Tail Cone Longeron Drilling

 Started tonight by fabing up this spacer that goes on top of the F1010A bulkhead to fill the void between the two longerons.  The aft deck skin sits on top of the whole assembly.  The part gets angles cut on both ends.  Again Van's gives you the long dim on the inside of the angles not the outside so be mindful of that or you could cut the part too short.

 Used the bandsaw to cut the angles.  Goes thru it like melted butter with a sharp blade.

First I placed the two longerons in their proper place on the tailcone assembly.  The bend in the longeron should align with the break point in the side skins.  The aft end of the longerons should be very close or touch the aft bulkhead.   I drew a center line on the part per the directions and then taped it to the top of the bulkhead, centered between the two longerons.  I did not have any double sided tape so I just used blue tape across the top.  It worked.

 Next I clamped the left longeron to the left skin.  The top of the longeron needs to sit flush with the top edge of the skin.  Should be easy if the longeron was bent properly in the prior steps.  Mine fit like a glove with very little effort.  I used C clamps to keep it exactly where I wanted it all long the side of the assembly.

Then I drilled all the holes.  I drilled them in a random pattern.  I just started in a hole somewhere between each clamp and then started filling in the gaps until I had a cleco in approximately every other hole.  Then I drilled all the remaining ones between the cleco's.  I love my new 4000rpm Nova pneumatic palm drill.  This thing made this task a breeze!  The holes are nice and round and the 4000rpm makes drilling through the thick longerons fast!  I had a pile of metal chips/shavings after the left side was done.  I did not have time to finish the right side.