More tail cone stiffener drilling

 Started today by adding the right hand stiffeners to the assembly

 Then the right skin.  Cleco'ed the right side skin to the bulkheads and the bottom skin.

 Drilled all the stiffeners to the skins per the directions.  Simple....just align the marks on the stiffener with the holes and drill.  It takes some arm gymnastics to keep the lines centered in the holes.  Just go slow and carefully and keep the lines centered.

 Right side stiffeners all drilled.

I flipped the whole tail cone over on the horses.  Then I cleco'ed the back two bulkheads and the bottom aft skin to the assembly.  It is amazing how tight all these parts are.  At first it seems impossible but the more cleco's that go in, the better things start to align.  It is a testimony to Van's engineering department!  I remember similar pain and agony getting all this stuff in this area to align when I built the RV-7.

 The aft two bulkheads all cleco'ed to the assembly

 Next I added the stiffeners to the left side.

 And then cleco'ed the skin to the bulkheads and the bottom skin.  Also the aft two bulkheads and aft bottom skin.  Had to use a sharp scratch awl to align some of the holes.

Starting to look like airplane parts around here!

Tail Cone bottom stiffener and bulkhead drilling

 Started tonight by adding the vertical extension to my new saw horses.  This gets them up high enough to clear all the bulkheads.  Easy peasy.

 Then I cleco'ed the aft three bulkheads to the bottom skin.  This is a bit challenging to align.

 Then I slid the two fwd stiffeners into place.

 Then I aligned the centerline with the holes and aligned the starting point to the fwd most hole and drilled the stiffeners to the skin with my new 4000rpm drill.  Man I love this thing!  Makes fast work of these holes!

 Here are the fwd end of the fwd stiffeners all drilled.

 And then I drilled the aft end of the fwd stiffeners to the skin.  Go carefully and make sure the line stays in the middle of the holes!

 Then I slid in the aft center stiffener and drilled it the same way.

 Then I cleco'ed these two bellcrank ribs to the assembly.

 And match reamed their holes that are common with the skin.  I could not find anywhere in the directions on when to do this so I did it now.

 Then I match drilled these bellcrank rib flange to bulkhead web rivet holes to #30.  Used a 12" drill bit to make it easier to align.

Here are the stiffeners and bellcrank ribs all drilled to the bottom skin.  I love the new drill!

Tail Cone, saw horses and stiffener marking

 Tonight I had to go invest in some adjustable saw horses for assembly of the tail cone.  I will have to add a plank to the top of them to get them high enough while the assembly is upside down.  This is so the largest bulkhead will clear the ground.  I am just going to screw a 2x8 edgewise to the top of them to solve the issue.

 Next I marked the centerline on the J stiffeners along the long edge.  I bought this compass thing at Lowes for $5, added two zip ties and a sharpie pen and walla, instant adjustable edge marking tool supreme!   Doing the marking this way prevents the bow in the stiffener from screwing up the centerline.

Works slick as a ribbon!

Tail Cone Longeron Work

Back to work on the plane!  Been sick and out of town for a couple weeks!  Tonight I got started by marking the longerons for cut to length.  They are shipped a little long.  Measure about 10 times on this one because you don't want to screw this up!

I used the cut-off wheel for this job.  To long and wild for the band saw.

Then I marked the HS stab mount bar relief holes and punched them for drilling.

Started with a smaller drill.

Then went up to 1/4".

Next I marked for the relief cut.

And used the cut-off wheel to cut out the material.  Then used a few files to clean it all up.

Next comes the whack a mole method to bend the longerons 2° down at just the right spot.  I just followed the directions and it works.  Seems brutal and it is but it works.  Did the same thing back when I built the RV-7.

Here you can see the slight angle starting at that line when compared to a straight edge.

And once the second one is done, here are the two back to back.