Ok, it has been a while since I updated my posting (2 months) but I have gotten a lot done in the past ten days or so. I took a break over the holidays and built a camping trailer with my son-in-law. With that done, it is back to the fuselage. I have made considerable progress due to the use of a new program I found for making patterns for the fish mouth cuts at the end of the tubes for fitting. The program I am using can be accessed at http://www.geek.casaforge.com/code/cope.pcgi . Check it out, it works great. Simply put in the size of the tube to be cut, and the tube you are fitting it to (called “parent tube” in the program) and the wall thickness and it prints out a pattern. Then cut it out and fit it around a piece of tube and tape it together. I do the cutting of the patterns in front of the TV set, 5 or 6 at a time. Next, check the fit against the actual tube. Trace onto the 4130 tube and grind to fit. You will find that this process goes very quickly. I should finish the fitting in the next week or so, then tack welding. Ok, time for pictures. The below pictures span the last ten days.
Longerons rough cut and set in place.
Cross tubes rough cut and set in rough locations
Longerons blocked and tubes numbered
Tubes as of tonight (1/26/06)
Use of pattern to prepare tube
Another pattern picture