F21 Assembly order/tips?

[racaldwell]

Noel, Thanks for the detailed steps of fitting the lower cross ties. I am building up my side panels now so will be getting to the cross ties in the near future. Any info on the upper cross ties would be helpful.

Thanks, Rick
Xenos 0057

[NWade]

Noel, Thanks for the detailed steps of fitting the lower cross ties. I am building up my side panels now so will be getting to the cross ties in the near future. Any info on the upper cross ties would be helpful.

Thanks, Rick
Xenos 0057

Rick -

With apologies, its been long enough that I cannot recall the thoughts I had about the upper cross-ties (which I alluded to in my earlier post).

With the upper longerons on the table and blocked in place, you should be able to fit the upper cross-ties in much the same way as the lower cross-ties. As long as the fuselage sides are locked to the proper width and are at 90 degrees to the work table (and your table is flat), then you should be fine to simply clamp and drill the upper cross-ties in position.

I have two Sonex Build photo albums (because of changes to Google Photos/Picasa over the years). But they have ~2300 photos between the two of them! The photos I took of the aft fuselage panels being assembled are near the top of my old photo album. Go here and then scroll down about 40-50 photos:
https://goo.gl/photos/y9n9o3aeaqCq7Pb16

Note how I "rolled" the lower skin back so that I could reach over the fuselage side and "down" to each upper cross-tie (against the work table). It would probably be easier just to work on one cross-tie at the forward end and one at the aft end, then roll the assembly; but there's a minor risk of changing dimensions or having the fuselage sides bow a bit in the middle, so I didn't do that.

Note 2: With the fuselage upside down on the table, you have to be very careful to rotate the dimensions and offsets from the plans! The vertical channel that carries the elevator control-rod isn't centered in the aft fuselage (on the Sonex, at least), and you need to pay attention to the left/right reversal of some measurements, with the assembly sitting inverted on the table!

Hope this helps,

--Noel
Sonex #1339
Album 1 (tail, wings, early aft fuse): https://goo.gl/photos/y9n9o3aeaqCq7Pb16
Album 2 (aft fuse, fwd fuse, canopy, aerovee, FWF): https://flic.kr/s/aHskrtEG22
[All albums are sorted to show newest photos on top]

[racaldwell]

Noel,

You were not kidding when you said you took a lot of pictures. Wow. This is real helpful to see what I will be doing soon enough. Looks the same as the Xenos, only smaller. I have two side skins spliced together to make up the aft side. Which makes it hang off the end of my work table. I see I need to make a frame around the bottom of my tabletop as right now I just have it sitting on three sawhorses and two long 2x4s.

I wonder how square are those storebought shelf angles are to use to hold the side panels up vertical with one leg screwed to the tabletop? I have a couple in the hangar so when I go out there next Sat, I check it out.

Rick
Xenos 0057 Tail & Wings done

[Sonex1243]

Noel;
I took a look as well and also say great pictures, thanks for sharing. I am about ready to complete my sides after polishing the skins and fitting the splice plates. That being said, did you alter the measurements any when you fit then to the angles only? It looks like they start from the skin bend line and the angle is 1/32" aft of that. Great idea though.

Ken

[pfhoeycfi]

I am at F21 and a little lost on how to proceed securing the T12-05 upper angle and the F23-04 lower angle to the longerons. Recall that the T12-05 was secured to the vertical tailpost during that assembly. Otherwise I have the tailcone assembled - clecoed and ready to updrill. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

thanks,

peter
Doylestown, Pa
SNB0021