Instrument Panel

Glassed the front sided of the IP this morning. 2 plies bid overall and 1 ply uni above the thigh cutouts.
Here it is ready for glassing:

Glassed:

And weighted down:

Gear Attach Bulkhead Hardpoints

Last week I laid up the 1/4" solid fiberglass hardpoint section to cut cut out the gear attach bulkhead hardpionts.

Here's the 22 plies of bid laid out and ready to epoxy:

Epoxied:


Weighted down:

And ready to cut the hardpoints out of:

Aft & Forward Landing Gear Attach Bulkheads

I ended up having some extra time this evening and was able to cut out the forward and aft landing gear attach bulkheads. The .25" foam used for these two bulkheads was a lot easier to work with then the .2" used on F-22, F-28 and the IP. I was able to cut everything with a razor and then just do some light sanding.

Everything laid out and ready for cutting:


And everything cut out:

F-22

I finished cutting and shaping F-22 and the F-22 doubler on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Here they are traced out and ready to cut:


Cut and ready to by 5-min epoxied together:


5-min epoxied and weighted down:


And finally, all put together and ready for glassing:

Well, its back to work tonight and I'll be working several overtime days next week, so I don't expect to get too much done. Still need to finish shaping F-28 and then it's on to the landing gear attach bulkheads and the firewall/temporary firewall.

Instrument Panel

I've finished tracing all the drawings for Chapter 4 and can now finally get to work. Last night/this morning I laid out the drawings for the instrument panel. I traced the bulkhead by punching small holes through the paper using the pointy end of a compass. Then, I connected the dots lightly with a sharpie.

After transferring the drawings to the foam, I cut the general shape using a razor and then got close to the exact shape using a dremel tool. Finally I used 80 grit sandpaper to get the foam to the final shape.
Finally, something recognizable as aircraft part-like! After sanding, I 5-min epoxied the sections together (with wax paper above and below to avoid sticking) and weighted everything down.

Now, its time for bed. I hope to cut out the foam for bulkheads F-22 and F-28 tonight. Oh, and while the dremel works great for getting close, it is very dusty.

So, what have I been doing this week? Tracing drawings. It's slow going, but I've found myself really enjoying the process. There's just something very simple and relaxing about spending an hour or two tracing drawings. Aside from that, I'm out of epoxy so I decided to get (a little) ahead of myself in the tracings. Not too much, though - I'm still tracing things from Ch.4. On the subject of epoxy though, I found a boat supply store about 20 miles away that supplies the kind of epoxy and hardener I need. Should save some cash on shipping at least. Want to see 1.25 hours worth of tracing compressed into 1 minute? Click the video below. Oh, and the flip is because the drawings often require you to trace a mirror image when both the left and right sides are the same. I had already traced the left side and the plans have you trace the right side as a mirror image.

Front Seatback Bulkhead Finished

Well, pretty much finished anyway. I cut and floxed the corners Wednesday night and went to the mall with Julia to try and find some maternity clothes. After we got back I glassed the back side. I worked inside as it was a bit too cold to work in the garage and I was impatient to finish the seatback.

Detail of floxed corner:


And the finished piece (now in the garage after cure and knife trim):

The pretty much finished part is a couple of air bubbles I found where the foam had been 5-minute epoxied to the workbench (you can see them in the foreground of the pic). I don't think that I let the micro cure in the holes long enough before I glassed out the back. Should be a pretty simple repair.

Next will be bulkheads F-22 and F-28. Before I can start on those I have a lot of drawing tracing to be done. I found that setting up my first seatback bulkhead (yeah, guess I forgot to mention that - it didn't go well, but after doing some more online research I've found where I went wrong. Aircraft Spruce, in their wisdom, supplies you with two pieces of the 3/4" foam used in this step. In my research I saw that others had benefited from that as well so I didn't feel too bad.) set up on a card table with a bright light works very well for my drawing tracings.