Because of a bunch of high priority Velocity work I wasn’t able to get back to RV-8 build work until the new year (Happy New Year!). Over the past few sessions I was able to get through prep work for the Firewall and Forward Floor Assembly. The idea will be to get a few of these assemblies to go all the way up to priming. Then I’ll set up the paint booth for a big priming session. First step was to bend the firewall as per the planes. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the setup used to bend the firewall. Basically, by clamping a purpose cut wood scrap along the intended bend line, and then aggressively bending along that line, you eventually end up with something like the picture below. I ended up over bending a bit, but it was easy enough to “unbend”.
Next I dimpled the firewall for stiffeners as described in DWG60A + the manual text. I decided to build out a bit of a key of what to dimple and what not to. Seems pretty easy to make a mistake on that.
With the firewall dimpled, I then worked to countersink all the stiffeners to match the firewall dimples. Deburring everything was the final step before assembling everything with Clecos. It’s stay like this until I’ve got enough assemblies to do the priming session.
Right when I finished the firewall work, Sam came by and while watching the 49ers game, we essentially did the same work for the Fwd Floor Assembly. Two people make the work so much faster (and enjoyable).
Next will be the cooling ramp (should be super quick), and then what looks like a fun assembly..the Landing Gear Boxes. At that point I probably have enough to do some priming. Until then, these assemblies will sit on the shelve patiently waiting. Happy Building!!
1 comment
Nice progress.. is “velocity” stable now?
Big hug