WXB F13 upper forward longerons

[wingnut99]

Does anyone have a ingenious way to cut the 4"+ openings on the 1"square tubing in the upper longerons of the cabin? There's no way to use a bandsaw or sabre saw without cutting clear through the lower side of the tubing. My attempts with a dremel took a long time and it really didn't work that good. I'm about ready to set the table saw a 1/4" above the table and sacrifice a carbide blade. It might work ok but if anyone has a better technique I'm looking for suggestions. Thanks Pat Murry

[Spaceman]

I drilled a bunch of holes next to each other to remove most of the material, and then a Dremel and small files to clean it up. It took a while!

On the plus side, once your fuselage is together those slots will not be visible. So I wouldn't stress too much if they don't look exactly perfect. Each one is a space for a gusset to sit inside, so as long as the gussets fit in each slot and sit flat I think you'll be good.

[wingnut99]

Ok. I saw those slots you're referring to and figured that cutting them would probably entail doing at least a drilled hole on each end and probably continuing the process in between and cleaning up the slot but right now I'm cutting those 2 sided openings with the 30° cut on one end and a 90° on the other. You're basically cutting away half of the square tubing and leaving half. How did you make those cuts? I made one of the cuts which was over 4" long using a dremel and hack sawed the cross cut to the other surface where it will connect to the other long cut. I'm probably looking at several hours if I proceed with the dremel and it got pretty hot before I finished the 1st cut plus I used up an entire cutting wheel too. I tried a diamond cutting wheel but it wasn't any faster. I used my radial arm saw with a carbide blade to cut the lead aileron weights and it cut right through it easily. I'm thinking that aluminum might be soft enough to use the same technique. I've been cutting extruded aluminum and sheet aluminum on my bandsaw with a wood blade that will also cut mild metal and I used it to do the 30° end cuts on the 1/8" square tubing and it didn't seem to bother it and my circular saws all have carbide blades. I guess the worst that could happen is I ruin a blade. Thanks

[Spaceman]

Oh those cuts! I'm pretty sure I used a hacksaw to get as far as I could, and then a Dremel which went through many little cutoff wheels. It was tedious! You probably could do it faster with a table saw but I was afraid to mess it up. I remember those two upper longerons taking me forget to make and I was frustrated that I couldn't come up with a faster way to make all the cuts. I also messed one up on the last cut by cutting the wrong side off, so I had to make one side twice. Those parts are a fricking pain, I agree.

[Spaceman]

I looked back through my build log and found the pictures of what I did. Not sure if this will help any. I definitely struggled with these parts!

http://paegelow.blogspot.com/2017/09/fo ... 3.html?m=0

http://paegelow.blogspot.com/2017/09/fo ... 5.html?m=0

[DCASonex]

Finding a friend with even a small table top milling machine would make short work of that.

David A.

[wingnut99]

You know it never occurred to me that my son in law has a mill. He makes motorcycle parts and what not. I'll bet he could cut those sections out and mill the slots in too which I haven't even started on. Thanks for everyone's input.