I'm now at the point of fitting the forward side skin after placing the longerons. My downward bend does not follow the skin as nice as I would like it. What is the tolerance for the skin to longeron fit at the bend? How much wiggle room can you have before you have to start tweeking the longeron? It's really a pain to mess with these longerons and I want to play with them as little as possible. Thanks guys
Van's Air Force
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longeron skin fit
- Thread starter ditch
- Start date
N155RE
Member
follow the skin
I would follow the skin with the longeron so that the top of the skin is parallel to the top of longeron. If you let the longeron waver from the top of skin I think you will have problems with rivet edge distances when you drill the firewall brackets and the top skin. not really a big deal to take it all apart for the 50th time
I would follow the skin with the longeron so that the top of the skin is parallel to the top of longeron. If you let the longeron waver from the top of skin I think you will have problems with rivet edge distances when you drill the firewall brackets and the top skin. not really a big deal to take it all apart for the 50th time
[email protected]
Well Known Member
get it right now...
if you are not happy with the fit now it is quite likely that you will struggle with fit issues again and again when finishing the forward fuselage...
if you are not happy with the fit now it is quite likely that you will struggle with fit issues again and again when finishing the forward fuselage...
You know, I finally got the side skin clecoed on. Had a hard time lining the holes up to aft tail section. took skin off and started from rear and worked forward and what do you know, everything fell right into place and longerons look very good now. There is such a learning curve with this plane. I'll bet if you'd do another one it would take half the time. I did notice one thing though, to get the perfect fit, if I file about 1/16 or less off the top of the forward 704 bracket, it would be almost perfect. Anyone think there'd be a problem doing this? I don't see any reason why you couldn't. My bend starts just a little early and the forward bracket rests on top of the longeron just enough to keep the aft bracket from touching it. Know what I mean? Not much but would be better fit.
Flying Scotsman
Well Known Member
It might fit better at the 704, but you might also be messing up the angle *just enough* to make the fit at the firewall less optimal.
I'd say wait until you get the firewall built and see how it fits before deciding on a solution. You might ask Van's about taking off just a smudge from the *longeron* rather than the 704 (or maybe not...that longeron is pretty important ).
Just thinking out loud...
I'd say wait until you get the firewall built and see how it fits before deciding on a solution. You might ask Van's about taking off just a smudge from the *longeron* rather than the 704 (or maybe not...that longeron is pretty important
).Just thinking out loud...
