3.0 Hours -

I still feel like I’m doing a lot of work on these bulkheads with little to show for it!  Oh well, back at it today.

The first thing I did was to rivet together the, now primed, halves of the F-707 and F-708 bulkheads.  One bulkhead had 6 rivets that could be set now and the other had 8.  All of these rivets could be squeezed, so they took no time to install.  At least I now have a couple finished bulkheads to show for all my work!

The F-707 and F-708 bulkheads are easy to rivet together.

I couldn’t delay the F-706 bulkhead any longer.  This is the bulkhead with the really crappy looking parts.  Specifically, the sides and bottom are a mess…very warped and ugly aluminum.  After deburring the edges of the parts, I attacked them with my fluting pliers in an attempt to get them straight.  This was a lot of work and they still aren’t as straight as I would like them to be.  However the metal is so thin and flexible that I don’t think it will be a problem if I have to slightly ”pull” them into place with clecoes through the skin when the time comes.

Next, there are three angles pieces that have to be fabricated out of .063 x 3/4 x 3/4 stock.  The F-728B and F-729B angles are easy as they just have to be cut to the proper length.  However, the F-729C angle takes a bit more work.  For this part, the stock is cut to length, and then the plans state to close the angle very slightly to 88.5 degrees.  To do this, I just clamped the angle in my vise and continued to close the vise jaws until the angle was closed very slightly.  Easy enough.

The plans say to make the angle 88.5 degrees instead of 90...not much of a bend, but it was easy to squeeze closed in my vise.

After bending in my vise, the F-729C angle matches the plans perfectly.

All of the angles that need to be fabricated for the F-706 bulkhead have been made.

With all the angles made, I went ahead and match-drilled the two longer angles to the bellcrank support structure.  The F-728B angle was drilled to the F-728A bellcrank channel, and the F-729B angle was drilled to the F-729A bellcrank rib.

The longer lengths of angle have to be match-drilled to the F-728A bellcrank channel and the F-729A bellcrank rib.

Finally, I clecoed the F-706 structure together for the first time.  With the structure assembled, I could check the bend on my F-729C angle.  It fit perfectly, so no more bending was needed.  Next up, the structure will need to be final drilled, but that’s not going to happen today.

The F-706 bulkhead components clecoed together for the first time.