Brief Description: Preparing fuselage parts for final assembly-part 6
I got quite a bit accomplished today. First, I completed most of the dimpling on the fuselage parts with the exception of the skins. The next major step was to bevel the edges of all the skins where there will be a lap joint.
Before beveling the aft edges of the mid side skins, I decided to reprocess the rolled portion at the bottom aft corner of these skins. I wasn't entirely happy with the fit in this area when the skins were initially assembled to the other fuselage components. I went back and reviewed a builders video from GeoBeck to see how the skin should look when bent enough. I decided mine needed a little more forming so I setup my original bending apparatus and took another crack at it. I think the fit will now be ok when finally assembled and riveted, at least I hope so.
I did run into a small problem when dimpling. The forward end of the left and right center bottom skins has two rows of #30 holes that must be dimpled. The second row of holes is 3-7/8" from the edge of the panel and cannot be reached with my pneumatic squeezer or my DRDT dimpling tool. It looks like a C yoke with a 4" each is required but I really don't want to order another tool right now, especially when it costs about $150. Maybe I can find another local builder that has one that can be borrowed for a day.
I also found eight holes in the forward floor panel that require dimpling but I don't know exactly how to accomplish the task. These holes are just forward and aft of the big landing gear weldments on each side of the fuselage. The dimpled holes are matched to machine countersinks in the lower longerons. There isn't enough clearance for the pneumatic squeezer and I don't have any other ideas at this point. Looks like some research on the forums is in order.
