KiloCharlie, Inc.

structural and misc. steel detailing services

This is a "how I did a few things" page and just "ANOTHER" way to skin a cat...definitely not the only and probably not the best...

When you need to cut a straight line on the band saw...forget freehand.  Clamp a piece of that leftover angle on the bed (square to the blade of course) and have at it...

Bending 3/16" aluminum with a consistent 1/2" radius "accurately" can be fun.  There have been several solutions to this mentioned on the Sonex email list at different times...here is mine.  Total cost? ... $10 (The $4 nylon cutting board from Wal-Mart aircraft supply will be cut up and used elsewhere...so actually $6)  Test bends before I got the bend tangent where I wanted it?...3....  Consider the wheel reinvented...

I am building the horizontal and vertical stabilizers together since the spars and such are so similar (setting up to do a job sometimes takes longer than actually doing it...so do it all at once...)  The marathon spar filing session could have possibly been the most "un"happy" I've ever been around something airplane-related...but it's over...   ;-)

And here is what your hands look like after a session like that...

It was a great night the next night though, when the rivet gun came out and those parts started coming together... ;-)

And here are most of the pieces that will be horizontal and vertical stabilizers in a few more nights work...

Wanna see some progress??? Click here...