Aft fuselage 10-01 to 10-04

Right, here we go again. Plenty of parts to separate then deburr. The steel VS mounts have to be straightened using Van’s “whang” technique which involves putting the part in the vice, pre-loading and then striking once with a rubber mallet. Repeat until they are within 1/16″ tolerance. It works well although I can see that it is easily overdone. Next up is clean, etch and prime. Spraying the 8′ long stringers should be fun…

Thank goodness for the bandsaw as it has made a lot of these jobs a good deal easier. I read somewhere that you don’t need a bandsaw for the 14 but they couldn’t have been more wrong. One of the trickier jobs has been forming the HS bracket and rudder stops from the aluminium angle. Other builders mentioned that they rough cut it on the bandsaw and then used a Scotchbrite wheel to finish the parts. After a day of contemplation I started to cut with the bandsaw with no way back. It worked out reasonably well and I only had one small nick on one stop where I went a little far with the bandsaw. I need a new blade now and am surprised how quickly it has dulled. Here’s the parts ready for the priming pile.

Last job with the stops is to countersink the #30 holes. You can’t get the cage close enough to the angle so I did the two inner holes by hand. Not perfect but fine for the flush rivet.