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Hello, I have a general question about these laser cut holes. For my used kit, I noticed that on some of the parts have holes that don't align with the laser cut holes. Sometimes the laser cut holes are at the edge of the drilled hole, making the hole non-round. I think these should be replaced. Other times they don't intersect the drilled hole at all. Should those be replaced as well? I understand the additional hole represent a weakening of the component. If I want to reuse the old hole on the other mating part, then that means I need to be making more parts from scratch since any part I buy from Sonex will have those laser cut holes. Thanks for your thoughts

Sam,
You have lost me a bit here. On my Waiex, most of the laser cut holes line up with other holes with the exception of a few cases. Do you have pictures and specific parts?

Thanks Brian for taking a look and sorry for not being clear. The coffee didn't quite kick in yet. I'm attaching a pic. The blue arrows are what I believe are the laser cut holes. The red arrows are the holes the previous user drilled.

I'd like to buy the replacement part straight from the factory, but they will have the laser cut holes there already. I'm trying to avoid having to replace the part this piece mates to as well. To match the previous holes drilled by the previous builder, I will need to drill holes close to the laser cut holes.

My concern is that there will be elongated holes as well as extra holes, which would weaken the joint. Is that something to be concerned about? Thanks for your thoughts.

Sam,
Those parts look bad. I would remake them. The holes should not be line that. On the first one the holes may clean up when updrilled. Odd they are not inline. I would verify edge distance too.

Edit: the first part has a snowman hole, I would trash that part too.

I would question the part that the pictured part mates to. But I think that part mates to a vertical channel and to an aft fuselage side skin. Do you have photos of the other parts that it gets bolted to? *If* those are acceptable, then I would re-make this part from scratch, because like you said the replacement part from Sonex will have the laser holes and you will need to re-make all the other parts. If the fuselage skin is not involved you can order the replacement part from Sonex and remake the other parts (vertical channel?), or you can just remake all the parts from scratch. It isn't that difficult, it just takes time.

I believe those are the lower fuselage cross ties. They bolt to the longerons and rivet to the channel across the bottom, plus there is a spacer there.

Mine didn’t line up either - same parts - and that was about 4 or more years ago when the matched hole kits started coming out. I ended up making them from scratch. I’m kind of surprised they are still not matched up right.

The previous owner must have drilled in from the longeron instead of out through the pre-drilled (lasered) holes. Those splice plates were worth the cost of the machined angle component kit alone because the vertical and horizontal plates are combined in one neat package. What I don't remember is weather or not the machined part came with holes. If they don't, it might the best way to go if the holes in the longerons are OK. The factory should be able to tell you.

Even if the plate does have the rivet holes as they come off the mill, since most everything for the Legacy model is manufactured on an as needed basis, you might be able to request a "no holes" option that would allow you to drill through the existing holes in the longerons into the plates.

Good luck.

I completed those pieces not too long ago, so I took a closer look at your photos vs. my pieces and the plans. Based on what I see in the photos, that is F27-06L (left hand lower horizontal splice plate). But if that is the case, the chamfer is on the wrong side (or it is the right hand splice plate and the bend is in the wrong direction).

I would take another look at plans sheet F27 and closely compare your pieces. Also check sheet F26, detail P. Not sure how much of your kit was already completed and assembled, but note that the holes in that horizontal splice plate were to be left at 3/32" and just clecoed to the longeron (only the lower vertical splice plates get updrilled at this point). I think 2 of them get updrilled on sheet F21.

The only other thing I would say is that in my opinion there are a lot of tooling marks, scratches, etc. from the bending and fitting of that piece. You would want to clean that off with the scotchbrite wheel. If it were me, I would want to examine the rest of the pieces the previous builder worked on and do cleanup where necessary.

Thanks for the replies. I'm definitely replacing those splice plates, just didn't know if I would wind up in the same situation if I bought the plates from Sonex. I agree with Area51% that the previous owner probably drilled down through the cross beam instead of up through the splice plate. I'll get some photos in a bit.

Robbie,
This kit is probably more than 8 yrs old.