Friday, September 1, 2023

Fuselage center section #23 - Seat rib area assembly

 Started assembling all the parts that were prepped and primed for the seat rib area:

Seat back angle adjust brackets get assembled.



And then riveted to the proper ribs.  Make sure you have the correct orientation and the correct rib!

Then the seat belt attach points get riveted to the same ribs.


And finally a couple attach brackets.


Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Monday, August 28, 2023

Fuselage center section #21 - Seat rib area prep

 And even more edge cleanup and deburring of the parts.  Mostly the ribs tonight.  Got them all done and now will try to get them primed tomorrow after work.  There are a ton of parts in this batch....most are small and then the 8 ribs will take some time to etch, scrub, dry and prime.

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Fuselage center section #20 - Seat rib area prep

 No pictures just tons and tons of cleaning up part edges and deburring holes.

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Fuselage center section #19 - Seat rib area prep

 Still working on the prep of the parts in the seat rib area.

Countersinking the nutplate attach rivet holes

Cutting the stock into two parts.

Deburring and removing the extra material left over.

Installed the nutplates.

Preparing the ribs for nutpates.

Nutplates installed.

Some reinforcement brackets.

Crotch strap attach brackets and their nutplates.


Thursday, August 17, 2023

Fuselage center section #18 - Seat rib area prep

 Today I continued to work on seat rib area prep.  Lots of operations, nutplates and details around what holes to drill, dimple, etc.  This is complicated due to the fact that these ribs are all made the same and some of the holes will go unused.  Pay close attention here or otherwise you may end up drilling out or dimpling a hole incorrectly. Also, for some reason Van's pre-dimples many of the nutplate mount holes.  I don't know why but less work for me!

First I installed these nutplates on the center two ribs.

They then have you cut this weird hole out on rib #3 using this bracket as a template.  Not sure yet what that bracket does but I think it is a servo mount doubler.

Extended the lines and used the cutoff wheel to buzz this area out.

Lots of hand filing to get ease up on the lines.

Used the doubler to fine tune the cutout.

All done.

Match drill the #30 holes.

Match drill the #12 holes.

Installed these nutplates in the 2,3,6, & 7 ribs.

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Fuselage center section #17 - Seat rib area prep

 Continued to work on prep of the seat rib area.  As soon as I get all the parts fitted, it will be a big priming session and then I get to rivet it all together.

They have you cut out these extra chunks of metal on all the ribs.

Removed...this gets some serious deburring later.

Then you have to check for interferance with the little notch in the ribs as it relates to the seatbelt brackets.

No issues with mine.

Then the parts of the seat back adjustment system get fitted.

And the rivet holes countersunk.

Mock everything up.

The seatbelt attach brackets and the rib doubler get cleco'ed together.

And then match reamed to full size.  I marked everything so I can get it back together properly.