Friday, June 13, 2014

Fuselage cradle

 

This isn’t part of the kit per se, but like its predecessors the tail cone cradle and the wings cradle, it gets its own honorable mention.  Don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself (especially since I had the predecessors as inspiration) but Bob L made an idle reference to something like this during his 2nd technical visit.  I really like building according to plans, but i have discovered that I hate designing things.  I must have made umpteen dozen designs in my head, a dozen or so sketches on paper, and I still ended up making changes until the very end.  Oh, well.

 

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Fuselage Cradle

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Fuselage Cradle

The cradle is asymmetric so that I can rotate the fuselage onto its side in order to have easier access to the center section for running wiring, etc.  There are high posts in the background that I’ll use to rest the belly onto.  The cradle is on wheels for easier manipulation.  I anticipate I’ll get a lot of use out of that when I hang the engine

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Incidental finding:  While I was vacuuming out the project, I noted that two rivets hadn’t pulled properly.  I have a vague recollection that some rivets didn’t sound right when I was working that section, but I didn’t investigate them at that time.  Glad I noticed this now.

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Abnormal Cherry Rivets

As you can see, the lower two Cherry rivets are clearly abnormal.  They didn’t contract and make a shop head, and the stem is still visible.  I took a punch to the factory head side and was able to completely eject 1 stem.  They drilled out easily and were replaced with good results. 

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