fuselage progress now visible

[racaldwell]

Months go by cutting aluminum smoothing edges, drilling holes, drilling holes again, deburring, dimpling, countersinking, reaming, cleaning and alodining, rerigging again, and here it is, time to start riveting. Here are some pictures of the start of the riveting. Next weekend will be the crossties and sideskins, then the turtledeck and formers.

[racaldwell]

Front of crosstie box revited

I think I have avoided riveting myself into a corner so far. I have the interior of the aft fuselage riveted up. Here are some pictures. I got the turtledeck reinstalled now and that took about four times as many shims as I had made to close the gaps at the formers. This coming weekend will be riveting the turtledeck and then the back side skin. I plan to leave one back side skin off so I can rivet the rudder hinge on with 2117 rivets and my squeezer. Later on I will bolt on the Y after the tail feathers are final drilled, deburred, etc. Then the side will be final riveted on with access from the bottom as the bottom skins will stay off for a long while.

[Bryan Cotton]

Looks great! Fun to make a big pile of parts look like something, isn't it?

[racaldwell]

Bryan, you got that right. After this weekend, I should be able to check off about a dozen branches on the plans tree. WhooHoo!

Rick
Xenos 0057

[bvolcko38]

Rick,
I see that you are going with all flush rivets. I did too. I'm building Xenos 068.I regret no alodining everything.

[racaldwell]

Hey Bill,

Yep, It's a glider so flush rivets was an easy choice. The side benefit is that they are easier to rivet. No smileys. I'm trying to save weight where I can so I am using al. rivets where I can. I also have collected lots of riveting tools over the years and like to increase my experience in conventional sheetmetal techniques. Every plane seems to get a little better.

Alodine makes a difference and being here right on the coast I need all the corrosion protection I can get. I"ll paint the outside for that reason but not the inside to avoid the weight gain.

Rick
Xenos 0057
Camit 3300 waiting for the front end to get built