M

mlwynn

Well Known Member
Hi all,

I received my fuselage kit last week. The new, pre-punched RV 8. I am going to finish up the wing before I really do much with it. I have looked at a number of builder's sites about the fuselage jig. The basic construction is pretty straightforward--basically stable, level and straight. I was wondering about how high to make it. Van's plans show it about 18" off the floor. I have seen builder sites where they have placed it more like waist height. What have others found to be the most comfortable for the work?

Are there any really better ideas than Van's construction for the jig? I built my wing jig out of 2" steel tubing. Severely over-built, but really stable. Thoughts?

Michael Wynn
RV 8 Wings (hanging flaps)
San Ramon, CA
 
I basically built a rolling pallet maybe 8" high, and did all the fuselage work on that until I put it on the gear. Once I did that, I built an acess platform/stairs that I used for cockpit work. If I were to do it again, I'd think about a rotisserie. My knees and back got awful sore leaning over the cockpit sill to work inside - and I'm not sure that any height would make that different - or it will be dependent on each builder's height and arm length....
 
Paul,

I think Michael is talking about an actual jig, not a fuselage stand. Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't the new fuselage kits be built on standard saw horses?

Bill
 
Michael,
I'm 6'4" tall. I made my fuselage jig so that the bed was at waist height. The extra height made work more comfortable, as it eliminates a lot of bending. It also allowed me to easily gain access under the jig. This access allowed me to crawl under the jig and drill and cleco all my floor skins on, while the fuselage was still upside down.
If you plan to make your floors removable, you want to fit those floor skins while the fuselage is still upside down. You also want to ignore Vans instructions to rivet the floor ribs to the F-806 bulkhead. By only cleoing these ribs in, you eliminate double work on the floor ribs.
It will be MUCH easier to de-burr & dimple the belly skin & floor skin rivet holes in the floor ribs, IF they have not previously been riveted down to the F-806 or F-804. Once the outer skins and floor skins have been drilled and clecoed, you can disassemble the entire fuselage structure for one large de-burr, dimple (Alodining if desired) and priming session. Doing these tasks in one large operation is much more efficient, time wise, than doing them several times with smaller groupings of parts. It will be super easy to drill and fit the nut-plates which will be needed to retain the floor skins to the floor ribs and bulkheads, if you do these operations on the bench. These operations are much more difficult (and work quality will be less) if the floor skins are not fitted till after the fuselage is riveted and flipped upright.
I was even able to rivet about 60% of the flooring nut-plates to the ribs & bulkheads, prior to reassembling the fuselage for riveting. The other 40% of the nut-plates were left for installation after fuselage riveting, as installing them first would have made rivet gun or bucking bar access to certain areas more difficult.
Charlie Kuss
PS [December 2012] My comments above are related to the earlier PrePunched [pre 2000] fuselage kits. FYI, the posters below are erroneously calling the newer Matched Hole [2000 & newer] kits "PrePunched". The PrePunched designation is what Vans calls the older kits. With the newer kits, if you plan on removable cockpit floors, just be sure to build the fuselage to allow yourself easy access while the "canoe" is inverted.
 
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No jig is necessary. The new matched hole fuse can be built on a table. Don't waste any more time than you need. When I talked to Vans last week, they seemed to indicate that the new fuse should only take a few hundred hours till it is on gear. I have no idea how many a few is.
 
Ironflight said:
I basically built a rolling pallet maybe 8" high, and did all the fuselage work on that until I put it on the gear. Once I did that, I built an acess platform/stairs that I used for cockpit work. If I were to do it again, I'd think about a rotisserie. My knees and back got awful sore leaning over the cockpit sill to work inside - and I'm not sure that any height would make that different - or it will be dependent on each builder's height and arm length....
Click to expand...
I not sure you need the original RV fuse jig with the pre-punched fuselage. I think you can pretty much use saw horses. I did, however, build a fuselage rotisserie like Paul mentions.

Have a look here, about 1/4 way down the page.

http://rv8bldr.tripod.com/the_fuselage.html

Cheers
 
gpiney said:
No jig is necessary. The new matched hole fuse can be built on a table. Don't waste any more time than you need. When I talked to Vans last week, they seemed to indicate that the new fuse should only take a few hundred hours till it is on gear. I have no idea how many a few is.
Click to expand...

I would really like to see the fuse built on a table, I built my wings that way with no problems but a jig would have made it easier. There are a lot of pieces to line up, hold together, drill, dimple, etc. on the fuse but if it can be done, my hat is off to ya! ;)

Can't see it saving hundreds of hours though, there really isn't that much time involved to get it on (then back off of) the gear. My slow build was out of the jig in less than month and a half and two weeks of that I was waiting on a gear weldment that I screwed up. Couple hundred hours from start to flip.
 
gpiney said:
No jig is necessary. The new matched hole fuse can be built on a table. Don't waste any more time than you need. When I talked to Vans last week, they seemed to indicate that the new fuse should only take a few hundred hours till it is on gear. I have no idea how many a few is.
Click to expand...


No jig was my impression also.
I'm glad I had a few delays in building.
Matched hole ... I can't wait.
I'm now ready to order the fuse.
Steve 81604
 
Jig Height

Thank you all for your thoughts and insights. I haven't gotten into the instructions yet. I will report back. If no jig is necessary, I will probably built it on my Chapter 1000 tables--or maybe make a couple more for the occasion.

Regards,

Michael Wynn
RV 8 Wings (hanging flaps)
San Ramon
 
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