame for mistakes! Two people who know what they are doing could have done this much in less then half the time, this is some special kit!


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Tom, when you put the halves together, did you have any trouble. The plans call for leaving the last 8 rivets out until the two are mated. Since only the last two are common, i assume they feel you will need to pull the skins back to join the two.

Is it just me, or is everyone wondering how the gear and step will attach. not much room in those areas.

I am finishing the brakes, flaps, fuel lines, and flight controls this week and plan on doing the front fuselage section next.

I am air conditioning the plane and will run the hoses and mount the scoop before joining the halves.

Sam Butler
RV14
RV 12
RV 7A
RV 10
RV 7
 
No problems, it was a non event. I use two picnic tables and did the job by myself. Slide the tables together with a couple of feet between them and then slide the respective halves together. I raised and lowered the front of the fuse and the back of the tail until the bottom skins lined up, put a few clecoes in and then raised the tail until the sides lined up, half an hour at the most. Using the picnic tables allows for a nice open area below the two halves for riveting.
Today I will start the riveting process doing as much as I can by myself before calling on my rivet buddies.
 
Love seeing that Canuck Banner on the wall

My plane is getting along as well but the new -14 looks great! loved the Canada plug in the background:)
 
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