starting fuselage

[JimParker256]

Looking good! Keep those photos coming - we love to see other people's progress!

[dedgemon]

Spent the day working on the firewall area. There are a lot degrees of freedom here, but the tubing fit was pretty good. I laid out the firewall frame on the bench and welded it up off the fuse, then clamped it to frame A and started fitting the forward tubing. Also got the tail post tacked up. Almost to the point of needing a rotisserie. Then the endless welding will start.

[dedgemon]

working on the tailpost area this morning. This is a busy area. Got to weld down into some fairly deep spots.

[dedgemon]

fitting up center truss

[fairchild]

Dave - Id love to be doing that rite now ! (Too)
I remember Avi telling me that they were going to make notched and bent tubing kits similar to the VR-3 kits but hand notched and bent and that they would be a bit cheaper than the
Canadian version. Do you have an observation share as to how good accurate and precise the notching appears compared to the VR-3 ????
Just wondering if the extra precision would be worth the extra $
I would be Tigging it so I could possibly take advantage of the smaller gaps to make a minimal HAZ weld (maybe)
Does their tubing seem to kit way tight ????? (Cant tell that much from the pictures ........ )

Tim

PS I can see that they aernt quite as tight as the VR joints- have you had any gaps big enough to cause a problem making the tack bridge ?
Looks like you couldn't slide typing paper in VR's joints......
about how many day would you say (full time) did it take you to get the fuse where it is now ........ I was imagining I could get the whole
fuse tacked in about 1+1/2 months ....... ( if the tubing was pre-notched..... ) is that too optimistic ??????

[dedgemon]

The tubing joints are quite good, but the thing to realize is that since we dont have Marks steel jig (or VR's), we simply cant get the tubes exactly in the same positions. What is happening is tolerance build up as you work your way down the fuse. In practice it should not be a problem. I do have a few gaps, but the large majority of the joints are really tight. I doubt the other kit would be any different.

I think most of the hard welds are going to be due to geometry of the clusters not from a few gaps here and there.

Overall I'm quite pleased, I have a result that is clearly better than I would have done by hand and much quicker. A few weeks total is about right.

I'll let you guys know how the the finish welding goes

[dedgemon]

Finaaly got a chance to get back to the fuse after the holiday. Removed the fuse from the table and cleared out thie shop. Started woking on the front fitting for the rotisserie. More to come!

[Mark Moyle]

I made mine so that I could adjust the center of gravity.


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[dedgemon]

Mark, neat idea. How long did it take you to finish weld it?

[alaskabearhawk]

If you haven't seen these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPz3-BIc-c8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi4PRpJSVLc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnB9f50829A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUiwWzGxt18

[dedgemon]

I have indeed. thanks

[Mark Moyle]

Mark, neat idea. How long did it take you to finish weld it?

The Bearhawk fuselage....not pictured.....that's my Pacer after gear failure..... My Bearhawk was VR3's first tubing kit..... That's another story... Took me right at 40 hours to build a jig from Cadkey drawings and tack weld the fuselage together. Then built the rotisserie....after looking at Paul's in person...he gave me some good ideas... Bout the only thing I did different was the index set up and having an adjustable center of gravity..... Finish welding.... Had to be at least another 40 hours.. I TIG welded everything but the cluster right at the tail post/tail spring cluster... Used A/O there. All my welding is done cept the tabs... When I wrecked my Pacer was working on the Bearhawk aluminum door formers....
Pacer wrecked

Pacer now.


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[dedgemon]

Had the day off, so spent a good chunk of it building the rotisserie.
Mostly scrap. stole ideas liberally from others. 😊