SonexBuilders.net

Hi Ken,

Did your lower skin fit at the #1 lower cross-tie without trimming? My cross-tie also came with the up-sized holes, but more importantly, it was 1/8in too short. The replacement I received also had the pre-punched holes in the wrong location not allowing the bottom skin to fit between the sides. I had to order blank stock and make my own to get the 40" dimension called for.

My replacement cross tie cleco'd right into the existing matched pilot holes that came on the forward vertical Z's. I didn't have to do any trimming of the skin as the forward edge lined up with the bend in both side skins, flush with the cross tie face and laid perfectly along the lower longerons to the tail. I ended up about 1/32" shy of 40", but, that was the width of the skin from the factory, minus light laser cut edge trimming. I also ended up about 1/32" shy at the cross tie box as well with the match hole parts placed there.

All of my crossties , both upper and lower, except #1 which I had to remake anyway, were .060 too low in their relation to the verticals. The lowers stuck out the bottom and would have left a bump at every junction, and the uppers would have required a shim between themselves and the longeron. I remade them all.

If you haven't riveted them in place already, you might consider waiting till you fit the turtledeck formers before you put the shoulder harness brackets in place. There is sometimes an interference between the two components that would be easier to correct pre-riveting. I know at least Bryan and I have had that issue.

Interesting, my lower crossties came out right, in relation to the verticals. I did, at the recommendation of Sonex, end up shimming my upper crossties about .060. The crosstie at the seat belt attachments only needed .032. I went this route even though they offered to send all new uppers because I didn't want to wait until the new year to get them. I just finished upsizing everything last night. I did, on a whim, place the turtle deck formers roughly in place to make sure I upsize the right crosstie holes and they seemed to lay in there nicely in relation to the seatbelt attachments.

Maybe when I rivet the fuse, I'll leave those crosstie and seatbelt attachments cleco'd in, in anticipation of possible interference. I am also beginning to wonder if I will have to shim between the turtledeck skin and formers now as a result of the verticals / upper crossties being a little shallow? Was the correction you guys made just trimming the longeron cutouts on the turtle deck formers?

In case it interests anyone, we took delivery of our fuselage and tail kits the first week of Oct. 2015.

I believe Bryan modified his turtledeck formers. He used to have pictures, but I think they went the way of the snail-darter. I didn't/don't have the necessary skills to modify such a component, so I removed enough of the shoulder harness attachment to clear.

I also wondered about needing to shim the formers, but since they are not (at least mine weren't) pre-drilled, it wasn't an issue. Just push them up in place and drill through the existing holes in the crossties. The only problem with that, is the formers go on the front of the crosstie/verticals, which makes it necessary to drill from the rear. Because of the taper of the box, it's tight. A snake-drill is your friend.

Want me to tell you what's in store next, or do you like surprises?

Page 19 of my thread:
viewtopic.php?f=39&t=578&start=180

If you get the photobucket embed fix plug in thing, you can still see the pictures.

Edit:
From another thread, here is the secret sauce:
If you're having trouble viewing Photobucket-hosted images, then add the chrome extension "photobucket embed fix".
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... fnflicjjgj

There is also a firefox add on, which I've tested on my thread. I can see the pics again!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... edded-fix/

I took delivery of my kit minus tail in April 2015, must have been relatively new with the matched hole concept?
I checked my formers and they are blank, with the exception of the #5 that matched up to the shear web. Hopefully My 90 degree air drill will get in for the rest of the formers. I have been getting by with the 90 and and cordless drill with long bits.

Area 51% wrote:Want me to tell you what's in store next, or do you like surprises?

I haven't been a big fan of surprises lately, they seem to disgruntle me and I walk away for a few days and wait for the "AHA" moment, then jump right back in the build! Any pointers and "been there / done that" are always welcome, that is what makes this site so great.

Bryan Cotton wrote:If you get the photobucket embed fix plug in thing, you can still see the pictures.

Bryan, I don't get that, just a third party hosting thingy that said "please update your account to enable third party hosting", with a neddle pegged at 100% third party hosting usage. Somehow on another attempt, it wotked for that page only, so, I got a glimpse of the interference, thanks for sharing.

If memory serves, I drilled a couple of holes that were easy to reach from the back, and clecoed a template (made of one of the faulty crossties) to the front and drilled through that.

Does your #5 former have flutes, or cutouts? Sonex actually has tooling for both. I've seen them with my own two ears. If it has cutouts, you can count on the top holes on either side of the centerline of the turtledeck skin to not have metal under them. Actually, the former covers about half the hole and required me to drill new/extra holes along side. At least now I have drain holes for inverted flight.

Not sure if they use the same part on both Sonex and Waiex, but if you have the machined angle option, look for a hole miss-match on the F22-06 angle and it's mate. Don't remember who's who, but one has a 5/8" hole spacing, and the other has 21/32". The outside holes are in alignment, but as you go toward the center, the holes get a progressive miss-match. I ended up remaking the angle and using whatever the spacing was in the laser cut part. And don't forget to beat the forward edge of the flanged hole on the shear web flat so it will lay nicely on the angle it crosses.

I truly hope none of this helps because you got better parts than I.

Skipping down memory lane here@Area 51%

Sonex1243 wrote:My replacement cross tie cleco'd right into the existing matched pilot holes that came on the forward vertical Z's. I didn't have to do any trimming of the skin as the forward edge lined up with the bend in both side skins, flush with the cross tie face and laid perfectly along the lower longerons to the tail. I ended up about 1/32" shy of 40", but, that was the width of the skin from the factory, minus light laser cut edge trimming. I also ended up about 1/32" shy at the cross tie box as well with the match hole parts placed there.

This goes back too far for me to remember details, but I do remember having problems with the box (is that the #1 crosstie?, where the seat attaches at the top) being 40". See my page 2 on the photo album to confirm this problem area, and how I fixed it.

Keep at it...the feelings of accomplishment is worth your efforts.