Fabricated the Armrests today. This was the first time I have ever normalized aluminum in the T6 condition. I don't have an acetylene torch, so I used a candle to deposit a layer of soot on the bend area. You just sweep the candle flame back and forth while holding about an inch from the metal. Then, using the Butane torch (slightly hotter than propane) shown in figure 1, I swept the torch flame across the metal until the soot was burned off. This left the metal soft. It should age hardened in a few days. By normalizing the metal, it was quite willing to be formed into the deep bends shown without out of plane distortion requiring fluting of shrinking. Image 2 shows the armrests installed. Also, it can be seen that I riveted a hat stiffener to the inboard underside of the armrest to stiffen it up (per Dicks plans)
