Tonight I made good progress at getting the two T-405 tank attach angles manufactured. I say, "manufactured" because the T-405's start life as 3/16" thick aluminum (12” long) angle. The plans give the final dimensions and leave the rest up to the builder to make it happen. I started by measuring the 3 3/4" width and cut that with the band saw so that I had two angles to work with. Then I measured the middle (1 7/8”) and marked it – then marked a point 1” down from the top to draw the 1” radius curve. I drew the tangent lines down to the corners in approximation of what the drawings show – and then with my marked up angle I made some more cuts on the band saw. After doing the rough cuts I took off some more excess material with the grinding wheel and then polished it up on the scotchbrite wheel.
The angle actually fits inside of the leading edge of the tank rib and will be connected to the fuselage as part of the wing attach point. The other wing attach point is the wing spar. I was able to get the top of one angle done while the bottom needs some more material removed before it will fit into the rib…the other angle has been marked but not yet cut.
